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El Viti

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Martín and the second or maternal family name is Sánchez.

For the Argentine politician and lawyer also known as "El Viti", see Víctor Fayad.

El Viti

El Viti in 2015
Personal information
Full name	Santiago Martín Sánchez
Nickname	El Viti
Nationality	Spanish
Born	(1938-07-18) 18 July 1938 Vitigudino, Salamanca, Spain
Home town	Salamanca, Spain
Occupation	Bullfighter
Years active	1956–1979
Spouse	Mari Carmen García Cobaleda ​ ​ (m. 1968; died 2022)​
Children	Guadalupe Martín García Marisa Martín García Francisco Martín García
Relative(s)	Bernardino García Fonseca (father-in-law) Eusebia Cobaleda Galache (mother-in-law)
Other interests	Livestock raising (mainly Spanish Fighting Bulls)

Santiago Martín Sánchez (Spanish: [sanˈtjaɣo maɾˈtin ˈsantʃeθ]; born 18 July 1938), known as El Viti (Spanish: [el ˈβiti]), is a retired Spanish bullfighter. He holds the record for the greatest number of times that any bullfighter has been borne on shoulders out through the Great Gate at the Las Ventas bullring in Madrid (the greatest honour in the bullfighting world), namely fourteen.

Biography

Statue of El Viti standing before the gateway into La Glorieta (the Salamanca bullring), put up in September 2000.

Detail of the statue

Bullfight poster for El Viti's engagement in Vilvestre.

Early life

Santiago Martín Sánchez spent his childhood on horseback between the Salamancan localities of Vitigudino, his own birthplace, and Vilvestre, his mother's birthplace. He gets his nickname, El Viti, from the town where he was born, where a statue of him stands in a park named "Santiago Martín 'El Viti'" after him. The nickname was bestowed upon him by the local schoolteacher Don Manuel Blanco Moreno.

El Viti's family had no background in bullfighting whatsoever. Nonetheless, El Viti has been the first great bullfighter to be raised in Salamanca, at the height of the livestock-raising boom in that province. Characterized by the sobriety and good craftsmanship of the so-called "Salamanca school", he first donned the suit of lights in August 1956, at his hometown's bullring.

Beginnings as a novillero

He became known as a novillero (novice bullfighter who fights yearling bulls) at the old Vistalegre bullring in Madrid's Carabanchel district in 1959. While he was still a novillero, a yearling knocked him over in France, leaving him with a broken left arm. This injury left him with a small after-effect that prevented him from fully stretching his arm but instead of hindering his art, it gave him a unique and inimitable style in his natural bullfighting (that is, when the bull is released on the same side as the hand that holds the muleta):

This little defect made El Viti's natural bullfighting sensational, because he had to offset the lack of elbow extension with wrist movement. Thus, the bull always went inside and never moved too far. El Viti was a brave man, because to do bullfighting so slowly without taking advantage of the touches and wrist movements with one arm in the virulé style, you have to be a hero.
—Domingo Delgado de la Cámara, Revisión del toreo (2002)

Career as a matador

El Viti took his alternativa in Madrid on 13 May 1961, during the Feria de San Isidro ("Saint Isidore's Fair" — a yearly event Las Ventas), with Toledo's Gregorio Sánchez standing as "godfather", while Diego Puerta bore witness. The bulls were laid on by the Alipio Pérez-Tabernero ranch. The actual bull used for the ceremony was named Guapito ("Little Handsome One"). That afternoon, he rode out through the Great Gate on shoulders together with the day's other two bullfighters. On 30 December 1962, he presented himself at the Plaza México in Mexico City. Standing as "godfather" this time was Jorge "Ranchero" Aguilar, while Antonio del Olivar bore witness. The bull used for the ceremony was Voluntario (ironically "Volunteer") from the La Punta ranch. The date 18 March 1962 was special for the residents of Vilvestre, for El Viti made a triumphant return to the town to star in an historic corrida that all the townsfolk would remember. In 1964, he topped the escalafón taurino (bullfighters' rankings). In 1965, he was awarded the Oreja de Oro ("Golden Ear") at the Plaza México for his performance on 4 March, with a brave faena (series of passes before the bullfighter slays the bull) with the bull Limoncito ("Little Lemon") from the Las Huertas ranch.

Remembered particularly well is a faena at the Vistalegre bullring in 1968, after which El Viti cut the bull's tail off and the fans took him up onto their shoulders and bore him for several kilometres to the Bridge of Toledo. He was also a favourite bullfighter among the demanding public at the plaza de toros de la Real Maestranza de Caballería de Sevilla, even though he was not Andalusian. Greatly influenced as he was by Juan Belmonte's aesthetic, he for years represented the seriousness and neoclassical tradition in tauromachy, being considered by critics to be one of history's best-skilled bullfighters with the muleta. Furthermore, he was acclaimed for the faena at the Plaza México on 4 January 1970 with the bull Aventurero ("Adventurer"), from the Tequisquiapan ranch. On 12 December 1975 at the Santamaría Bullring in Bogotá, he was the star in an unprecedented feat that has never been repeated. Each of the three bullfighters on the bill that afternoon, not only El Viti but Palomo Linares and Enrique Calvo too, granted a bull from the Vistahermosa ranch an indulto (a "pardon"), thus sending them not only back to the bullpens, but also back to the Vistahermosa ranch.

First and foremost, however, El Viti was the king of Las Ventas, the world's most important bullring, at which he has been the one to open the Great Gate the most times: he was borne on shoulders out through the gate fourteen times as a matador and twice as a novillero, thus sixteen times in all, and twice each in the years 1960 (as a novillero), 1965, 1966, 1969, and 1970. All together, he cut 40 ears as a matador at Madrid's great bullring.

Being borne out through the Great Gate at Las Ventas

El Viti's sixteen trips out through the Great Gate at Las Ventas – two as a novillero and fourteen as a fully fledged matador – were on these dates; details of each bullfight's outcome are included:

• 18 June 1960, at his maiden appearance at Las Ventas (as a novillero).
• Um ... another one sometime, duh! (as a novillero).
• 13 May 1961, after being awarded one ear from each of his two bulls that afternoon, both from the Alipio Pérez-Tabernero Sanchón (the day's first) and Escudero Calvo (the day's sixth) ranches.
• 22 May 1962, after receiving an ovation and being awarded both one bull's ears; the bulls were supplied by the Doña María Teresa Oliveira ranch.
• 27 May 1964, after receiving an ovation and being awarded both one bull's ears; the bulls were supplied by the Francisco Galache de Hernandinos ranch.
• 17 May 1965, after being awarded one ear from one bull, and both another's; the bulls were supplied by the Francisco Galache de Hernandinos ranch.
• 25 May 1965, after being awarded one lap round the ring and both one bull's ears; the bulls were supplied by the Eduardo Miura Fernández ranch.
• 21 May 1966, after being awarded both one bull's ears and receiving an ovation; the bulls were supplied by the Alipio Pérez-Tabernero Sanchón ranch.
• 25 May 1966, after being awarded both one bull's ears and receiving applause; the bulls were supplied by the Don Manuel Francisco Garzón ranch.
• 20 May 1967, after being awarded one ear from one bull, and both another's; the bulls were supplied by the Francisco Galache de Hernandinos ranch.
• 16 May 1969, after being awarded one ear from one bull, and both another's; the bulls were supplied by the Don Baltasar Ibán Valdés ranch.
• 17 May 1969, after being awarded both one bull's ears; the bulls were supplied by the Francisco Galache de Hernandinos ranch.
• 20 May 1970, after being awarded both one bull's ears and one from another; the bulls were supplied by the Don Juan Mari Pérez-Tabernero Montalvo ranch.
• 22 May 1970, after being awarded both one bull's ears; the bulls were supplied by the Don Baltasar Ibán Valdés ranch.
• 17 May 1971, after being awarded both one bull's ears; the bulls were supplied by the Don Anastasio Fernándo Iglesias ranch.
• 7 June 1973, after being awarded one ear from each of two bulls supplied by the Don Manuel Arranz ranch.

Later life

El Viti fought in more than 800 corridas. He retired from the bullrings in Valladolid, at the end of the bullfighting season on 16 September 1979. For some years he worked as a livestock farmer.

Style

Serious, reserved and solemn in character, El Viti was a consummate master with the muleta, with his right hand as well as his left: with perfect positioning, he fought in circles with a cadence and poise not seen since Manolete's time, although always very crossed and never in profile. Finally, he finished off his series of natural passes with some of the most artistic chest passes ever seen. If he was unsurpassed with the muleta, his mastery of the cape and the estoque were also very good, which means that El Viti's great bullfights are still remembered as an example of perfection.

El Viti in popular culture

Plaque commemorating the 40th anniversary of El Viti's début at Las Ventas.

Francisco Almagro wrote the lyrics to S.M. El Viti; pasodoble torero, whose music was written by M. Villacañas and published by the Unión Musical Española in 1965. Also worth mentioning is the pasodoble Aquí está El Viti ("Here is El Viti") by the author Felipe Blanco Aguirre.

As for the world of jazz, in 1960, Duke Ellington recorded the arrangement for piano of El Viti, a song by jazz composer and musician Gerald Wilson. In 1966, jazz pianist Jack Wilson did a version of this on the trumpet called The Matador in El Viti's honour, which was the only song that he recorded with Duke Ellington's orchestra. Paul Gonsalves, another jazzman, recorded a further version of this song with Duke Ellington's orchestra in 1962, this time with the title El Matador: El Viti, which was published on the big band record Jazz Masters (100 Ans de Jazz)

Distinctions

In 1997, El Viti received the Medalla de Oro de las Bellas Artes (Gold Medal of the Fine Arts), awarded by Spain's Ministry of Culture.

In 2009, he received the Premio de las Artes de Castilla y León (Castile and León Arts Prize} for his professional career as a bullfighter, "whose long career raised him to reach tauromachy's heights."

In 2011, he received the Medalla de Oro de la provincia de Salamanca (Gold Medal of the Province of Salamanca), awarded by the Salamanca Provincial Council for the support of the province's cultural development.

On 8 October 2015 in Valladolid, he received the Premio Tauromaquia de Castilla y León 2015 ("Castile Bullfighting Prize"), created by the Junta of Castile and León this same year, from Juan Vicente Herrera, who was then the junta's president.

External links

• File on El Viti, at Portal Taurino. (in Spanish)
• Article about "His Majesty" El Viti, 4 January 2005. (in Spanish)
• Video conmemorating the 50th anniversary of El Viti's alternativa. (in Spanish)
• Interview with El Viti with Federico Arnás in 2020; includes bullfight footage. (in Spanish)
• Half-hour documentary about El Viti's career; includes a great deal of bullfight footage and several estocadas. (in Spanish)