Rodolfo Gaona Jiménez (22 January 1888 – 20 May 1975), was a Mexican

torero 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 activity ...

, known as "The Caliph De León". He was born in Lion of the Aldamas,

Guanajuato City Guanajuato () is a city and municipal seat of the municipality of Guanajuato in central Mexico and the capital of the state of the same name. It is part of the macroregion of the Bajío. It is in a narrow valley, which makes its streets narrow a ...

, Mexico on 22 January 1888. His parents were Roberto Gaona and Regina Jiménez.

Career

Mexico

Gaona debuted on 1 October 1905 in the square

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

Spain

Rodolfo Gaona Jiménez arrived in Spain in the year 1908. On 15 July 1908, Jiménez was inaugurated in the Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas of

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

. On 31 May 1908, in Tetouan of the Victories (Madrid) with bulls of Basilio Peñalver, his godfather Manuel Lara, "The Jerezano", offered him the bull "Rabanero". After several performances in Madrid the bull surrendered to Rodolfo. Rodolfo_Gaona_2

Retirement

Gaona Jiménez retired from the arena on April 12, 1924. This was during the same time as the Mexican festival in the Monumental square of bullfighting ''"La Condesa"'', Mexico City, in a magnificent afternoon in which ''estoqueó'' seven bulls.

Death

Rodolfo Gaona died on 20 May 1975 in the City of Mexico at the age of 87.

References

1975 deaths People from Guanajuato 1888 births Mexican bullfighters {{mexico-bullfighting-bio-stub