Francisco Romero (1700–1763) was a significant

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

matador 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 reputedly introduced the famous red cape (

muleta A muleta is a stick with a red cloth hanging from itmuleta' in the Diccionario de la Real Academia. that is used in the final third ('' tercio de muleta'' or ''de muerte'') of a bullfight. It is different from the cape used by the matador earlier ...

) into bullfighting in around 1726. He was the founding father of a bullfighting dynasty, fundamental for bullfighting history. He was apparently the inventor of several characteristics that started to be used in a key period for bullfighting when the modern on foot system was defined, as the use of the ''muleta'' (cape) and ''estoque'' (sword) to kill the bull face to face. He was the father of Juan Romero, also a bullfighter, and grandfather of

Pedro Romero Pedro Romero Martínez (19 November 1754 – 10 February 1839) was a legendary bullfighter from the Romero family in Ronda, Spain. His grandfather Francisco is credited with advancing the art of using the muleta; his father and two brothers we ...

. During the first years of the 18th century, at Ronda, Francisco Romero, at the end of a bullfight, asked for permission to kill the bull by himself. Up to this moment, only nobles mounted on horses fought bulls. That afternoon, after provoking the bull a couple of times with a linen, Francisco Romero killed the bull with his sword. He soon repeated this process at other bullrings and became an authentic professional, giving birth to the modern style of on foot bullfighting. The use of linens (white ones and hanging from a stick) could have been done before Romero's feat. Those linens evolved step by step towards the modern ''muleta'' or red cape and ''capote'' or purple and yellow cape, but it is very plausible that was Romero the one that popularized his use as ''the'' bullfight essential prop. It seems that the death of a bull by sword was practiced previously, especially by the employees of meat processing factories in Sevilla, but not in a bullring. In any case, if Francisco Romero is not the inventor of the modern bullfight, he is the first matador that became professional and made a living from

bull fighting Bullfighting is a physical contest that involves a bullfighter attempting to subdue, immobilize, or kill a bull, usually according to a set of rules, guidelines, or cultural expectations. There are several variations, including some forms wh ...

. His success implied a fundamental and radical change in the bullfight art: up to him, the main part of the ''corrida'' (bullfight or ''bullrun'') was the piking of the bull from a horse, followed by bullfighting on horse and then some use of cape by helpers on foot, but the horse rider was the protagonist of the bull party. The death of the bull was only the end of the bullfight and it wasn't particularly celebrated. After Francisco Romero, and after some years when both bullfighting styles (on foot and riding a horse) fought for public support, on-horse bullfight started to lose the protagonist role it had and the death of the bull by a lonely man on foot, armed only with a sword, became the most important part of a bullfight.

External links

Francisco Romero
- Encyclopaedia Britannica Spanish bullfighters People from Ronda Sportspeople from the Province of Málaga 1763 deaths 1700 births {{spain-bullfighting-bio-stub