Born Manuel Benítez Pérez in Córdoba, Spain, courageous matador El Cordobés (1936-) rose from humble beginnings to become one of the most famous toreros in bullfighting history.

“For me, the bull is pure joy,” he once said. “Like a wine that fills my heart and makes me drunk.”

In Spain, the corrida has long been seen as more than sport—an emotional dance of life and death. Poet Federico García Lorca called it “an authentic religious drama,” and Ernest Hemingway observed its beauty and spiritual intensity in Death in the Afternoon, calling it “art... produced by a man, an animal, and a piece of scarlet serge draped on a stick.”

From 1959 to 1971, El Cordobés stunned crowds with a bold, unorthodox style—leaning close to danger, dancing near the bull’s horns. Small, fast, and theatrical, he redefined machismo in the arena.

“Where is the university for courage?” El Cordobés once asked. Then, with the conviction of a man who faced danger for a living, he answered, “The university for courage is to do what you believe in.” His words still echo—a bold reminder that true courage is not taught in classrooms, but earned in the arena of life, step by fearless step.