Bullfighter’s Return Stuns a Hardened Sport
Friday, March 2, 2012 at 12:57PM from The New York Times
MADRID — Five months after surviving a horrifying goring, Juan José Padilla, one of Spain’s leading bullfighters, wears a patch over his left eye and cannot chew any food, even after a series of surgeries to reconstruct part of his face.
But his recovery is startling for a man who was last seen in images shown around the world stumbling out of a bullring, holding his bloodied face and screaming, “I can’t see!” as his shocked fans looked on.
Mr. Padilla will take a further step on Sunday, when he will re-enter the ring in the western town of Olivenza, making a comeback at a speed that has stunned the rest of the bullfighting profession.
“Sunday will feel like a dream come true, after some very hard months, and I’m fully aware that nobody thought I would be back now,” he said.
Last Oct. 7, Mr. Padilla was gored after slipping on the sand of Saragossa’s bullring. The bull’s horn pierced the fighter’s lower jaw and came out through his left eye socket.
Since his hospitalization, Mr. Padilla says he has spent his time between medical visits training hard, adding that he had killed as many as 10 bulls on private farms in preparation for his return.
Still, fighting with an eye patch will be a challenge at this level of bullfighting, making it particularly dangerous for Mr. Padilla whenever the bull brushes past him on his blind left side.
Despite his injuries, Mr. Padilla, 38, said that he had been encouraged by his wife and two children, although he acknowledged that his comeback did create “some divisions” within his family.
“My parents couldn’t understand why I would want to return,” he said.
Mr. Padilla’s decision comes amid an intense debate in Spain over bullfighting, attacked as a barbaric ritual by animal rights activists but defended by its supporters as a central component of Spanish culture.
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