Эрнест Хемингуэй - Death in the afternoon

He has the ability in languages, the cold courage and the ability to command of the typical soldier of fortune, he is a charming companion, one of the best story tellers I have ever heard, has enormous and omnivorous curiosity about everything but gets his information through the eye and ear and reads only The Saturday Evening Post, which he goes through from cover to cover each week, usually finishing it in about three days and then having four bad days of waiting for the next number. He is a very hard master to those who work for him, yet commands amazing loyalty. He speaks Spanish not only perfectly but with the accent of whatever place he may be; he does all his own business and is very proud of his business judgment, which is terrible. He believes in himself as confidently as an opera singer does but he is not conceited.

I have purposely written nothing about his life, since having led it at great peril and in an utterly fantastic manner he would seem to be entitled to whatever profits the story of it might bring. At one time and another I have heard the whole story from the beginning through the fall of 1931 and I have been present while certain chapters of it were happening and it is better than any picaresque novel you ever read. Any man's life, told truly, is a novel, but the bullfighter's life has an order in the tragedy of its progression which tends to formalize the story into a groove. Sidney's life has escaped this and he has truly lived three lives, one Mexican, one Spanish, and one American, in a way that is unbelievable. The story of those lives belongs to him and I will not tell it to you. But I can tell you truly, all question of race and nationality aside, that with the cape he is a great and fine artist and no history of bullfighting that is ever written can be complete unless it gives him the space he is entitled to.

Bullfights every Sunday in Mexico City, Lima, Peru, and Caracas, Venezuela.

On January 1st there is always a fight at San Luis de Potosi in Mexico.

In the states of Tampico, Vera Cruz, Torreon, Puebla, Leon, Zacatecas, Ciudad Juarez, and Monterey occasional fights will be given on Sundays.

In Casablanca in Spanish Morocco one or more bullfights are given on Sundays in January.

Valencia, Maracay, and Maracaibo in Venezuela give occasional fights on Sundays.

Cartagena de Indias in Colombia also usually has fights in January.

Bullfights every Sunday in Mexico City, Lima, and Caracas, and occasionally a benefit fight announced for a week day in Mexico City.

Formal fights or novilladas on Sundays in San Luis de Potosi, Ciudad Juarez, Puebla, Torreon, Monterey, Aguas Calientes, Tampico, Leon, Zacatecas in Mexico, and fights in Bogota, Baranquilla, and Panama in Central America.

Novilladas start in Madrid and Barcelona if the weather is favorable on Sundays and usually in Valencia.

Bullfights every Sunday in Mexico City and Caracas (Venezuela). Occasionally fights will be given in Malaga, Barcelona, and Valencia in March and there is always a fight at Castellon de la Plana for the fiestas of the Magdalena, which you may look up in any religious calendar.

Novilladas are usually given, weather permitting, every Sunday in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Zaragoza, and on one or two Sundays in Bilbao.

Bullfights on Easter Sunday at Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, Zaragoza, Malaga, Murcia, Granada.

On the Monday after Easter the first subscription fight starts in Madrid.

The feria at Sevilla starts within a week after Easter and has three fights on successive days.

25th, feria at Lorca.

29th, feria at Jerez de la Frontera.

Bullfights each Sunday after Easter in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, and novilladas on Sundays in Zaragoza, Bilbao, and usually at the minor rings of Vista Alegre and Tetuan de las Victorias in Madrid. If you go to either one be careful not to have your pocket picked.

If Easter is early and Corpus Christi comes in May there will be bullfights on that day in Madrid, Sevilla, Granada, Malaga, Toledo, and Bilbao, possibly also at Zaragoza.

May 2 — Bilbao, Lucena.

May 3 — Bilbao, Figueras, Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

May 4 — Puertollano, Jerez de los Caballeros.

Between May 8 and 10 — Ecija and Caravaca.

Between May 13 and 15 — Osuna and Badajoz.

May 15 — Madrid.

May 16 — Madrid and Talavera de la Reina.

May 17 — Madrid. These three fights are for the feria of San Isidro, patron of Madrid. There is no longer much of a feria but the fights remain.

May 18-19-20 — Ronda, Olivenza, Baeza.

May 21-22 — Zaragoza.

May 25-26 — Cordoba

May 30 — Aranjuez and Cáceres (novillada in Madrid).

May 31 — Cáceres, Teruel, and Antequera.

On the last Sunday in May there is usually a bullfight in the Roman arena in Béziers, France.

In May the season of the summer novilladas starts in Mexico.

Bullfights every Thursday and Sunday in Madrid and every Sunday in Barcelona.

June 2-4 — Trujillo.

June 9 — Placencia.

June 9 — 11 — Big fair at Algeciras — usually three fights.

June 13 — 17 — Feria at Granada — usually three fights.

June 22 — Avila.

June 24j — Tolosa, Medina del Rio Seco, Cabra, Barcelona, Zafra, Badojoz — Feria at Badajoz with two fights.

June 25 — Tolosa, Badajoz.

June 27-29 — Feria at Segovia — usually two fights.

June 29 — Alicante.

June 29-30 — Feria at Burgos — usually two fights.

First Sunday in July — Fights at Palma de Mallorca.

July 6 to 12 — Feria of San Fermín at Pamplona, with five fights on successive days, starting July 7. Amateur fights each morning at 7 o'clock. Bulls run through the street the mornings of all bullfights. Better be at the ring by six a.m. to buy seats in the boxes. Other seats are free and filled. Tickets may usually be bought the night before between 6 and 7 at the booths on the square.

July 14 — Bullfights at Bordeaux and Bayonne.

Between the 15th and 18th, fights at La Linea, near Gibraltar.

July 23 — Alcira. Usually a good fight.

July 25 — Big fight at San Sebastian and Santander. First fight of feria at Valencia, where there will be seven to nine fights on successive days until and through August 2.

The first Sunday of July there is a fight at Nîmes, France.

All through July there will be novilladas on every Thursday or Sunday, on which formal fights are not given, in Madrid or Barcelona. The big ferias, not to be missed, are Pamplona and Valencia.

On August 2 there is a feria at Vitoria, with three fights on successive days, and another at La Coruña, also with three fights. Vitoria is easily reached by motor in three hours from the French frontier at Hendaye. In case of a Sunday coming opportunely these fights will sometimes start as late as the 4th or 5th.

Between August 2 and 5 there are fights at Santander, San Sebastian, Cartagena, and Tomellosa.

Between the 8th and 10th there is a feria at Pontevedra in Galicia, usually with only one fight.

August 10 — Manzanares.

August 15, 16, and 17 is the Grande Semaine at San Sebastian, with three successive fights on those days. In case of Sunday coming earlier or later the fights may be on the 14th, 15th, and 16th, promoters always trying to bring one of the series of fights in a feria on a Sunday.