Mari Paz Vega is 50 years old and will retire in 2026 after 28 years wearing the traje de luces. She is one of only six women in history to become bullfighters, and now, almost at the end of that chapter, she has made a statement that not everyone expected.
She says that machismo in the world of bullfighting is not carried by men, but by women themselves. She says it as someone who began bullfighting at 15 under the guidance of Mary Fortes, who took the alternativa in Cáceres in 1997 with Cristina Sánchez as her sponsor, and who still remembers her father warning her that if bullfighting was already difficult for a man, it would be impossible for a woman.
Some defend her: no one better than her, who experienced the ring from the inside, to point out where the real obstacle lies. Others accuse her of repeating the discourse that was used for years to exclude them. Is Mari Paz Vega right, or is she looking the other way?
