Feria de Nîmes: Andrés Roca Rey, taking power and staying there

Depuis son alternative prise au cours de la feria des Vendanges nîmois en 2015, à aucun moment le maestro n’a montré un appétit totalement satisfait. Midi Libre – GIACOMO ITALIANO

The name alone of Andrés Roca Rey is now generating better sales at the arenas. And the story is not ready to end.

For a long time, among the Roca Reys, during meals or celebrations bringing together the majority of family members, long discussions on the decline in the birth rate in Korea have rarely dragged on. of the South or on the proliferation of wild cats in Burgundy. Really ? The toros, raised or fought, have more opportunities to liven up conversations when an abundant ceviche fills the plates. Nothing could be more normal.

Her first muleta at 7 years old

And how could little Andrés have escaped this atmosphere? With a great-grandfather who was a ganadero from the beginning of the 20th century, a grandfather who was an administrator of the beautiful arenas of Acho , in Lima, for many years, uncles who were both breeders and entrepreneurs or rejoneador, a father who was a great aficionado and an older brother who was a matador, it was difficult to escape the epidemic. And, logically, it was as high as three apples that he picked up his first muleta, at the age of 7, then participated at the start of winter 2007, in the Peruvian capital, at a festival, surrounded by several maestros of solid reputation. The story began and got going.

For Andrés Roca Rey, a boy of temperament, there is no question of making up the numbers. Quickly, it was in Spain that events took a serious turn. To evoke his native Peru, it is under the apodo "El Andi" that he took his first steps as a novillero (and today “El condor” is the name that is sometimes reserved for him). With first successes on the clock. From the outset, the power appeared. The one shown in front of the novillos then the adult toros, and the one that he was hungry and thirsty to take among the bullfighters alongside whom he paraded on the paseos. Since his alternative taken during the Feria des Vendanges Nîmes in 2015, at no time has the maestro shown a completely satisfied appetite. Neither success nor ears.

Mastery and transmission

With a repertoire that is both fundamental and colorful, an adaptation to all types of adversaries, a mastery in the architecture of appropriate faenas, an undeniable sense of transmission with the public aficionado and the permanent desire to be the one in the lead, Andrés Roca Rey intends to settle in the first position. Knowing that, based on his name alone on the poster, he can make it possible to achieve the best entries into the arenas (can we still consider José Tomás active, having only participated in less than 10 years ;rsquo;about twenty bullfights ?), he has the status of "figura".

For this start of the season, and with an annoyance opposing him to Daniel Luque, confusion that the aficionado would like to see die out in order to become passionate about the competition between the two maestros, he advanced important pawns. Three severed ears in April in Seville, and signs of "no hay billetes" already clinched for its contracts of May 24 and June 7 in Madrid, set the tone. And give a glimpse of demonstrations of the highest level coming from a bullfighter whose resources are apparently far from exhausted.