It had been a couple of years since I’d been to a corrida in Tijuana. The last time was when Sebastian Castella fought a couple of years back. I’ve really lost my faith in Tijuana and its ability to stage first class corridas with Matadores worth the hassle of venturing down south for. Tijuana had fallen into a rut of presenting the same o’l retread second and third rate Matadores with the same no name ganaderias. I was thrilled at the news there might even be a season this year in the only remaining Plaza de Toros, La Monumental de Playas de Tijuana, with a different empresa than the Hurtado family. The first cartel was not attractive. Gaston Santos, Fermin Spinola and local boy and distant realative of mine, Pepehillo with bulls from who cares. Nothing of note was expected nor transpired according to the reports. The second corrida however enticed me enough to consider attending. Fernando Ochoa who I consider the finest Mexican senior Matador at the moment. José Mauricio, a second rate trementista who is scratching a living. Finally, Montoyita was to recieve his Alternativa with toros from Julian Hamdan… who the fuck. O.K., I could deal with these no-name toros inorder to witness the Alternativa of a novillero who almost died from a massive goring in is right thigh a year and a half earlier. Its was to be a special afternoon because it was the first corrida I would get to attend with my wife in a long time. She had not attended a corrida in Tijuana in about 4 years and was eager to see a good corrida. So with our Sentri passes in hand, we made the trek to Playas and were sitting having tacos de carne asada and some cold cheves one half hour after leaving our house in Chula Vista. The corrida started on a good note. Montoyita gave a good effort with the toro of his alternativa. The toro, as with the rest of the encierro from Hamdan was not good, sin casta y flojo. He extracted some good tandas, in particular his series of Manoletinas. Montoyita missed his chance at an ear with bad luck with the sword. The new matador had equally bad luck with his second toro who charged less and put Montoyita in a tough place while cutting his charge short and knocking the Matador down. Montoyita ended with an aviso and 3 descabellos. José Mauricio is not a good torero. He relies on his smile to win over the villamelones by covering his bad style, form and pretty boy tremendismo with out right ill trained toreo. Of course the villamelones loved it, including the Juez of Tijuana who gave Mauricio two ears for his flippant performance on the ffith toro of the day. Ochoa on the other hand was very good on the afternoon. With his first, Ochoa gave a workmanship performance capped of with a grand estocada. I will continue to say, Fernando Ochoa is Mexico’s best swordsman/killer. Ochoa’s second broke his leg after being drawn from the picador and was dispatched after not having the strength to lift himself. The judge erroneously refused to let the sobrero be next but rather ordered Mauricio fight next. This of course was done for dramatic effect as Ochoa gestured for a “toro de regalo”. The toros was from Fernando de la Mora and proved to be the best of the day. It blasted out of the toril and did well at the horse. The faena which ensued reminded me why I have such a hard time with dropping my hard earned cash at corridas in Tijuana. Not taking anything away from Ochoa’s performance which I’m the first to say was great. The sobrero, or toro de regalo did not charge from a distance, nor did it have the recorrido a true toro bravo should have. Proving the unprofessionalism which plagues Tijuana, the plaza’s speaker system started to play Mariachi ala Michoacan (Ochoa’s home state) to accompany his faena. The villamelones went nuts. Excuse me but is this not a formal Corrida de Toros or did I get lost and end up in the Circo! As the crowd grew evermore enthralled by the music and the good work Ochoa was doing in the ring, they reacted the best way they know, by throwing cojines into the ruedo. The shenanigans were out of control and as Ochoa lined up for the kill, the predictable and all to often occured. Indulto. I was livid. When the Juez granted the Indulto, my wife and I gathered our stuff and rushed out of the plaza disgusted at what we witnessed. Unprofessionalism, a total disregard for the non existent Reglamento Taurino in Tijuana and a beer fueled crowd of ignorant borachos. Hay Tijuana, what happened to you. You use to be so attractive. Now your just a drunk whore.




