CUADRILLA

** Muletas are made of red flannel with white, yellow, blue or purple linings that in some cases double the amount of material

make them heavier and less liable to blow around in the wind. They are "fixed" on a beechwood stick, the first half of which is square with notches for the fingertips and the second half circular, ending in a metallic butt with a centimetre-long pointed tip.

Cape and muleta text adapted from "Los Toros Contados con Sencillez" by Fernando Fernández Román

"The faena de muleta is the last chapter before the epilogue of the sword stroke, which is the moment of truth. You have to act according to the bull you're facing. Personally, I like to start with the muleta low down if it's boisterous and got lots of energy in order to try and get it under control, and if it isn't too strong, I help it along by placing the muleta half way up or high up so as to get it engrossed in the cloth and to mark out its path and gradually increase the distance it covers."

"In my approach to bullfighting, I regard as no more than clichés what many people consider to be dogmas, for example using the end of the muleta, crossing or not crossing and shifting your weight onto one leg or placing one leg forward."

"It's bad practice to use the end of the muleta and isn't acceptable if by doing so you make the bull move outwards. But if you make it pass very close, it can't be considered an advantage (for the bullfighter). Besides, the natural position of your hand and arm force you to show it the cloth by forming an angle, otherwise you'd be adopting a forced unnatural position."

"As far as crossing is concerned, I must say there are times when even though you position yourself in line with the horn, the bull charges without any problems; if you tried crossing, you'd get in the way of its natural trajectory and it would knock you over."

"When the bull stalls during a faena, you do have to cross little by little and move over to the opposite horn to find the position and distance at which it will accept the muleta. The obvious conclusion is that ......the bull and the changes it goes through are what call the shots: you shouldn't cross as a matter of course and even less make a habit of cueing it in line with the horn."

"To sum up, the main function of the muleta.........is to prepare the bull to die. With the muleta you merge more with its charge and have to have more courage as it comes at you more slowly, and because there are more chances that it may stall in the middle of the move; but, all in all, with the "cloth" the feeling is stronger, especially when the bull coils around your body until it almost forms a circumference."

Amongst the infinite number of passes or suertes that toreros can perform with the muleta, there are two that merit special treatment as they are regarded as the basics of the toreo that takes place in the final part of the tripartite bullfight. They are those that are executed in series and low down* with either hand and those performed high up* as a finishing touch.

*these terms refer to the position of the arms and muleta in relation to the body

For a long time since the very first bullfighting "manuals" were published, the pase natural was a pass made with the left hand either high up or low down that allowed the bull to exit to the left, .......(in the early days, bullfighters only held the muleta in the left hand), the sword being carried in the right. They rarely held the two together in the same hand as besides impeding movement - it was merely a defensive mechanism- it was frowned upon by aficionados. .... but if we go by the original definition, passes known as naturales can be made with either hand as they are essentially those in which the bullfighter takes on the bull in its terrain cueing it on the horn that corresponds to the hand with the muleta (a description upheld and argued by José María de Cossío).....

However, nowadays, ........naturales are considered to be only passes made with the left hand, when the torero.........cues the bull either facing it head on or sideways on and describes the pass low down, linking the sequences into a tanda or series.

Cueing in the same way, a pass can be made with the right hand, holding the sword and muleta together although some bullfighters, such as José Miguel Arroyo "Joselito", have performed passes "con naturalidad" (in a "natural" way) with the right hand and without the aid of the sword.

To distinguish right-hand passes with the muleta armed with the sword from classic naturales with a "bare" (unarmed) muleta, the word derechazo (a right) was coined, a boxing term that crystallised into bullfighting jargon.

Explanations translated from "Los Toros Contados con Sencillez" by Fernando Fernández Román