Carril: a rut, furrow or railway track; a carril in bullfighting is a bull that charges perfectly straight as though coming down a groove or mounted on rails, permitting the utmost in brilliance to the matador.
Cartel: the composed programme for a bullfight. May also mean the amount of popularity a bullfighter has in any determined locality. For instance, you ask a friend in the business, "What cartel have you in Malaga?" "Wonderful; in Malaga no one has more cartel than me. My cartel is unmeasurable." As a matter of record on his last appearance in Malaga he may have been chased out of the city by angry and disappointed customers.
Carteles: the posters announcing a bullfight.
Castigaderas: the long poles used from above in herding and sorting the bulls into the various runways and passages of the corrals when placing them in their compartments before the fight.
Castoreno: or beavers: the wide hats with pompons at the side worn by the picador.
Cazar: to kill the bull deceitfully and treacherously with the sword without the man allowing his body to come close to the horn.
Ceñido: close to the bull.
Ceñirse: to close in on. Applied to the bull it means those which pass as close to the man as he will permit, gaining a little ground each attack. The man is said to ciñe when he works very close to the animal.
Cerca: close; as in close to the horns.
Cerrar: to shut in. Cerrar el toro: to bring the bull close into the barrera; the opposite of Abrir. The bullfighter is called encerrado en Tablas when he has provoked the charge of the bull close to the barrera so that the bull cuts off his retreat on one side and the barrera cuts it on the other.
Cerveza: beer; there is good draft beer almost anywhere in Madrid, but the best is found at the Cervezeria Alvarez in the calle Victoria. Draft beer is served in pint glasses which are called dobles or in half-pint glasses called cañas, cañitas or medias. The Madrid breweries were founded by Germans and the beer is the best anywhere on the continent outside of Germany and Czecho-Slovakia. The best bottled beer in Madrid is the Aguilar. In the provinces good beer is brewed in Santander, the Cruz Blanca, and in San Sebastian. In the latter town the best beer I have drunk has been at the Café de Madrid, Café de la Marina, and Café Kutz. In Valencia the best draft beer I have ever drunk has been at the Hotel Valencia where it is served ice cold in large glass pitchers. The food at this hotel, which has only very modest accommodations as to rooms, is superb. In Pamplona the finest beer is at the Café Kutz and the Café Iruña. The beer at the other cafés can not be recommended. I have drunk excellent draft beer in Palencia, Vigo and La Coruña, but have never encountered good draft beer in any very small Spanish town.
Cerviguillo: the high part of the bull's neck where the hump of muscle forms the so-called morillo or erective muscular crest of the neck.
Chato: snub nosed.
Chico: small; also means youngster. The younger brothers of bullfighters are usually referred to by the family name or professional name with Chico appended as: Armillita Chico, Amoros Chico, etc.
Chicuelinas: a pass with the cape invented by Manuel Jiminez "Chicuelo." The man offers the cape to the bull and when the bull has charged and is past, the man, while the bull turns, makes a pirouette in which the cape wraps itself around him. At the conclusion of the pirouette he is facing the bull ready to make another pass.
Chiquero: the closed stalls in which the bulls await their entrance into the ring.
Choto: a calf which is still nursing; term of contempt to describe under-aged and undersized bulls.
Citar: challenging the bull's attention to provoke a charge.
Clarines: the trumpets that give the signals at the president's orders to announce the different changes in the fight.
Claro: a bull that is simple and easy to work with.
Cobarde: a cowardly bull or bullfighter.
Cobrar: to collect; el mano de cobrar is the right hand.
Cogida: the tossing of a man by the bull; means literally the catching; if the bull catches he tosses.
Cojo: lame; a bull which comes into the ring lame may be retired. The spectators will commence to shout "Cojo" as soon as they perceive the lameness.
Cojones: testicles; a valorous bullfighter is said to be plentifully equipped with these. In a cowardly bullfighter they are said to be absent. Those of the bull are called criadillas and prepared in any of the ways sweetbreads are usually cooked they are a great delicacy. During the killing of the fifth bull the criadillas of the first bull were sometimes served in the royal box. Primo de Rivera was so fond of interlarding his discourse with reference to manly virtues that he was said to have eaten so many criadillas that they had gone to his brain.
Cola: the bull's tail; usually called rabo. Cola may also mean the line in front of a ticket window.
Colada: the instant in which the bullfighter finds his position untenable when through mismanagement of the cloth or through the bull paying no attention to it or abandoning it to seek the man, the man must save himself from the charge as best he can.
Coleando: hanging onto the bull's tail, twisting it toward his head. This gives great pain to the bull and often damages his spinal column. It is only permissible when the bull is goring, or trying to gore a man on the ground.
Coleta: the short, tightly braided, curved pigtail worn at the back of the head by the bullfighter to attach the mona, a black sort of hollow, dull, silk-covered button about twice the size of a silver dollar which supports the hat. Bullfighters formerly all wore this tress of hair pinned forward on their head out of sight when not fighting. Now they have found that they can attach both mona and a made-up coleta at the same time by a clasp to the hair at the back of their heads when dressing for the ring. You only see the pigtail now, once the caste mark of all bullfighters, on the heads of young aspirant fighters in the provinces.
Colocar: to place; a man is bien colocado when he places himself correctly in the ring for all the different acts of the bullfight. It is also used when speaking of the placing of the sword, the pic and the banderillas in the bull. A bullfighter is also said to be bien colocado when he has finally arrived at a recognized position in his profession.
Compuesto: composed; holding his figure straight while the bull charges.
Confianza: self-confidence; peón de confianza — confidential banderillero who represents and may even advise the matador.
Confiar: to become confident and sure of himself with a bull.
Conocedor: a professional overseer of the fighting bulls on a breeder's estates.
Consentirse: to get very close to the bull with the body or lure in order to force a charge and then keep close and keep the bull charging.
Contrabarrera: second row of seats at the bull ring.
Contratas: contracts signed by bullfighters.
Contratista de Caballos: horse contractor; furnishes horses for a fight for a fixed sum.
Cornada: a horn wound; a real wound as distinct from a varetazo or bruising scratch. A cornada de caballo is a huge cornada, the same sort of wound in a man that the bull usually makes in the chest of a horse.
Cornalón: bull with exceptionally large horns.
Corniabierto: exceptionally wide horned.
Corniavacado: cowhorned. Bull in which the horns turn up and back.
Cornicorto: shorthorned.
Cornigacho: bull with low horns coming quite straight forward.
Corniveleto: high straight horns.
Corral: enclosure adjoining the ring in which the bulls are kept immediately before they are to be fought. Provided with feed-boxes, salt and fresh water.
Correr: to run; used to denote the running of the bull by the banderillero when the animal first enters the ring.
Corrida or Corrida de Toros: the Spanish bullfight.
Corrida de Novillos Toros: fight in which young or big but defective bulls are used.
Corta: short, an estocada in which the sword goes in a little more than half way.
C
ortar: to cut; bullfighters often sustain slight cuts on the hands with the sword when managing sword and muleta. Cortar la oreja — to cut the bull's ear. Cortar la coleta — to cut the pigtail or retire.
Cortar terreno: the bull is said to cut in on the terrain of the bullfighter when after the man has provoked a charge ana is running toward and across the line of the bull's charge to place the banderillas, say, at the point where their two courses will meet, the bull changes his direction while charging in order to cut in toward the man; gaining ground by running sideways.
Corto (torero corto): matador with a limited repertoire.
Corto — vestido de corto: wearing the short jacket of the Andalucian bull herders. Bullfighters formerly dressed in their costume when not in the ring.
Crecer: to increase; a bull that increases in bravery under punishment.
Cruz: the cross. Where the line of the top of the bull's shoulder blades would cross the spine. The place the sword should go in if the matador kills perfectly. The cruz is also the crossing of the sword arm over the arm that holds the lowered muleta as the matador goes in to kill. He is said to cross well when his left hand manages the cloth so that it moves low and well out accentuating the cross made with the other arm thus getting well rid of the bull as the man follows the sword in. Fernando Gomez, father of the Gallos, is supposed first to have remarked that the bullfighter who does not cross in this way belongs to the devil at once. Another saying is that the first time you do not cross is your first trip to the hospital.
Cuadrar: squaring the bull for killing; both front and hind feet together and the head neither too high nor too low. In banderillas: the moment when the bull lowers his head to hook and the man puts his feet together, his hands together and sinks the shafts into the bull.
Cuadrilla: the troupe of bullfighters under the orders of a matador including picadors and banderilleros one of whom acts as puntillero.
Cuarteo: the most common form of placing banderillas, described in the text; a feint with the body or dodging motion used to avoid going in straight toward the bull when killing.
Cuidado: watch out! when it is an ejaculation. When applied to the bull as a descriptive term means one who has learned in the course of the fight and become dangerous.
Cuidando la línea: looking after the line; taking care that his movements shall be aesthetically graceful while working with the bull.
Cumbre: summit; torero cumbre: the very best possible; faena cumbre: the absolute top in work with the muleta.
Cuna: the cradle formed on the bull's head between the bull's horns. The one temporary refuge of a man whose position has become hopelessly compromised.
D
Defenderse: to defend; a bull is said to defend himself when he refuses to charge but pays close attention to everything and gores at anything that comes close to him.
Dehesa: pasture land.
Déjalo: leave him alone! Let him be! Shouted by the bullfighter to his peones when they have the bull correctly placed or when the matador wishes the bull left alone and not tired any more by the capes.
Delantal: a pass with the cape invented by Chicuelo in which the cape is swung in front of the man so that it billows out like an apron on a pregnant woman in a breeze.
Delantera de tendido: third row of seats at the ringside behind contra-barrera and barrera. Delantera de grada: first row of seats in gallery.
Delantero: a pair of banderillas or estocade placed too far forward.
Derecho: straight; mano derecha: the right hand.
Derramar la vista: scattering the vision; a bull which fixes his sight rapidly on a number of different objects before suddenly fixing on one and charging.
Derrame: hemorrhage, from the mouth usually; always, if the blood is bright or frothy, a sign that the sword has been badly placed and has entered the lungs. A bull may bleed from the mouth when he has been stuck properly, but it is very rare.
Derribar: to knock over; the riding after young bulls on the ranch by a man armed with a long pole with which, while both bull and horse are galloping, the man upsets the bull by placing the point of the pole near the root of the tail and throwing the animal off balance so that it falls to the ground.
Derrote: high-chopping motion of the bull's horns.
Desarmar: to disarm the matador by loss of his muleta either through the horn catching in it and the bull tossing it away or through the bull deliberately chopping upward with his horns as the man comes in to kill.
Desarrollador: where the bulls are dressed out and the meat butchered after the fight.
Descabellar: to descabello or kill the bull from in front after he has been mortally wounded through an estocade by driving the point of the sword between the base of the skull and the first vertebra so that the spinal cord is severed. This is a coup de grace administered by the matador while the bull is still on his feet. If the bull is nearly dead and carries his head low, the stroke is not difficult since with the head nearly to the ground the space between the vertebra and the skull will be open. However, many matadors not caring to risk going in and passing the horn again if they have administered one estocade, whether mortal or not, try to descabello while the bull is in no sense nearly dead and, since the animal must then be tricked into lowering his head and may chop up with it as he sees or feels the sword, the descabello then becomes difficult and dangerous. It is dangerous both for spectators and matador since the bull with an upward chop of his head will often send the sword thirty or more feet into the air. Swords tossed in this way by bulls have frequently killed spectators in Spanish rings. A Cuban visitor at Biarritz was killed a few years ago in the bull ring at Bayonne, France, by a sword with which Antonio Marquéz was attempting to descabello. Marquéz was tried for manslaughter but was acquitted. In 1930 a spectator was killed by a tossed sword in Tolosa, Spain, the matador engaged in descabelloing being Manolo Martinez. The sword, entering the man's back, pierced his body completely and was withdrawn with difficulty by two men, both of whom cut their hands badly on the blade. The practice of attempting to descabello on a bull which is still strong and requires another estocade to kill or wound him mortally is one of the worst and most shameful practices of modern bullfighting. Most of the scandalous and shameful disasters suffered by bullfighters subject to attacks of cowardice such as Cagancho, Niño de la Palma and Chicuelo have been due to their trying to descabellar a bull which was in a state to defend itself against this stroke. In the proper way of descabelloing the muleta is held low on the ground to force the bull to lower his muzzle. The matador may prick the bull's muzzle either with the point of the muleta or with the sword to force him to lower it. When the point of the sword used in this thrust, the blade of which is straight and stiff rather than curved down in the usual way, is properly placed, it strikes and severs the spinal marrow and the bull falls as suddenly as light goes off when a button is turned to extinguish an electric light.
Descansar: to rest; the descanso is the intermission between the third and fourth bulls which occurs in some bull rings while the ring is being sprinkled and smoothed. A man may also rest the bull a moment between two series of passes while passing him with the muleta if he finds the bull is winded.
Descompuesto: gone to pieces nervously.
Desconfiado: worried or lacking in confidence.
Descordando: an estocade or sword thrust which accidentally going between two vertebrae cuts the spinal cord and brings the bull down instantly. This is not to be confused with the descabello or the puntilla stroke which cuts the spinal marrow deliberately.
Descubrirse: to uncover; in the bull to lower the head well so that the part where the sword is to enter is easily reached. In the man, to leave himself uncovered by the cloth when working with the bull.
Desgarradura: a torn rip in the hide of the bull made by an unskillful or conscienceless picador.
Desigual: a bullfighter whose performances are not consistent; brilliant one day and boring the next.
Despedida: the f
arewell performance of a bullfighter; not to be taken any more seriously than that of a singer. The actual final performances of bullfighters are usually very poor affairs since the man usually has some incapabilities which force him to retire or else he is retiring to live on his money and will be very careful to take no chances in the last time bulls will have a chance to kill him.
Despedir: when the man with cape or muleta sends the bull out and away from him at the end of a pass. The pushing away of the bull by the picador at the end of a charge as the picador turns his horse.
Despejo: clearing of the public from the ring before the fight commences. The spectators are no longer allowed to parade in the Madrid ring before the fight commences.
Desplante: any theatrical gesture by a bullfighter.
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