In 2012, social networks circulated the touching story of a bullfighter who only had one look at a bull to give up bullfighting and become its principled opponent. We checked whether this really happened.

Here is the text that in 2012 spread on all social networks:

“This incredible photo marks the end of the career of matador Alvaro Munero. He fell in remorse in the middle of the fight when he realized that the beast did not want to fight him. In the future, this matador became an avid opponent of bullfighting. (In the photograph, the face of the bull seems to say: I was seriously wounded by the picadors, but I don’t want to fight with you, I don’t want to, even when your comrades wounded me so badly, although I did nothing wrong to them.) Munero talks about that fight like this: “And suddenly I looked at the bull. He stood in front of me and looked at me. He just stood and looked, without making any attempt to attack me. He is the very innocence that all animals have in their eyes, and he looked at me with a plea for help. It was like a cry for justice, and somewhere deep inside me I realized that he was turning to me, as we turn to God in prayer: I don’t want to fight with you, please spare me, because I didn’t do anything bad to you. Kill me if you want, that will be your will, but I don’t want to fight with you, I felt like the worst shit on earth and stopped the fight. vegetarian and began to fight against bullfighting.”

The text was decorated with an eloquent photograph: in it the matador sits and cries, and the bull approaches him and looks sympathetically. Of course, such a story from real life touched many users. The story became a hit, and not only in the Russian-speaking segment of social networks - it was actively disseminated in English and other languages.

After such a boom, people naturally became interested in the personality of the sentimental matador. After all, such a plot deserved at least a feature film.

As it turned out, a matador named Alvaro Munera (with that last name ending) really existed. Born far from Spain, in the Colombian Medellin, he fell in love with bullfighting at the age of four, and at the age of 12 he decided to become a bullfighter. Having barely celebrated his majority, Munera, who by that time had already achieved popularity at home, decided to go overseas, to the homeland of bullfighting. Everything went well: from spring to autumn 1984, he fought 22 successful battles. However, on September 22, in an arena called “Munera” (a cruel twist of fate), a bull caught him on his left leg, lifted him and threw him to the ground, as a result of which the 18-year-old boy broke his fifth vertebra and became paralyzed. Alvaro spent the next five years of his life learning to move his arms and move in a wheelchair. He stopped feeling his legs forever.

It was this tragedy that forced Munera to finally reconsider his views on bullfighting. Yes, indeed, since then he has become a defender of animal rights and is actively fighting against bullfighting, talking about it in every interview. In response, bullfighting fans consider him a traitor. And since then the ex-toreador has not parted with our smaller brothers:

The photo accompanying the viral story does not show Munera at all. Most likely, in the frame we see the famous Spanish bullfighter Francisco Javier Sanchez Var. This version to the AFP portal confirmed and the former manager of bullfighter Cesar Sanchez de Castro, and bullfight photographer Veronica Dominguez, and Alvaro Munera himself.

And the pose in which the matador is in the picture is an example of the so-called displante - a technique in which a person takes a deliberately vulnerable, careless position, thereby showing his superiority over the bull. This photo shows no remorse at all.

Well, the key quotes from the matador’s “confession” were apparently taken from an article in the El Pais newspaper dated July 30, 1995, and its author borrowed them from the story "Inhuman Race" Spanish writer Antonio Gala.

Indeed, former matador Alvaro Munera is not only an opponent of bullfighting, but also convinced vegetarian, however, this does not change the essence of the matter: popular history is largely fictional.