Conchita Cintrón – Your Gal Friday

Today we are talking about a gal who defied a dictator, faced down death, and became a Goddess to all those who saw her in the ring. Bullfighting has been described over the centuries as indefensible and irresistible. It’s with that polarity in mind that we look at the life lessons we can learn from your gal, Conchita Cintrón.

Learn About Conchita in Less Than 2 Minutes

Full Episode

YouTube Version

Show Notes & Extra’s:

• Where Conchita grew up
• Riding horses at the age of 3, bullfighting training at age 11
• Origins of bullfighting – Celtiberians & the Games of Baetica
• Festivals and rituals since 200 BCE

• How Rejoneo, Portuguese style bullfighting, is laid out
• How Spanish and Mexican bullfighting is different
• The question of is there still something to learn from bullfighting if you disagree with the killing of animals for sport/ritual/cultural heritage
• Conchita’s training

• Performing at the age of 12 as a Rejoneo
• Performing at the age of 15 as a Matadora
• 1938 Mexico City performance that wow’d the crowd and the critics
• Conchita’s response to those who didn’t morally agree with bullfighting
• Deaths and injuries

• The bull that nearly killed her
• The struggle to get her feet on the ring in Spain
• Asking Presidente Francisco Franco to finish the bull on foot and being told no.
• What Orson Welles said on Conchita’s legendary 1949 appearance
• Conchita’s marriage, kids, and settling in Portugal

• The movies Conchita was in
• Conchita’s memoirs and her mother’s biography
• Dog breeding Portuguese Pointers and Portuguese Water Dogs

• Awards
• Her heart attack in Lisbon in 2009. She was 86 years old.
• Phoebe & Leah talk about what legacy Conchita left behind
• Leah proposes to think of life as a bull ring, and life’s problems – the bull

SUPPORT US ON PATREON