[MUSIC PLAYING] Hola, listeners. This season of the Dualingo Spanish podcast, we are revisiting some of our favorite stories about people and their animal friends. Stories that show just how amazing that bond can be. Today, we have an episode from June, 2021. It takes us to Spain and features Juan Pablo Bienuela. Growing up, he was fascinated with bullfighting. But when he discovered a different version of the tradition, everything changed. Be sure to stick around until the end to hear from Juan Pablo himself and how it's going with him, the sport, and the bulls. Let's get to it. Hey, listeners, a quick word on the Spanish spoken by this week's storyteller who comes from Spain. The "Z" is pronounced like the "TH" in the English word "think." So instead of "gabeza," you'll hear-- "gabeza." It's a scorching summer day in 2008. Juan Pablo Villanueva stands near a metal gate at a cattle ranch in northern Spain. He brings his ear up close to the warm metal, holding his breath. On the other side, a massive bowl, untoro, paces heavily inside his pen. In a few minutes, the two will come face to face. Yo jamás me he enfrentado a un toro. Tengo 18 años y me he inscrito en una competición de algo llamado "recorte." Pero yo, ni siquiera sé, qué es el recorte. Jamás lo he visto. Juan Pablo's 18, and he's seen plenty of bullfights, or "corridas." Typically, at the end of a traditional corrida, amateur bullfighters like Juan Pablo are invited to face off against younger cows. But Juan Pablo hasn't signed up for a traditional corrida. It's a "recorte" competition. And as Juan Pablo's about to learn, there's a big difference. Juan Pablo's doing what he's always done. He scampers around the ring, this way, and that, avoiding the animal as best he can. Only this time, he begins to hear laughter. The other competitors are laughing at him. Cuando termino, los otros me dicen, pero ¿qué estás haciendo? Esto es un concurso de "recorte." Pero yo no conozco el recorte. Entonces, me quedo a ver a los otros. Y lo que hacen es increíble. Es como si volaran por encima del toro. Juan Pablo has just discovered "recorte." A lesser known cousin of the age-old tradition of corrida. Both have been around since the middle ages. But somehow, "recorte" never became as popular. Now that Juan Pablo has discovered it, he finds that he likes it a lot more than traditional bullfighting. In a corrida, the bullfighter kills the bull. Whereas in "recorte," a bullfighter simply leaps over it. En el recorte, el toro no sufre. El animal se respeta. El día del concurso de "recortes" queda grabado en mi memoria. Y de algo estoy completamente seguro. Quiero ser "recortador." Bienvenidos and welcome to the Duolingo Spanish podcast. I'm Martina Castro. This season, we're taking you on a special journey across the Spanish-speaking world. From Spain to the Americas, a new generation of Spanish speakers is working to keep their cultural traditions alive, with a contemporary twist. In today's episode, we travel to Spain. As always, the storyteller will be using intermediate Spanish, and I'll be chiming in for context in English. If you miss something, you can always get back and listen again. We also offer full transcripts at podcast.duolingo.com. Cuampablo grew up in Burgos, a city in northern Spain. Bullfighting has been part of his life for as long as he can remember. When he was three, his grandfather built a toy bowl out of an old rocking horse, some repurposed tricycle wheels, and two cow horns donated by a local butcher. Mi abuelo se ponía detrás del toro de juguete, y lo empujaba. Mi hermano y yo salíamos corriendo, gritando y riéndonos. Eso son mis primeros recuerdos. In Spain, the origins of bullfighting go all the way back to the Bronze Age. Facing the bulls, or enfrentarse a los toros, was associated with valor and honor. But in recent years, the violent and dangerous practice has become increasingly controversial. Many view it as cruel, and some cities, like Barcelona, have banded all together. Yo iba a las corridas y veía a los toreros. Son hombres muy valientes. Enfrentan al toro sin miedo. Se mueven con elegancia y agilidad. Es impresionante. In 2006, Juan Pablo turned 16. Like every year, he went to watch the corrida in Lerma with his family. But that year, for the first time in his life, he would actually have the chance to step into the ring. Al final de la corrida, los miembros del público de 16 años o más son invitados a entrar a la arena, pero no para enfrentarse a un toro, sino a una joven vacilla. Una vacilla, a young heifer. At age 16, for the first time, Juan Pablo could join other adult audience members in the ring, to face and dodge a live animal. Juan Pablo paced the sandy floor, a throng of audience members, mostly young men jostled around him. The crowd cheered from the bleachers. Juan Pablo's father, his mother, his grandparents, it felt like the entire town was there. Vique la vacilla venía hacia mí. Y ahí hice lo peor que podía hacer. Empecé a correr en la otra dirección. Pero la vacilla siempre es más rápida. Poco segundos después me empujó y me tiró al suelo. The vacilla knocked Juan Pablo over and started trampling him, but the other runners waved at the young heifer, quickly distracting it. Cuando la vacilla se fue, me levanté con heridas en la piel. Por suerte, no fue nada grave. Después de eso, salí de la arena. No duré ni diez segundos. Juan Pablo got out that day with a few cuts and a bruised ego, but that didn't stop him from wanting to try again. Over the next couple of years, he got really good at dodging young vacillas. He dreamed of facing a ball in a real ball fight, but that seemed out of his league. Nunca imaginé ser torero. Yo a los toreros los respeto mucho, pero es una disciplina muy competitiva y difícil. One day Juan Pablo was scrolling on social media when an image of a man facing a ball caught his eye. Only the man on the photo wasn't armed with a red cape and a sword, like in a traditional corrida. He was armed with nothing. En la foto se veía un hombre enfrentándose a un toro, solo con su cuerpo. La imagen decía concurso de recordadores, jóvenes promesas. Y yo, como era un chico joven, pensé "oye", pues me voy a inscribir. And that's how, at age 18, Juan Pablo ended up at that first record-day competition, but his embarrassing first attempt didn't discourage him. It was exciting, it was daring, and it didn't harm the balls. Juan Pablo found out that the ranch or finca that organized the competition also trained recordadores. He started going every weekend. El dueño de la finca daba clases de record. Yo iba casi todos los fines de semana, o cuando tenía un día libre. El dinero que ganaba lo gastaba en clases de record. Juan Pablo learned the moves of the record, like el corte, where the performer buckles his knees and arches his back to let the ball run as close as possible. And el salto del ángel, where the performer spreads his arms wide as he jumps above the ball. Record-day is a dangerous sport, and competitors are regularly injured or even killed, but Juan Pablo was hooked. En nosotros enfrentamos al toro sin armas, solo con nuestro cuerpo. Y después el toro no muere, sino que regresa a la finca. Desde el primer día me encantó. Over the years, Juan Pablo noticed a change in the bullfighting scene. El recorte es cada vez más popular. Mucho más que hace 10 o 15 años. Y al mismo tiempo poco a poco, los eventos de corrida tradicional atraen a menos gente. Younger Spaniards are more concerned about animal cruelty than their parents and grandparents' generations. For many, watching a man stab a bull to death is no longer an acceptable form of entertainment, with the decline of traditional corrida. Record-day is seen as a promising successor. Muy rico y único en España. Juan Pablo signed up for every local event he could find, hoping to be noticed by an empresario, the people who organized the big record the tournaments. In those events, the top 15 or 20 recordadores in the country face-off balls one by one in a series of rounds until one is crowned victor in the final. Durante años yo llamaba a los empresarios para tratar de entrar a torneos más grandes. Ellos me decían, "No te conocemos. No sabemos quién eres. Jamaste hemos visto." Era muy difícil, porque el mundo del recorte es muy competitivo. Juan Pablo didn't live off recorte. Very few recordadores do. He had a full-time job as a PE teacher, but record-day was his biggest passion. For reasons he couldn't quite explain, he just could not give it up. Years passed, Juan Pablo kept going to practice and signing up for any local event that would take him. He got stronger, his jumps became sharper. He took more risks or risks. Then in 2018, a full decade after he first took up recorte, Juan Pablo finally got his big break. A new record-day company came to his hometown of Burgos and organized a big competition. The competition in Burgos was Juan Pablo's chance to gain national recognition. He was determined to give it his all. So he came up with a risky stunt. He would put his feet in a sack, tie his knees with a scarf, and stand in the center of the arena waiting for the bold to charge. When the goal started to run in my direction, he pulled his head and extended the legs together in the arena. The goal passed below me. It was a very good jump. He took me to the Spanish champion. And he did three perfect jumps. So perfect that it was impossible to win. He did the best he could, but he didn't get to the end. Juan Pablo didn't win, but his performance was impressive enough to be noticed. Embressadios came up to him at the end of the event to congratulate him and he got invited to an even bigger event in Madrid, where he made it to the final. After that, the calls kept coming. Juan Pablo's nickname, Aguilucho, means "Young Eagle". It came from his soccer playing days at school, where his teammates joked that he flew around the field like an eagle, and it followed him into a record. Juan Pablo kept up his winning streak all the way to October 12, 2019, the day of Spain's national record championship in Saragosa. The arena was packed. Besides being the birthplace of Recorte, Saragosa also has the only arena in Spain to hold Recorte events at night. It was Juan Pablo's first time facing a bowl after dark. Juan Pablo crouched down to feel the earth, tracing his name in the sand. It helped him focus. He watched the massive bowl from the sidelines, observing its behavior. Finally, his name rang out on the speakers. It was his turn. The crowd cheered as he walked into the arena. Aguilucho. A hush fell over the stadium. The only sound breaking the silence was the third of the bowl's hooves pacing on the sand. Juan Pablo kneeled absolutely still. He called the bowl again. But instead of running, I came walking. That is more dangerous because it gives me more time to follow me when I move. I did not move. I will wait and I will wait. I will look at Toro. Until finally he started running. At the last moment, he jumped towards the right. Toro passed a millimeter from my back, but he did not touch me. The arena burst into thunderous applause. It was a standing ovation. Then the next bowl came out, massive and quivering. Like in the first round, Juan Pablo stood firm, ready to leap up at the last moment. But when the bowl got close, instead of charging straight, it turned its head with a powerful swipe. The crowd cheers froze into a gasp of horror. The other recordadores ran out to distract the bowl and got him away from Juan Pablo. Medics rushed over with a stretcher, but then Juan Pablo got up and walked out of the arena. The bowl had pierced a hole six inches long in Juan Pablo's right by. At the hospital, his parents urged him to give up the record. You have a good job, his father told him. The record is no way to make a living. It's not worth risking your life. After the accident. Juan Pablo knew he had been very lucky. He recovered fully from his injury, but he thought about his father's words. As he grew able to run and jump again, he started hanging out with his recorded friends, watching their events, and he realized the pull of the arena was just too strong. He couldn't live without it, no matter what the risk. The record is a very noble tradition, and a way of art. When I put myself in front of the door and I see it running towards me, well, yes, I'm afraid, but for me, the most beautiful thing about the record is that it helps you to overcome that fear. It's a feeling that does not have a comparison. I do not want to live without that feeling, and I will never abandon the record. Juan Pablo Villanueva is a professional part-time recordador in Burgo, Spain. And since his story was first published in 2021, Juan Pablo has had one of the best seasons of his career. He participated in 36 events at a very high level. He even made it into the top 10 in Spain. But then he suffered an injury and had to take a break. Juan Pablo sent us this update in a WhatsApp message, so he sounds a little different from the original interview. We're sorry to hear that you got injured, Juan Pablo, but so glad that you recovered. Thank you so much for your message, Juan Pablo. We are so glad to hear that you recovered, and back in the ring. This story was originally produced by Adon de Media's Lorena Galliot, and it was updated by Thali Goldman, a journalist and writer based in Buenos Aires. We would love to know what you thought of this episode. You can always write us an email and
[email protected] or call and leave us a voicemail or audio message on WhatsApp at +1703-953-9369. Don't forget to say your name and where you're from. If you liked this story, please share it. You can find the audio and a transcript of each episode at podcast.duolingo.com. You can also follow us on Apple podcasts or on your favorite listening app, so you never miss an episode. With over 500 million users, Duolingo is the world's leading language learning platform and the most downloaded education app in the world. Duolingo believes in making education free, fun, and available to everyone to join download the app today or find out more at duolingo.com. The Duolingo Spanish podcast is produced by Duolingo and Adon de Media. I'm the executive producer and your host, Martina Castro. Gracias por escuchar. [Music]
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