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Julián López Escobar "El Juli" has been awarded the National Bullfighting Award, corresponding to the year 2023, at the proposal of the jury meeting today. The prize, awarded by the Ministry of Culture and Sport, is endowed with 30,000 euros.

The jury has awarded the prize to Julián López Escobar "El Juli", in the year of his farewell to the rings, in recognition of an extraordinary career of twenty-five years, which has led him, "from his beginnings as a child prodigy to consolidate himself as a figure of the time in bullfighting".

The jury also highlighted "his involvement in the promotion and defence of the bullfighting festival and his social commitment to young people and the most disadvantaged through the School and Foundation created by him".

"The awarding of this prize represents the recognition of the teaching, both inside and outside the rings, of an essential reference of bullfighting in the 21st century", added the jury.

Biography

Julián López Escobar 'El Juli' (Madrid, October 3, 1982) is an essential reference in bullfighting for the last 25 years.

Considered a child prodigy, he took his first steps in the bullfighting school of Madrid, under the guidance of Gregorio Sánchez and forged himself as a novillero in Mexico. He took the alternative at the age of fifteen years and eleven months in the Nîmes bullring with the maestro José María Manzanares as godfather and Ortega Cano as witness.

Throughout his long career he has won in bullrings in Spain, France, Portugal, Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Venezuela, which has elevated him as one of the main figures of bullfighting in the 21st century. With seven exits on his shoulders through the Puerta del Príncipe de la Real Maestranza, he bids farewell to the rings holding the record for this recognition in Seville.

In addition to his career in the rings, he carries out important work to promote and develop bullfighting through his Foundation, collaborating with different entities and participating in numerous solidarity projects.

Jury

The jury was chaired byIsaac Sastre de Diego, Director General of Cultural Heritage and Fine Arts, Carlos González-Barandiarán, Deputy Director General of Records and Documentation of Historical Heritage, acted as vice-president, and Teresa Belmonte García, senior lecturer at the University of Almería, member of the Research Group 'Laboratory of Social and Cultural Anthropology'; José Pedro Prados Martín 'El Fundi', representing the Union of Bullfighters; Mar Gutiérrez López, representing the National Association of Organizers of Bullfighting Shows; David Prados Martín, representing the National Union of Spanish Picadores and Banderilleros; Lucía Martín García, director of communication and institutional relations of the Royal Union of Fighting Bull Breeders; José Luque Teruel, president of the Plaza de Toros de la Real Maestranza de Caballería de Sevilla; Juan José Urquía García, president of the Association of Veterinarians of Las Ventas; Rosario Pérez Sánchez, bullfighting critic for the newspaper ABC; Juan Miguel Sánchez Vigil, Professor of Documentation at the Complutense University of Madrid and editor, photographer and graphic documentalist; Encarnación Sabel Soriano Vegas, cultural manager; Fátima Halcón Álvarez-Ossorio, Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Seville; Pilar González del Valle García de la Peña, member of the Peña Taurina 'Los de José y Juan' and Antonio Miura Martínez, cattle rancher, Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts 2022.

  • The Juli
  • Mexico
  • Teruel
  • Ministry of Defence
  • Colombia
  • Seville
  • Venezuela
  • Ecuador
  • Peru
  • Portugal
  • France
  • Bulls