With his retirement in 2002, the myth was born. The greatest bullfighter since Manolete, according to connoisseurs, withdrew to Estepona for five years. José Tomás needed to give his feet a rest from the bullring, and plant them firmly back on common ground. This year he has once again returned, and his figure, far from being in decline, continues its upward trajectory to legendary status.


The bullfighter José Tomás Román Martín, born on 20 August 1975 in Galapagar, in the province of Madrid, is the great-nephew of bull breeder Victorino Martín. His passion for the art came from his grandfather Celestino, who used to accompany the young boy to the bullfights at Madrid’s Las Ventas ring.

His debut with the cape came in February 1991, at a novillada featuring young fighters and bulls, in Valdemorillo, although he had to leave for Mexico to find regular engagements. There he received full bullfighter status in 1995, a position which he confirmed in Madrid in May 1996, under the tutelage of Ortega Cano and in the presence of Jesulín de Ubrique.

His performances in Madrid, where he won the San Isidro Festival three years running (1997, 1998 and 1999), mark a turning point in the history of bullfighting. The magazine El Cossío said of him: “No one can comprehend how a man could be capable of such beauty”. Barcelona, Granada, Malaga, Seville... every bullring in Spain has bowed down before the peerless figure of Tomás. The phenomenon even came to be dubbed ‘tomismo’ or ‘tomatosis’ - ‘tomamania’ if you will. Various experts were already speaking in terms of a ‘once-in-a-lifetime bullfighter’.

And yet in 2002 he announced his retirement. After keeping the fans waiting in frustration for half a decade, José Tomás reappeared on 1 March at Barcelona’s Monumental bullring. With the city’s venue filled for the first time since 1985, the Madrid-born maestro performed a memorable faena. The ‘Sold Out’ sign has been hung up wherever he has fought, although he has also had his fair share of gorings, including one hair-raising incident at La Malagueta.

Tomás still lives in Estepona, where he is engaged in his own individual spiritual retreat. For many, he is the last great bullfighter. A man who, in the words of one of the critics at El País “is poetic and mysterious silence, somewhat hermetic, easier to perceive than to understand. The cold, flinty silence of Galapagar transferred to the depthless silence of the Mediterranean Sea. A silence which shivers the spine, for it does not shun the silence surrounding death. But it does fight it like a bull”.