Marco ‘El Colombiano’ Gomez is one of the most renowned bullfighters Colombia has ever known. The 90-year old spent 55 years of his life in the bull ring. He spent 33 years longing for the woman who left him.
Gomez is now very old and while his humble appearance doesn’t show it, this man is a bull fighting legend that lived for decades in Spain, Mexico and Ecuador making his money as a ‘matador’. He was one of the first Colombian bullfighters to make it out of the country, gaining him the alias ‘The Colombian’.
He was born on March 24, 1919 in Don Matias, a small village 20 miles north of Medellin and had his first real bullfight when he was 15 years old.
El Colombiano meets La Morenita
By the time Gomez was 23 he was fighting bulls for a living and traveled to many parts of Colombia to make money.
One of those trips took him to Armenia, a city in the center of the coffee triangle. He was touring the city in support of the local fire department, trying to raise funds for the firemen when on a balcony he saw the love of his life.
“She was standing on this balcony and I kept looking. I had never ever seen a girl so pretty. I kept looking at her and she responded with a smile,” he said.
At the end of the day he returned to the neighborhood where he had seen the 14-year old Bertha Trujillo and walked up and down the streets looking for the girl that stole his heart. He found her.
The two married within a year and lived together. Bertha as a housewife and Marco trying to make ends meet as a ‘matador’.
Times were hard and Gomez was moving from town to town to see if he could organize bull fights so he could perform and make money.
“One time we were two months late on the rent and you know what that means. [It means you can expect to be evicted in no time]. I was in this tiny village called Segovia, Antioquia, trying to convince the councilors to let me organize a bullfight. They barely seemed interested, but I had no choice. I promised Bertha I was going to come home with an assignment.”
“When noticing they were not going to be persuaded I said to them ‘What if I bring a female bullfighter?’ and immediately the look in their eyes changed. ‘You know a female bullfighter?’ they asked me. ‘Yes, I do,’ I replied. ‘What’s her name then?’ they asked and I said ‘La Morenita del Quindio’. They agreed on the bullfight then.”
“Coming home was difficult, because I am a bad liar. When Bertha asked me how things had gone I told her ‘good and bad’. ‘You didn’t convince them to organize a bullfight?’ she asked. I said ‘Yes, but the bad news is that you will have to fight the bulls.’”
At that point Gomez and his wife had no choice, she would become the first ever woman to step into a ring and fight the 900 pound bulls.
La Morenita makes it big time
Bertha, ‘La Morenita del Quindio’, became a legend. As the first female bullfighter in the world, she and ‘El Colombiano’ traveled to almost every country where bull fights are held and Marco Gomez was as happy as a bull fighter could be.
“She saved my life,” Gomez tells. “I was fighting a bull and the bull got me, picked me up and threw me in the gravel. Before I could get up he gored me again and threw me up again. The beast was furious and ready to kill me. I had four assistants trying to divert the attention of the bull, so I could escape, but nothing helped. She just jumped in the bullring and grabbed the bull by the horns, pulling it away from me. What kind of woman does that?”
The end of the happy days
Their marriage lasted 34 years and then La Morenita left him. Gomez avoids questions about the reasons why.
In 1989, 55 years after he started bullfighting and at the age of seventy, he quit. A big bull fighting event was held in his honor in La Macarena in Medellin. That’s where he last saw his ex-wife, he says.
33 years after their separation and twenty years after they last met, he still longs for La Morenita del Quindio and his eyes become moist when he speaks about her or shows one of the many photos and posters he has of her.
“She was the best woman I could have wished for.”
Fighting the last bull
Despite his illustrious career, ‘El Colombiano’ wanted to enter the ring and challenge the fury of a bull one more time. This was last year, when he was 89.
“I sent a letter to the people of the Macarena last year, because I wanted to be in the Guinness Book of Records as oldest bullfighter ever. The record stands at 80-years old and I wanted to break it at 89. I know the people at the bullring and they know me, but they never replied to the letter. I think they were afraid I would get hurt and were afraid to tell me.”
‘El Colombiano’ now lives in a room in the west of Medellin. He goes out every day to buy himself an apple and to watch a chess game in a chess club nearby to keep his brain working.
You wouldn’t recognize this living legend if you met him on the street.
It is a pity that many persons are trying to kill the bullfighter in most Hispanic countries. Characters like these will be just history soon.
[...] Lee este artículo en inglés: Marco ´El Colombiano´ Gomez and the love of his life. [...]