How are you, master? Because you have a streak of operations on your back, and never better said... Well, finally. But I have gone through five interventions in the spine, in the lumbar, they put four screws, two bars, a piece of titanium between the vertebrae ... The pain became unbearable. Oh my God. As he tells it, a horn is almost preferable. If it's a clean gore, which only touches muscles, in two or three weeks you're working again. I, thank God, have only suffered one. I also had dengue in 2007, but the biggest problem I've had in my entire career was my hand: I cut my tendons and it got complicated. Operations, grafts, more operations, more grafts... I couldn't even get a glass of water. Have you seen the photos? Google it: "Mano José Mari Manzanares". You see, you see... I think I can survive without it, thank you. What we were going for: what has been the worst horn of your life? The death of my father. He left in 2014, but I still remember him every day. No longer with that sadness that crushes you, but with melancholy... You define yourself as a very sensitive type, but then you plant yourself in front of an 800-kilo bug. Please explain... Bullfighting is not a matter of strength, nor of having more courage. It is not to subdue the animal or dominate it. To be a bullfighter is to establish a relationship with him. I have to understand him, adapt to his way of attacking, his bravery, his nobility, and then be able to express with my body everything that I have inside. It is a much more sensitive and sentimental act than physical. When I am in front of the bull I do not pretend to boast of strength or power. Quite the opposite. Come on, you are not capable of killing a fly... No, I can't! When I go through the countryside with my children and there is a wasp that they want to do something to, I shout to them: "Leave it, poor thing!" I don't enjoy when the bull is put on flags. I don't feel pleasure. It is the only animal that before a confrontation, instead of fleeing, attacks, confronts, and that is the only way to evaluate its nobility, its bravery. Otherwise, it would be a tame animal and the fight and, ultimately, the party would end. I'm not a murderer, but I don't even bother to explain it anymore. You were the face of Dolce & Gabbana. What a bell in the world in which you win the quarters ... I am not a model and I have never wanted to disrespect my profession. And when I've done something related to that world, like posing for Mario Testino or Peter Lindbergh, I always demanded that the photos have a connection to the bull. Not all. When I put on my Givenchy skirt, sometimes in the square they told me everything. I like the skirt, it's groundbreaking, the Romans wore it and I don't see what's wrong with it. I am a very aesthetic person, I supervise my light suits, I change the embroidery ... My personality is that, I know there will be criticisms and I assume them, but I will not stop being myself. 50 years ago, yes. But today I don't think there is more machismo than in other professions. Soon I will give the alternative to a colleague in Pozoblanco, and I love that. The art of transmitting is not in the gender difference. There is talk of the taboo of homosexuality in football. In the arena, we better not even enter... I'm sure there have been gay bullfighters. And "what? I'm interested in his art, or how he plays tennis, or how he scores goals. And if someone confessed it, where is the problem? Absolutely nothing would happen.¿Pablo López has composed a song for him? It's a joke? The song is called Tempo. We have become inseparable. He and Alejandro Sanz are two of my pillars, who have been there in good times and, above all, in bad. A lot of bull and a lot of field, and it turns out that you are a gamer. Yes, I like consoles, and I've built a fun online community. But I'm also very doggy. And I love golf.When did you last cry? A week ago. I'm running, I listen to a song, a nice memory comes to me and zas! Hey, won't I be getting too intimate?

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  • Articles Javier Cid
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