Colombia The solo reappearance of Castella and a one-on-one Juli-Roca Rey raise expectations in Manizales
His reappearance in the arena on January 7, 829 days after announcing his retirement, is one of the great milestones announced by the Colombian Manizales Fair that starts this Monday.
Sebastián Castella
(Béziers, 1983) returns with everything, "to turn around" his bullfighting and recover as a bullfighter the time that he needed as a person and that forced him to stop.
When and why did you decide to stop? One is always a bullfighter.
Even if he retires.
In my case, it is known that I have been a very American bullfighter, never stopping.
When I finished here I went there and I haven't even had two months for myself.
That is finally noticeable.
Personally and professionally, because one does not have time to look for an evolution, to find oneself... And when you need to be at the foot of the canyon every day, it is complicated no matter how much you have your site, your place or your sanctuary.
So I needed my time as a bullfighter and I needed it as a human too. Did you do it thinking that it would just be a full stop? No, when I left I did it without knowing if I was going to return.
When I made that decision I did it a bit drastically because I felt empty.
So that time I was talking about I finally took it.
One day,
After that mental and emotional pause, a renewed illusion came back to me, ambition gained ground again and I said to myself: 'I have to be here again'. Did the decision to return come also suddenly? as a result of the end of the 2021 season. I went to Seville to the bullfights some afternoons to see Morante de la Puebla, whom I follow a lot, and when I saw myself on the line I said to myself: 'I don't paint anything here, I still have to be down there'.
And so it was, in May I announced that I was going to fight again and then I stopped everything I was doing and got back into my bubble and my bullfighting routine. In that year of total stoppage, did you train anything?
Did he have the bull present? No.
He did not want to know anything about the preparation, or anything about the bull.
I was living my artistic moment with painting and I only touched a cloak when I picked it up to paint it.
Not even in the living room? Sometimes, when I was very comfortable, sentimental, I would take the crutch and fight in front of the mirrors, but I did it to find things for myself, aesthetically speaking, without pressure.
And that has helped me a lot. What were those days like when you woke up and thought that you wouldn't have to risk your life in the arena? I left home at the age of 14 and set out on a long journey with a clear direction but without knowing how far I was going to arrive.
When you take that path throughout your life, the day you decide to leave, the first thing you think about is living life, enjoying yourself, not thinking about anything.
Everyone has their situations and one takes refuge in everything: in friends, sometimes in things that should not be... Until you put your feet on the ground again and recover the course of normality in your life. Was it your decision more difficult? Yes and no.
Throughout my career I have had bad emotional moments, potholes in which I thought about stopping and did not.
That was harder than the day I said: 'Stop'.
It wasn't that hard because in part, although he didn't know if he was going to fight again or not, he kept in mind that if he decided to do so, he had a margin.
That made me calm. And that present possibility is now coming true... Yes.
Until now the bull has not told me that I do not have the capacity to be in front.
Although not even the bull can say it: the true judge of each person is oneself. In his farewell letter he spoke of feeling "privileged."
What privileges has the bull brought you? To me?
Everybody.
In the material, in the immaterial, in the emotional, in the sensations, in meeting wonderful people -others not so much-... These are experiences that make you grow.
He also said that he had universes to discover.
What has he done in all this time?Culturate me, which is one of the greatest riches in this world.
Know beyond your professional bubble.
Bullfighters are lucky to travel a lot but we always go to places linked to bullfighting.
But being able to travel to places from another sphere, share other cultures with people not linked to bullfighting, discover and enrich oneself... That has been wonderful. Has the bullfighter also grown? As a bullfighter I cannot say if I have evolved because that is what will tell day by day and time.
The important thing is that I come back with a renewed hope of dressing as a bullfighter again like when I was a bullfighter without horses and had that joy of a child to do what he dreamed of.
For that reason alone, the one in Manizales will be one of the most important afternoons of my life. The bet is strong.
Six bulls. You know that I like challenges... From that day on I will be competing with the entire ranks so I wanted that first afternoon to be mine, for me, without sharing it with anyone, like the special day that it is.
I reappear with six bulls and myself in a large fair such as Manizales.
We all know my closeness to Colombia.
It has been a very important country for me starting from the beginning.
When I started as a bullfighter in Colombia, I was welcomed with great affection.
And that marks you. In his return promotional video there is a message to the anti-bullfighting group stating that he returns because he is an animalist.
Is the bullfighter the greatest lover of animals? Of course he is.
It may seem contradictory to say it because it is true that the matador kills the bull but all bullfighters are breeders of bulls, or of horses,
They have their farms full of animals and they reinvest their money in their care and in that of the environment.
When you want to be a bullfighter, the first thing that is instilled in you is respect for the animal, any animal.
Being an animalist is not having a neutered puppy in an apartment and putting a blanket over it.
No. Being an animalist is taking care of the animal in another way, in its habitat, and investing in its care.
Farmers, for example, in winter, getting up at 5 in the morning to eat, to break the ice so they can drink, cleaning up... Who does that?
All bullfighters and professionals in this sector are like that.
The true animalist is the bullfighter. His return to Colombia coincides precisely with a delicate moment in bullfighting in the country, with the rise to power of Gustavo Petro and his idea of ending bullfighting.
In part, I also return to Colombia because it is a country that needs it.
And that's where all the bullfighters have to be.
Colombia has given us so much that it deserves it and needs our support. Are you worried that this current continues to spread? In America it is a matter of political tendency and that unfortunately fades what this Culture is.
It is what it is... Here it started in Catalonia and then it crossed the pond and passed in Quito (Ecuador) and after Quito it went on to Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia... Of course it worries me. He talks about a political issue, the that it should be kept outside of bullfighting....Unfortunately it is like that.
Although bullfighting does not look to the left or to the right, they play with us.
But they do it because there is a lot of strength in bullfighting and going against it can give them the votes they are looking for.
It worries us but we have to fight, shake hands and each one with our means, defend ourselves. Even in your country, France, there has been a prohibitionist attempt... Here I am going to be very nationalist.
We have to do what has been done in France.
There, that bill that he comments on was not even presented.
They withdrew it.
And there, each one with their power and possibilities, from professionals to amateurs, has raised their voices, has taken to the streets... We have also made videos, we have presented ourselves in the mayors' offices, in the Paris Senate... It's very important.
And that should be done in all countries without fear of anything. Is there a complex for being a bullfighter? We are not the weird ones, we are people with a hobby - there are people who don't even have hobbies - and we have to defend it.
It is clear that death is present,
but sacrifices are present in all life throughout history.
The only thing that evolves is technology, everything else is historical.
And we must remember what History is, where we come from, the reason for the commemorative dates.
You have to look at all this and not be afraid to say that I am a bullfighter and that the bulls give me emotions that do not give me anything. We have not entered the field of solidarity... The full benefits of the Manizales Fair go to the city children's hospital. That's right.
When you see the reality of things, it shocks.
Those children are young with problems and the only thing we can do is help.
We bullfighters are always there for those things and we must congratulate the company Cormanizales,
whose director Juan Carlos Gómez is the architect that these children have a better life during the year thanks to the Fair.
This year I won't be at the festival but I'm going to contribute a painted cloak and a sculpture of myself to raise money for the hospital. What do you expect the day of the comeback to be like? I'm preparing for everything.
I want it to be a very mine day, but I don't like to talk about the future.
I have it clear, but I want to have my feet on the ground.
I arrive with my homework done and very dedicated to the profession.
Obviously I don't know what's going to happen but that's also the greatness and magic of this show.
Yes indeed.
I want to turn around my bullfighting, go up a step.
That's clear to me.
Will I be able?
Time will tell.
This year I won't be at the festival but I'm going to contribute a painted cloak and a sculpture of myself to raise money for the hospital. What do you expect the day of the comeback to be like? I'm preparing for everything.
I want it to be a very mine day, but I don't like to talk about the future.
I have it clear, but I want to have my feet on the ground.
I arrive with my homework done and very dedicated to the profession.
Obviously I don't know what's going to happen but that's also the greatness and magic of this show.
Yes indeed.
I want to turn around my bullfighting, go up a step.
That's clear to me.
Will I be able?
Time will tell.
This year I won't be at the festival but I'm going to contribute a painted cloak and a sculpture of myself to raise money for the hospital. What do you expect the day of the comeback to be like? I'm preparing for everything.
I want it to be a very mine day, but I don't like to talk about the future.
I have it clear, but I want to have my feet on the ground.
I arrive with my homework done and very dedicated to the profession.
Obviously I don't know what's going to happen but that's also the greatness and magic of this show.
Yes indeed.
I want to turn around my bullfighting, go up a step.
That's clear to me.
Will I be able?
Time will tell.
I arrive with my homework done and very dedicated to the profession.
Obviously I don't know what's going to happen but that's also the greatness and magic of this show.
Yes indeed.
I want to turn around my bullfighting, go up a step.
That's clear to me.
Will I be able?
Time will tell.
I arrive with my homework done and very dedicated to the profession.
Obviously I don't know what's going to happen but that's also the greatness and magic of this show.
Yes indeed.
I want to turn around my bullfighting, go up a step.
That's clear to me.
Will I be able?
Time will tell.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more
Colombia
France
Sebastian Castella
Paris
Senate
Mexico
Venezuela
Ecuador
America
Gustavo Petro
Puebla dweller
Seville
Bulls