A GUIDEPOST REPRINT: “San Isidro Opens With Eloquence”, 21 MAY 1982

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27 May, 2019
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A GUIDEPOST REPRINT: “San Isidro Opens With Eloquence”, 21 MAY 1982

Guidepost cover, 21 May 1982

A GUIDEPOST Reprint
21 May 1982

 

 

Ed’s note:
For those interested in the
SAN ISIDRO BULLFIGHT SEASON 2019
at Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas
please see bottom of the reprint

 

 

San Isidro opens with eloquence
21 May 1982

By Mary Foran

 

With opening words from the elegant and almost unintellibly literate Francisco Umbral, El Pais columnist and self-ordained “public scandal,” the Festivals of San Isidro made May in Madrid a memorable and musically delightful experience.

Calling on an interminable list of Madrileños to join in the festivities planned by the Madrid City Hall, with blessings from the tender Tierno Galvan, mayor and host for the week-long fiestas, Francisco Umbral delighted the crowd with his assonant, consonant, alliterative and onomatopoeic prose lauding Madrid for its beauty and dignified decrepitude.

“Madrid” boomed Umbral over the heads of the Plaza Mayor crowd, “is the homeland of the Spanish middle classes, that of Machado, that which the poet said, with its rubble and refuse, its breakwater; Madrid not centralist, but the pilot-city of a distributed and ordered lifestyle, a unionist Madrid, thoughtful, which passes diagonally around the circumferences of power, palaces, Castellana, the barrios del Marques, Museum and Palace, the Prado and Liria – how it has saved everything this Madrid, of which the poet said: it is the city where all the mothers make their children’s overcoats.

Madrid Mayor Tierno Galvan and columnist Francisco Umbral opening the San Isidro festivals. Photo: Bernardo Perez

“Although today their overcoats be store-bought, juvenile section, there is a rumor that home-appliances, sewing machines, perhaps of knitted wear, according to the new latin-night euphemisms, a rumor of busy women, old maids and assistants, inestimable mothers; and this rumor of the people must be protected, not exasperated, because the people are conscious of their history…”

“Madrid signs in the plazas, makes phrases, climbs up its Alfosian street lamps; it knows what it can do, if it takes a notion to, a revolution on foot so that everything is near; and this makes it wise, comic, hard-working, pedestrian, tenant of Sol of La Corrala. Don’t abuse Madrid, don’t go too far, nor dig too deep in the shops where they border the toreros’ ”suits of lights”.

“Respect this city, and enter with ease.”

So the Festival of San Isidro opened, with music, dances and gastronomy for every taste, showing that old Madrid traditions are still very much alive in this modern, cosmopolitan pueblo on the Manzanares.

 

 

FERIA DE SAN ISIDRO 2019,
PLAZA DE TOROS DE LAS VENTAS

 

For the Month of May

Tuesday the 14th: Bullls from La Quinta for Rubén Pinar, Javier Cortés and Thomas Dufau

Wednesday 15th: Bulls from Fuente Ymbro for Finito de Córdoba, Diego Urdiales and Miguel Ángel Perera

The 16th: Bulls from Valdefresno for David Galván, Juan Ortega and Joaquín Galdós

The 17th: Bulls from Tajo y la Reina for Joselito Adame, Román and Álvaro Lorenzo

18th: Bulls from Montalvo for Ginés Marín, Luis David Adame and Pablo Aguado

19th: Bulls from Bohórquez for Andy Cartagena, Sergio Galán and Andrés Romero

20th: Bulls from Conde de Mayalde for Rafael González, Marcos and Fernando Plaza

21st: Bulls from Pilar for Juan del Álamo, José Garrido and Gonzalo Caballero

22nd: Bulls from Parladé for El Cid, López Simón and Roca Rey

23rd: Bulls from Jandilla for Sebastián Castella, Emilio de Justo and Ángel Téllez

24th: Bulls from Juan Pedro Domecq for El Juli, Paco Ureña and David de Miranda

25th: Bulls from Pedraza de Yeltes for Octavio Chacón, Javier Cortés and Juan Leal

26th: Bulls from Los Espartales for Martín Burgos, Rui Fernades, Joao Moura, Joao Telles, Roberto Armendáriz and Pérez Langa

27th: Novillos from  La Quinta for Ángel Jiménez, El Galo and Francisco de Manuel

28th: Bulls from José Escolar para Fernando Robleño, Gómez del Pilar and Ángel Sánchez

29th: Bulls from Victorino Martín for Octavio Chacón, Daniel Luque and Emilio de Justo

30th: Bulls from Adolfo Martín for Manuel Escribano, Román and Roca Rey

31st: Bulls from Alcurrucén for David Mora, Paco Ureña and Álvaro Lorenzo

–

For the month of June

Saturday,  1st of June: Bulls from Zalduendo for Antonio Ferrera, Curro Díaz and Luis David

Sunday the 2nd: Bulls from Guiomar Cortés de Moura for Diego Ventura, Leonardo Hernández and Juan Manuel Munera

3rd: Novillos from Fuente Ymbro for Juanito, Antonio Grande and Diego San Román

4th: Bulls from Las Ramblas for Morenito de Aranda, Juan del Álamo and Tomás Campos

5th: Bulls from Garcigrande for Sebastián Castella, Álvaro Lorenzo and Ginés Marín

The 6th: Bulls from Puerto de San Lorenzo for Antonio Ferrera, Miguel Ángel Perera and López Simón

7th: Bulls from Alcurrucén for Antonio Ferrera, Diego Urdiales and Ginés Marín

8th: Bulls from Capea for Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza and Lea Vicens, mano a mano

9th: Bulls from Baltasar Ibán for Curro Díaz, Emilio de Justo and Pepe Moral

10th: Bulls from Ventorrillo for Eugenio de Mora, Sebastián Ritter and Francisco José Espada

11th: Bulls from Valdellán for Fernando Robleño, Iván Vicente and Cristian Escribano

12th (Corrida de Beneficencia): Bulls from Los Espartales y Cuvillo for Ventura, El Juli and Urdiales

13th: Toros de Cuadri for Rafaelillo, López Chaves y Octavio Chacón

14th: Bulls from Fuente Ymbro for Morenito de Aranda, Pepe Moral and José Garrido

15th (Corrida de la Cultura): Bulls from Victoriano del Río for Sebastián Castella, Paco Ureña and Roca Rey

Sunday the 16th (Corrida de la Prensa): Bulls from Santiago Domecq for El Fandi, López Simón and Pablo Aguado