Juanito Apinani

Juanito Apiñani (1827-1850) was a Catalan bullfighter. He was born in Barcelona, Spain in 1827. He was the son of Roberto Apinani and Anita Rodriguez Reginalda Apinani. As a boy, Juanito admired the matadors and dreamed of traveling to Madrid to become one. In 1840, he had his literal 'lucky break'. Some men from Madrid had come to his father's farm to inspect bulls for the bullfights. Juanito, who had been tending to the cows, noticed that one of the bulls was getting agitated. As it charged the inspectors and his father, Juanito used his rake to vault onto the raging bull's back. He was thrown off of the crazed animal into a tree and fractured his wrist, but the bull was diverted and the inspectors thought that his display of untrained skill could one day make him a successful matador. By 1842, Juanito was an emerging star. In just two years he had graduated from the training of Alexandro Anipanuevo, an ex-matador who was considered one of the best teachers in Madrid. In another year's time Juanito was a professional matador and one of the many celebrated stars of Spain.

Ligereza y atrevimiento de Juanito Apinani en la de Madrid (The Agility and Audacity of Juanito Apinani in the Ring at Madrid), etching by Francisco Goya in the La Tauromaquia series.

Career

Juanito became famous by the time of his death in 1850. He put on several shows a week and never lost until the infamous day of August 7, 1850. Juanito made his name and fame with his signature move of vaulting over a charging bull with his lance. The celebrated matador found even more glory with his "Dance of the Bears" in 1847, where Apinani would battle fifteen bears at a time with only rope, and subdued the creatures in less than a minute. Several sabotage/assassination attempts such as weakened lances, drug crazed bulls, and poison were put on Apinani by rival matadors, but none succeeded. In fact, the reason the bullfighter lost (and died) on August 7, 1850 was that the bull hesitated in its charge right before it reached Apinani, who missed the vault and broke his neck.

References

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