I feel obligated to offer the audience a good fight, and I have a responsibility to entertain the fans. But I also can't make the mistake of underestimating that bull. I would be stupid if I did. No matter how well prepared I am for a bullfight, I never know what will happen in the ring. I don't know how the bull will react and whether he'll give me an opportunity to display my skills. Perhaps he'll be too stubborn for that. And then there's also the wind that makes me afraid. It's a torero's greatest enemy.
A torero lives with the knowledge that he can die at any moment and in any fight. But a torero is also a person with an invincible will. He doesn't want to be injured, but he is proud of having survived an injury.
I have been injured 37 times, in seven cases seriously. I've already had a cornada (horn-wound) at stomach level. A bull's horn once struck me in the neck, just below the larynx. And once I was hit in the upper leg, where he damaged the femoral artery and the saphenous vein. Injuries are my medals. The last injury is my worst cornada. Now I've won the gold.
