La Barba (The beard) is what the citizens of Seville called the world's only whiskered bullfighter, Shel Silverstein. Gags about La Barba of Seville would seem in order, but these would tend to tarnish the glamor and dignity of the noble corrida tradition, so we will refrain. Before matching wits with el toro, Shel trained for a month at the ranch of Count Maza, just outside Seville. His instructors were Tito Palacios and John Short, both bullfighters of note, the latter a compatriot of Silverstein's. After mastering such intricate passes as the veronica, the chicuelina and the goanera, Shel donned the resplendent suit of lights, strode majestically through the gates of fear and faced the bull in the formal dance of death. "After that bout, I was known as El Corazón del Pollo," Shel says, insisting that it means The Lion-Hearted even when we opened our Spanish dictionary and showed him that pollo means "chicken." Did Shel kill the bull? "No," he admits, "but on the other hand, the bull didn't kill me. I still have a slight scar on the, uh, hip, though, where his horn grazed me." !Olé!
"That bull you see there is a coward, senor — he has been tried in a tienta and found to have no courage. He shall never know the exciltement of the corrida — he shall never see the flash of the cape, hear the roar of the crowd, feel the honor of dying gloriously and bravely. No, senor, this bull must spend his entire cowardly life here among the cows."
"Nothing fancy, now..."
"Not quite..."
Professional bullfighters John Short and Tito Palacios help Shel into the traje de luces, or suit of lights.
"Now watch him closely — see how he favors his right hand — now he's doing a revolera — best thing for a revolera is to stop short and catch him in the middle of his swirl — now he's doing a righthanded round pass. If you can — fake him off to the left and then bring your horns up fast and to the right and pow! Now watch this — he's trying a desplante. This is really fun. You wait until he's kneeling directly in front of you and then..."
"That's my proposition, kid... five hundred fast bucks and all you got to do is go out there and take a dive..."
The moment of truth: El Corazón del Pollo and a too-brave bull bring high drama to la fiesta brava.
"Who you for?"
"Feel no sympathy for the bull, senor — he was born to die in this moment of truth. He was bred for this moment — it is his purpose, his tradition, his destiny to die on the sword of the torero... of course he doesn't realize this..."
"Well for goodness' sake, what on earth do I want with those filthy old bull's ears!"
