Memories of the fighting bull ranch

This second volume of Memorias del Campo Bravo features thirty-five cattle ranches, complementing the thirty-four included in the first book. It once again unearths previously unpublished photographic archives spanning from the late 19th century to the late 1950s. The countryside and the work that cattle ranchers perform before the bull arrives at the arena are once again the main protagonists.

The images transport us to a golden age where great figures such as Juan Belmonte, Joselito el Gallo, Ignacio Sánchez Mejías, El Algabeño, Gitanillo de Triana, Manolete, Arruza, Granero, Antonio Ordóñez, and the Bienvenida brothers shared tasks and bull-testing with the ranchers. As in the previous volume, most of the texts are written by the ranchers themselves, descendants of the protagonists in the book's images, which lends special interest and intimacy to these stories.

In the words of José F. Peláez, author of the book's magnificent prologue: "Memorias del Campo Bravo Vol. 2 is not, at heart, a book about bulls; it is a book about men who still believe in mystery, about a horseback minority that sacrifices itself for irrational reasons to continue observing the world, even if they don't fully understand it."