Living by the swordWhen Cristina Sanchez told her parents that she wanted to become a bullfighter instead of a hairdresser, they weren’t too pleased. But when she was eighteen her parents realized that she was serious and sent her to a bullfighting shool in Madrid, where she trained with professionals. Since last July, Sanchez has been the most successful novice in Spain and is very popular with the crouds. After brilliant performances in Latin America and Spain earlier this year, Sanchezhas decided that she is ready to take the test to become a matador de toros. Out of the ring, Sanchez does not look like a matador. She is casually elegant, very feminine and wears her long hair loose. She seems to move much more like a dancer than an athlete, but in the ring she is all power. When she was fourteen, Sanchez’s father warned her that the the world of bullfighting was hard enough for a man and even harder for a woman. It seems he is right. ‘It really is a tough world for a woman”, says Sanchez. “You start with the door shut in your face. A man has to prove himself only once, whereas I have had to do it ten times just to get my foot in the door.” In perhaps the world’s most masculine profession, it would seem strange if Sanchez had not met problems. But even though Spanish women won the legal right to fight bulls on equal terms with men in 1974, there are still matadors like Jesulin de Ubrique who refuse to fight in the same ring as her. Sanchez lives with her family in Perla, south of Madrid. Her family is everything to her and is the main support in her life. “my sisters don’t like bullfighting, they don’t even watch it on TV, and my mother would be the happiest person in the world if I gave it up. But we get on well. Mum’s like my best friend.” When Sanchez is not fighting she has a tough fitness routine – running, working out in the gym and practicing with her father in the afternoon. By nine she is home for supper, and by eleven she is not in bed. She does’t drink, smoke or socialise. “ You have to give up a lot,” says Sanchez. “It’s difficult to meet people, but it doesn’t worry me – love does not arrive because you look for it.” 37 Sanchez spends most of the year traveling: in summer to Spanish and French bullfights and in winter to Latin America. Her mother dislikes watching Sanchez fight, but goes to the ring when she can, if not, she waits at home next to the television. Her husband has had to ring three times to say that their daughter had been injured, twice lightly in the leg and once seriously in the stomach. After she has been wounded, the only thing Sanchez thinks about is how quickly she can get back to the ring. “It damages your confidence,” she says “but it also makes you mature. It’s just unprofessional to be injured. You cannot let it happen.” Sanchez is managed by Simon Casas, who says, “At the moment there is no limit to where she can go. She has a champion’s mentality, as well as courage and technique.”
When Sanchez told her parents that she wanted to be a bullfighter they
a. living in today’s world is difficult for a woman. b. bullfighting is a difficult career for women c. it is impossible to succeed as a female bullfighter d. women have to demonstrate their skills as much as male bullfighters do.
a. is everything to the family b. prefers to watch her daughter on TV c. supports her more than the rest of her family d. would prefer Cristina to leave the ring
a. the fitness routine b. not socializing c. giving up d. smoking
40. Read and translate the text:
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