El Viti
Santiago Martín Sánchez, known as El Viti, is a retired Spanish bullfighter. He holds the record for the greatest number of times that any bullfighter has been borne on shoulders out through the Great Gate at the Las Ventas bullring in Madrid, namely fourteen as a matador, and two others while he was still a novillero.
Biography
Early life
Santiago Martín Sánchez was born on 18 July 1938 in the village of Vitigudino in the Province of Salamanca. He was thus born into the Spanish Civil War and would spend his whole life until the age of 37 living under Francisco Franco's military dictatorship. He grew up in a simple, rural family. His father ran a workshop for farm carts.His nickname, El Viti, derives from his boyhood town's name, Vitigudino. The nickname was bestowed upon him by the local schoolteacher Don Manuel Moreno Blanco.
El Viti's family had no background in bullfighting whatsoever. Nonetheless, El Viti has been the first great bullfighter to be raised in Salamanca, at the height of the livestock-raising boom in that province.
He travelled back and forth across the Salamancan countryside as a youngster to attend capeas, and he first donned the suit of lights in August 1956, at the bullring in Ledesma. Another source says that he first stood before a bovine adversary at Vitigudino on the occasion of the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1955, although nothing is said about him wearing a suit of lights that day.
Beginnings as a ''novillero''
El Viti had his début with picadores in May 1957 at Ledesma, alternating with "Ávila" and the Mexican Roberto Ocampo. Yearling bulls were laid on by the Zumer Brothers' ranch. He became known as a novillero at the old Vistalegre bullring in Madrid's Carabanchel district in 1959.At a 1959 engagement at Madrid's old Vistalegre bullring, El Viti reaped one ear from each of the yearlings that he fought. It was one of nine novilladas at which he appeared that season, five of which were held at Vistalegre.
On 18 July 1960 came El Viti's presentation at Las Ventas. The young bulls were furnished by Juan José Ramos and Brothers, and he was alternating with Tomás Sánchez Jiménez and Antonio de Jesús. The result of his performance on this afternoon was the first of a record number of triumphant rides on shoulders out through the bullring's Great Gate. Because he had performed so well, he was held over for the next five afternoons.
The 1960 bullfighting season brought 35 novilladas El Viti's way, but not all ended in triumph: he was wounded by yearling bulls twice that year, once in Alicante and another time in San Sebastián.
While El Viti was still a novillero, a yearling knocked him over at the bullring in Fréjus, France in 1958, leaving him with a broken left arm. This injury left him with a slight but permanent defect that prevented him from fully stretching his arm out, but instead of hindering his art, it gave him a unique and inimitable style in his natural bullfighting :
This little defect made El Viti's natural bullfighting sensational, because he had to offset the lack of elbow extension with wrist movement. Thus, the bull always went inside and never moved too far. El Viti was a brave man, because to do bullfighting so slowly without taking advantage of the touches and wrist movements with one arm in the virulé style, you have to be a hero.
—Domingo Delgado de la Cámara, Revisión del toreo
Career as a matador
El Viti took his alternativa in Madrid on 13 May 1961, during the Feria de San Isidro, with Toledo's Gregorio Sánchez standing as "godfather", while Diego Puerta bore witness. The bulls were laid on by the Alipio Pérez-Tabernero ranch. The actual bull used for the ceremony was named Guapito. That afternoon, he cut an ear from each of two bulls, and he also rode out through the Great Gate on shoulders together with the day's other two bullfighters. El Viti himself was borne shoulder-high all the way to his hotel.On 30 December 1962, he presented himself at the Plaza México in Mexico City, where his alternativa was confirmed. Standing as "godfather" this time was Jorge "Ranchero" Aguilar, while Antonio del Olivar bore witness. The bull used for the ceremony was Voluntario from the La Punta ranch.
El Viti appeared at 61 bullfighting engagements in the 1962 season, but he did not get through them all unscathed, sustaining two serious gorings, one in Palma de Mallorca and the other in Barcelona.
The date 18 March 1962 was special for the residents of Vilvestre, a little town in El Viti's part of the country, for El Viti made a triumphant return to the town to star in an historic corrida that all the townsfolk would remember. A poster advertising the event can be seen at right.
In 1963, El Viti fought at 73 engagements, and the next year, at 77. Although a bullfight in Pamplona on 10 July 1964 ended in great triumph and he was awarded the bull's tail, he rejected it, along with Diego Puerta and Paco Camino. In 1964, he topped the escalafón taurino. In 1965, he was awarded the Oreja de Oro at the Plaza México for his performance on 4 March, with a brave faena with the bull Limoncito from the Las Huertas ranch. Also on the bill that day were Alfredo Leal, Antonio del Olivar, Madrid's Victoriano Valencia, Manuel Benítez "El Cordobés", and Gabino Aguilar. Later the same year, he was once again badly wounded in Palma de Mallorca. In 1966, he found himself at 68 bullfighting engagements, but at one of them, held in Bogotá, he suffered yet another serious goring. He saw 64 engagements the following year, but the woundings kept on coming; there were three, in Barcelona and Málaga in his homeland, and at the Plaza de toros de Acho in Lima over in Peru.
Remembered particularly well is a faena at the Vistalegre bullring on 19 May 1968, in which he alternated with Gregorio Sánchez and Ángel Teruel as they fought bulls from the Lisardo Sánchez ranch. It was a total success, after which El Viti cut a bull's tail off and the fans took him up onto their shoulders and bore him for several kilometres to the Bridge of Toledo.
He was also a favourite bullfighter among the demanding public at the plaza de toros de la Real Maestranza de Caballería de Sevilla, even though he was not Andalusian. Greatly influenced as he was by Juan Belmonte's aesthetic, he for years represented the seriousness and neoclassical tradition in tauromachy, being considered by critics to be one of history's best-skilled bullfighters with the muleta.
Furthermore, he was acclaimed for the faena at the Plaza México on 4 January 1970 with the bull Aventurero, from the Tequisquiapan ranch.
On 12 December 1975 at the Santamaría Bullring in Bogotá, he was the star in an unprecedented feat that has never been repeated. Each of the three bullfighters on the bill that afternoon, not only El Viti but Palomo Linares and Enrique Calvo "El Cali" too – one after the other – granted a bull from the Vistahermosa ranch an indulto, thus sparing the three beasts the sword and sending them not only back to the bullpens, but also back to the Vistahermosa ranch.
On 17 April 1969 at the Maestranza in Seville, El Viti had a triumphant afternoon alternating with Palomo Linares and Ángel Teruel as they fought and slew bulls from the Lisardo Sánchez ranch. He reaped two ears.
First and foremost, however, El Viti was the king of Las Ventas, the world's most important bullring, at which he has been the one to open the Great Gate the most times: he was borne on shoulders out through the gate fourteen times as a matador and twice as a novillero, thus sixteen times in all, and twice each in the years 1960, 1965, 1966, 1969, and 1970. All together, he cut 40 ears as a matador at Madrid's great bullring.
Being borne out through the Great Gate at Las Ventas
El Viti's sixteen trips out through the Great Gate at Las Ventas – two as a novillero and fourteen as a fully fledged matador – were on these dates; details of each bullfight's outcome are included:- 18 July 1960, at his maiden appearance at Las Ventas.
- Another in 1960 for which precise data are unavailable.
- 13 May 1961, after being awarded one ear from each of his two bulls that afternoon, both from the Alipio Pérez-Tabernero Sanchón and Escudero Calvo ranches; this was his first time through the Great Gate after his alternativa — and indeed, it came on the very day of his alternativa.
- 22 May 1962, after receiving an ovation and being awarded both one bull's ears; the bulls were supplied by the Doña María Teresa Oliveira ranch.
- 27 May 1964, after receiving an ovation and being awarded both one bull's ears; the bulls were supplied by the Francisco Galache de Hernandinos ranch.
- 17 May 1965, after being awarded one ear from one bull, and both another's; the bulls were supplied by the Francisco Galache de Hernandinos ranch.
- 25 May 1965, after being awarded one lap round the ring and both one bull's ears; the bulls were supplied by the Eduardo Miura Fernández ranch.
- 21 May 1966, after being awarded both one bull's ears and receiving an ovation; the bulls were supplied by the Alipio Pérez-Tabernero Sanchón ranch.
- 25 May 1966, after being awarded both one bull's ears and receiving applause; the bulls were supplied by the Don Manuel Francisco Garzón ranch.
- 20 May 1967, after being awarded one ear from one bull, and both another's; the bulls were supplied by the Francisco Galache de Hernandinos ranch.
- 16 May 1969, after being awarded one ear from one bull, and both another's; the bulls were supplied by the Don Baltasar Ibán Valdés ranch.
- 17 May 1969, after being awarded both one bull's ears; the bulls were supplied by the Francisco Galache de Hernandinos ranch.
- 20 May 1970, after being awarded both one bull's ears and one from another; the bulls were supplied by the Don Juan Mari Pérez-Tabernero Montalvo ranch.
- 22 May 1970, after being awarded both one bull's ears; the bulls were supplied by the Don Baltasar Ibán Valdés ranch.
- 17 May 1971, after being awarded both one bull's ears; the bulls were supplied by the Don Anastasio Fernándo Iglesias ranch.
- 7 June 1973, after being awarded one ear from each of two bulls supplied by the Don Manuel Arranz ranch.