Category Archives: Miura

The run up to Pamplona…

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Me, right, running with the bulls in Pamplona. (Look for the horn behind the head of the man falling to my right.)

As I dig out my running clothes for the 320th annual running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, I am pleased to see the chapter where I described running there in 2009 in my book, Into The Arena: The World Of The Spanish Bullfight, serialised in The Independent On Sunday today. This year, on the 50th anniverary of Ernest Hemingway’s death, I go to meet with John Hemingway, grandson of the man who made the town the by-word for “grace under pressure” and drunken revelry with bulls attached.

Alexander Fiske-Harrison: ‘How I risked my life in the Pamplona bull run’

Ernest Hemingway made the Pamplona bull run famous. To mark the 50th anniversary of his death, the acclaimed British writer Alexander Fiske-Harrison relives the day he ran with Pamplona’s bulls…

Read on here..

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/alexander-fiskeharrison-how-i-risked-my-life-in-the-pamplona-bull-run-2301797.html

Or just buy the book here…

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Into-Arena-World-Spanish-Bullfight/dp/1846683351/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1302790004&sr=8-1

An Englishman in Miura country

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Author with a Miura (Photo: Pepe Sánchez)

As I train with my Maestro, to kill a single bull so I can write the most complete book on bullfighting possible (although abandoning my reputation for neutrality as a writer by getting into the arena) remarkable things happen. It is well known in the bullfighting world that no photography is allowed in the unique rectangular ‘plaza’ of Zahariche, the ranch where the world famous Miura bulls are bred, but that rule was broken for a demonstration for a select group of guests – including my friend Enrique Moreno de la Cova who breeds the equally historic Saltillo bulls. This piece of picture reportage by the photographer Pepe Sánchez can be found in the article ‘An Englishman in Zahariche’ on the website of Spain’s most popular bullfighting programme, Toros para Todos, ‘Bulls for All’, to see it click here. The first images are of Pepe Luis Vázquez, a notable former matador and son of an even greater one. Then comes my Maestro, Eduardo Dávila Miura, a recently retired matador and nephew of the house of Miura. Then the aficionado práctico Pepe González Barba. Followed by myself.

Here is what Hemingway had to say about Miura back in the 1930s.

“These bulls must be fought and killed as rapidly as possible with the minimum of exposure by the man, for they learn more rapidly than the fight ordinarily progresses and become exaggeratedly difficult to work with and kill.

Bulls of this sort are the old caste of fighting bulls raised by the sons of Don Eduardo Miura of Sevilla”

Two of the sons of those sons are below, and their daughter’s son as well…

Miuras – Eduardo Miura, AFH, Antonio Miura, and the matador Eduardo Dávila Miura in the finca ‘Zahariche’ in 2010 (Photo: Lucy Gould)