In the death of Litri: evocation of a 'great' in the history of bullfighting

Miguel Báez "Litri· has died and my pen must accompany with my regret a note of his bullfighting and human personality. To do this we must evoke that "Manolete" had died in 1947 and since then,

seemed to have guaranteed a prolonged throne, when in 1949 two bullfighters emerged on the bullfighting scene who made a famous couple, and who were very different but complementary, Julio Aparicio and Miguel Báez "Litri".

His 1949 season was explosive and all audiences wanted to see what was new and it is now time to write with respect that this "Litri" who has died was the first "tremendous" bullfighter, because some of the tricks he executed in the ring and

in which he summoned the bull from a great distance, impassively enduring the embroque;

At this start of work they used to accompany muletazos looking at the line and a whole range of not very aesthetic stagings but of enormous popular effectiveness.

His fearlessness set the standard and while Julio Aparicio followed his classic, domineering path, with brilliant gestures of rebellion against the bull, other "tremendists" emerged from whom I will cite those who initially conquered the audiences: Antonio Borrero "Chamaco" - from Huelva as "Litri" although he was born in Gandía -, Manuel Jiménez "Chicuelo II"-, Miguel Mateo "Miguelín", and to round it off Manuel Benítez "El Cordobés", already at the beginning of the sixties.

"Litri" took an alternative that has become historic by sharing it with his novilleril partner Julio Aparicio,

in the bullring of Valencia, by raffling which of the two was awarded the tackle first. godfather, who was a luxury, Joaquin Rodríguez "Cagancho".

"Litri" became so rich with his initial bizarre ways that he retired in a couple of years, investing his well-deserved bullfighting income very well, to return when he felt like it and already in the sixties, when "El Cordobés" imposed his forms, "Litri "accredited in the most renowned places, such as La Real Maestranza in Seville and Las Ventas in Madrid that he knew how to fight, and very well, by the way.

And having made this historical point, I want to leave here the human testimony of those who treated him and I want to write loudly that all bullfighting has spoken wonders about the human being Miguel Báez;

writers, managers, ranchers, fans, all without question praised his simplicity, his humanity, his kindness, his kind of person and his pleasure in pleasing friends in his Huelva lands with famous stews and rice that he himself prepared.

I know that in his last years, already living in Madrid, not far from the Wellington Hotel and the Madrid Retiro, he used to meet with his dear friend Julio Aparicio and with Paco Camino, when he left his paradise for a few hours at the foot of Gredos, to remember his time, that time when all of

, who died this Wednesday, May 18, at the age of 91, days after the news had evoked his nickname on the occasion of the wedding of his son Miguel, in Seville.

The readers of this note should know that Miguel Báez "Litri" was important in the arena and in life.

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