GODDESS OF THE BULLRING

Conchita Cintron's mother tells the story of her daughter whose love for horses led to an ambition to fight bulls in every important bullring in the world -- and which was achieved. Born near Lima, Conchita was very young when she exchanged her pony for a ""real horse"", when she won the interest of Dom Ruy whose riding lessons soon turned into lessons in rejoneo as a game which turned into reality with Conchita's first encounter with a young bull, then with the ""wrong bull"" and finally when she proved herself with the ""bull of terror"". To be a rejoneadora fighting on horseback was not enough -- Conchita won her wish to fight on foot and become a torera, learning to kill in a slaughter house, and, when barely 16, facing her first bull in combat in Mexico's important bullring. Her contracts led to Portugal- where bulls are not allowed to be killed; to Spain- where she could not fight on foot; to Paris, and many returns to Peru, South America and Mexico, always living and training for her career. She knew ecstasy- and fear- with the toros bravos, the adulation of aficionadas, and finally, when she met Francisco, broke away from Dom Ruy's domination, to marry. If this is a doting biography it is also unusual -- with its Svengali touches, (the parents turning over their daughter to the complete control of Dom Ruy), its unique profession, and the foreign, almost incomprehensible world of tauromachy. The audience for bullfighting has been established- (the experts may quarrel with Senora Cintron's lavish praise for her daughter's feats) but this may also have its appeal through sheer curiosity.