Dominguin Retires

Bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguin, Spain's best, last week announced his retirement from the ring. He had come to Mexico last December for an American season of high promise. In his hotel suite, on arrival, he held court in a scene reminiscent of Hemingway; he remarked, while reflecting about the bulls, that "a goring is an unforgivable failure in a good bullfighter." But the high promise was not fulfilled, and a goring was the major reason.

Early in January, in Caracas, a bull drove a horn into Dominguin's upper right thigh, almost severing the big muscle in front of the bone. The wound, his eighth and worst, required an operation, performed in Mexico. Last week, still convalescing, he prepared to open the season in Bogota. Over breakfast with a few friends, he mused, "I once loved bullfighting like madness. Now I've lost the joy of fighting. That's when fatal things happen. Today I'll make twelve, thirteen, fourteen thousand dollars--but it doesn't seem to matter now."

He fought that afternoon in the same big Santamaria bull ring where, eleven years earlier, in his first professional engagement, he had (as one critic said) "made every part of the arena tremble." Now the bulls were sluggish, and the performances lackluster. Dominguin's leg cramped up and unbalanced him at vital moments; there were times when some of the 15,000 disappointed Bogotanos booed impatiently.

Two days later Luis Miguel, a millionaire at 27, announced his decision to step down. His father-manager, Domingo Gonzalez, wondered aloud whether his son would still feel the same when his leg healed and he began to miss the cheers of the crowd. But to his mother in Spain, Luis Miguel sent a cable: "You can be calm now. I have taken part in my last bullfight."

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