José María Ortega Cano (born 23 December 1953) is a Spanish

bullfighter A bullfighter (or matador) is a performer in the activity of bullfighting. ''Torero'' () or ''toureiro'' (), both from Latin ''taurarius'', are the Spanish and Portuguese words for bullfighter and describe all the performers in the activit ...

. He was married to Spanish singer

Rocío Jurado María del Rocío Mohedano Jurado (, 18 September 1944 – 1 June 2006), better known as Rocío Jurado, was a Spanish singer and actress. She was born in Chipiona (Cádiz) and nicknamed "La más grande" ("The Greatest"). In 2000 in New York Cit ...

. They adopted two Colombian children, one boy and one girl. He began his bullfighting career in 1973 in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

, and had a notably successful year in 1986, where he was very successful in many bullrings. In 1995 he married

, a famous Spanish singer. He retired from bullfighting in 1998, but donned the ''

traje de luces The ('suit of lights') is the traditional clothing that Spanish bullfighters (, , and ) wear in the bullring. The term originates from the sequins and reflective threads of gold or silver. These are based on the flamboyant costumes of the 18 ...

'' bullfighter outfit again in 2001 to attempt a comeback, albeit with less success. He entered retirement again in 2004 to take care of his wife, who was diagnosed with

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of t ...

, until her passing in 2006. In 2007, Ortega Cano entered the bullring one final time in

Olivenza Olivenza () or Olivença () is a town in southwestern Spain, near the Portuguese border, on a historically disputed section of the Portugal–Spain border. Its territory is administered by Spain as a municipality belonging to the province of Bad ...

. He was a contestant on the Spanish version of ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Dancing with the Stars'' is the name of various international television series based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing'', which is distributed by BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the forma ...

'' (''Mira quién baila''), where he showed no talent for dancing. On 29 May 2011, he was involved in a car accident which left the other driver dead and himself in critical condition. After a slow recovery, he left the hospital on 11 July 2011. On 24 April 2013, First-instance criminal court No. 6 of Seville sentenced Ortega Cano to two years, six months and one day in prison for reckless homicide and reckless driving, causing the death of Carlos Parra in the aforementioned accident. He entered

Zuera Zuera is a municipality located in the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain. According to the 2010 census,Instituto Nacional de Estadística (Spain) the municipality has a population of 7,510 inhabitants. The name is proposed coming from the Baske ...

prison in

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

on 23 April 2014. After a year and a month in prison he was left out in regime of semi-liberty. On 27 September 2018, he married Ana María Aldón (his partner since 2012) by civil law in a notary office in Zaragoza. On 31 December 2020, during

COVID-19 pandemic in Spain The COVID-19 pandemic in Spain has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. The virus was first confirmed to have spread to Spain on 31 January 2020, when a German tourist tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in La Gomera, Canary Island ...

, Ortega Cano, his wife and his daughter tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

with notable symptoms after getting infected on Christmas Eve, recovering from the disease few weeks later but with mild sequelae. In 2016, the Spanish satirical magazine ''Mongolia'' caricatured him in a promotional poster as a drunken extraterrestrial against a crashed flying saucer, a reference to the car crash which he had caused in 2011 and for which he had been sentenced in 2013. He sued the magazine alleging an attack on his honour, and was awarded EUR 40 000 in damages. The court ruling was confirmed on appeal by the Spanish Supreme Court in December 2020.

References

1953 births Living people Sportspeople from Cartagena, Spain Spanish bullfighters Spanish prisoners and detainees Reality dancing competition contestants {{spain-bullfighting-bio-stub