LA MANOLETINA

The Suerte de muleta is fundamental to determine the
triumph or failure of the bullfighter. It is in this phase that the
bullfighter, facing the bull alone, must demonstrate his close
and personal idea of what it means to be a bullfighter. At the sound
of the bugles and the drums, the bullfighter receives the red cape
and the sword from the swordsman’s assistant.
If it is the bullfighter’s first bull, he addresses the presidency to request the appropriate permission and after paying homage, or perhaps not, to the
death of the animal, he goes to the bull. The bull will be taken by the
matador’s support team to the place selected by the bullfighter. From there, if the
animal responds, he takes the bull into the middle of the ring, where a sense of solitude is even more pronounced. “La Faena” is a collection of a series of connected steps the bullfighter makes, remaining still while the bull circles him. The bullfighter´s intent, through the power of his cape and not because of the bull´s natural fierceness, is to make the animal charge. The most valued elements in this stage are the excitement of the bullfighter´s execution of steps, together with the courage the bull displays to oppose difficulties. This ends with the “Suerte suprema”, and is followed with the killing of the bull.
Bullfighters can make the bull to charge using his cape in many different ways, one of which is called La Manoletina. Facing the bull the bullfighter holds the cape with both hands behind his back.. This classic way to use the cape was invented by Rafael Dutrús Zamora “LLapisera”, but it was popularized by the great bullfighter Manolete