Ignacio Sánchez Mejías

Ignacio Sánchez Mejías (Seville, June 6, 1891-Madrid, August 13, 1934) was a Spanish bullfighter. Brother-in-law of the legendary bullfighter Joselito "El Gallo", his figure far transcended the bullfighting field, since he was also a fan of literature and a writer, which made him one of the most popular characters in Spanish culture during the first third. of the XX century. When he died as a result of being gored, he was honored by several poets of the generation of '27, in particular by Federico García Lorca in his Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías.

Biography

Beginnings

He was born in Seville, into a wealthy family, where his father worked as a doctor. As a teenager he ran away from home in search of adventure, stowing away on a ship headed to Mexico. That adventurous desire made him embrace the bullfighting profession.

In the 1910s he was part of the gang of José Gómez "Joselito", his childhood friend, with whom he had become related in 1915 when he married Dolores, sister of the great Sevillian right-hander. In the following three years he established himself in Joselito's group as the best Spanish banderillero, with the permission of his brother-in-law Joselito, an exceptional rehiletero. Bullfighting historians agree that Joselito's technique is the most perfect ever known and the best bullfighter of the old school. And in that school Ignacio Sánchez Mejías was trained as a bullfighter.

Bullfighter

In 1919 he took the alternative in Barcelona from the hands of Joselito and with Juan Belmonte as witness. He confirmed it in Madrid the following year. In 1920, alternating in a one-on-one with Joselito in Talavera de la Reina, he witnessed the death of his brother-in-law in a fight with the Bailaor bull. A photograph of Sánchez Mejías watching over Joselito is preserved:

Ignatius's photograph overwhelmed by pain, holding his face open with one hand while with the other caress the head of Joselito yacente, quiet already in his glory, is perhaps the most exciting of the history of the Tauromaquia.

«Ignacio Sánchez Mejías, the 27th bullfighter», The World3 May 1998.

The success of his bullfighting was not based on his technique or his style, and even less on competing with those considered the best bullfighters in history (Joselito and Belmonte), but above all on his reckless displays: bullfighting on his knees, receiving sitting on the stirrup, flags on the inside, etc. In the mid-1920s, being a bullfighting figure, he got tired of bulls, retired and dedicated himself to other activities. Extraordinarily versatile, Sánchez Mejías was also a film actor, polo player, motorist and playwright.

Friend of poets

In the 1928-1929 academic year he enrolled at the "La Rábida" Secondary Education Institute in Huelva, at the age of thirty-eight, to finish his Bachelor's degree studies. On May 25, 1928, he was elected 12th president of Real Betis Balompié, remaining in office until September 2, 1929. He also had an important role as a patron of what would later be known as the generation of '27, some of whose Members were true bullfighting fans and bullfighting experts. The first time its members met (Federico García Lorca, Gerardo Diego, Dámaso Alonso, Luis Cernuda, among others), a meeting held at the Ateneo de Sevilla in 1927 and which gave its name to the generation, was at the initiative of Sánchez Mejías to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Góngora's death.

Death

In 1934, Sánchez Mejías decided to reappear in the squares at the same time as Juan Belmonte. On August 11, he replaced Domingo Ortega in Manzanares (Ciudad Real); The bull named Granadino, small, gentle and fine, gave him a big goring on the right thigh when he began the muleta task sitting in the stirrup, one of the risky attacks that he often practiced. He did not allow himself to be operated on in the modest Manzanares infirmary, where local doctor Fidel Cascón Arroyo offered to intervene, and he asked to return to Madrid, but the ambulance took several hours to arrive. Two days later, gangrene broke out. He died in Madrid, in Dr. Crespo's sanatorium (located on the corner of Goya Street and Dr. Esquerdo Street) on the morning of August 13. The myth says that he sought death:

Sanchez Mejías, tired of living and seeing the world, reappeared to die in the asses of a bull. He had no other kind of death, and he had the one he wanted.

Delgado House Sunday, Review of the toreo2002, p. 255.

When Sánchez Mejías died, his figure was praised by Miguel Hernández, Rafael Alberti – who did the Paseíllo in his group – and other poets of the generation of '27, including García Lorca, whose Crying for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías it is for many the best elegy in Spanish since the Coplas of Jorge Manrique.^{[ citation required]}

His role as an intellectual and the enormous appreciation that the writers of '27 gave him made his impact on the history of bullfighting much greater than his strict meaning as a bullfighter:

Sánchez Mejías was not an artist. Not a smart bullfighter either. The alardes of value were the expression of his tauromaquia. [...] His figure exceeded the taurino sphere to be one of the great characters in the cultural field of Spain in the antewar period.

Delgado House Sunday, Review of the toreo2002, p. 255.

Theatrical production

• Sinrazon, toy in three acts and prose, first staged on March 24, 1928 at the Tetro Calderón in Madrid.
• Zaya, comedy in three acts and prose, first staged on August 8, 1928 at the Teatro Pereda de Santander.
• No more or less, he commits in three acts and prose, never represented or edited in the author's life.
• Soledad, comedy in more than one act, never represented or edited in the author's life.

The four texts are included in Ignacio Sánchez Mejias - Teatro, edited by Coleccion Austral, edition of Antonio Gallego Morell, 1988.

Legacy

The Valencian sculptor Mariano Benlliure included him among the figures that carry the coffin of Joselito "El Gallo", in the mausoleum that can be seen in the San Fernando cemetery in Seville since 1926. Curiously, Ignacio Sánchez Mejías rests next to said monumental work.

Sánchez Mejías has a Primary Education school with his name, the C.E.I.P. Ignacio Sánchez Mejías, located in Seville, in addition to having a street in the Real de la Feria de Sevilla.

In 2008, the production company La Claqueta Metálica released the documentary Ignacio Sánchez Mejías. Beyond bullfighting, directed by José Francisco Ortuño, which focuses on the figure of the bullfighter, but above all approaching his multiple facets as a multifaceted character: playwright, air pilot, polo player, president of the Red Cross and Real Betis Balompié.

In 2018, a museum in his memory was inaugurated in Manzanares.