UNSUNG HEROES - EPISODE 5: MANOLETE (Spain)

Manolete (1917-1947) - El Califa

Skinny as a rail, with a jug-eared, comical face, Manolete was nevertheless the darling and pride of the famished people of Spain, under Franco’s yoke. On August 28, 1947, in the arena at Linares, the inventor of modern bullfighting was gored in the thigh by the bull Islero. Manolete yielded to a hemorrhage of the femoral artery the next day. At the age of thirty, one of the most emblematic, charismatic, and christic figures of post-war Spain had disappeared.

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