Strong is Sexy...Lady Bullfighters...Movies and Real Life

Found on Wiki. 

I watched a movie on Turner Classic Movies recently about a woman who jumps in the bullfighting ring in place of her twin brother. It was awesome.


It's called Fiesta from 1947 and stars Esther Williams. The movie starts with a famous bullfighter, Mario Sr., being told his wife is in labor. He rushes to her side and is terribly disappointed to be presented with a daughter. But a son is born minutes later... OLE!

It's a classic case of parents wants one thing, child wants another. Mario Jr. just wants to compose music. The father stands in his way at every turn, wanting his son to follow in his footsteps. Crap hits the fan and Mario goes missing, the Morales named branded for cowardism... I'm not going to ruin it for you, but Maria the sister jumps in the ring and fights in place of her brother, not once, but twice!

The movie is dubbed a musical due to a few singing and dancing scenes, but it wasn't that much. I actually fast forwarded all but the incredible dance scene between Mario and Conchita. That was fantastic. 

Terrific movie. It was filmed in 1947. Check your TCM guides for its next showing. 

And while I'm on the subject of lady bullfighters...now, wait a minute...I don't condone the killing of bulls, but one must confess there's something awful ballsy about this...and fascinating.

Book found on Amazon

There was a very famous real-life lady bullfighter named Conchita Cintrón, "The Blonde Goddess." She was part Puerto Rican, born in Chile, and became a bullfighter in Peru. She killed her first bull at the age of 15. Imagine the ruckus that caused! This occurred in 1936! She was badly gored twice, refused medical treatment, and walked back into the ring and killed that horned mofo, both times...


In the late 40s, Spain had laws banning woman matadors in the ring...but there was nothing preventing her from being in the ring on horseback. When she approached the president and requested permission to finish her task aka kill the bull, he denied her. She dismounted anyway, took the sword away from her novillero (the young man assigned to do the dirty work, as she was but a mere woman) and proceeded to stimulate a kill. She was actually arrested for this.

The uproar from the crowd assured she was not charged. Instead, she was gifted with the bull's ears and tail, a high honor.