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Here is my story about the picture my poem refers to (and I do not know how to scan an old photo and get it up here at Soup. Sorry I don't have it to show you. It's so beautiful!) I was at the Feria of Sevilla, back in 1974. I think it was February. I had signed up for a program at my college called Madrid Abroad. We visited different regions of Spain every other weekend. The visit to southern Spain and seeing Seville was incredible. AT the fair (pronounced in Spanish FER I A) I saw an incredibly handsome man on a horse with a beautiful woman behind him. A glass of wine was in her hand as they posed for the camera. This scene epitomized the entire fair for me, so I shot a picture.
Years later, as i showed this picture to my students, one of them (from Spain) said, "OH my gosh, this is a picture of the famous Paquirri and his first wife Carmen." I was astonished and i began looking for information about them online. Apparently I captured my picture of them when they were in the first year of marriage and still in their honeymoon phase. I learned they divorced five years later after having two sons together. He married again to a very famous curvy actress/singer named Isabel Pantoja, who became known as the bullfighter's widow when he died.
Sadly I learned that Carmen had a very sad life. With at least three failed marriages, she became very depressed and after undergoing treatments for alcoholism, she was found dead in her bathtub in 2004. I was very impressed to think I had captured them in the bloom of their lives before all the tragedy ensued. I would love to find out more about them! They were such a fascinating couple to see riding on that horse when I was also in the flower of my own youth.
Paquirri (March 5, 1948 - September 26, 1984) The famous Spanish Bullfighter gored to death in 1984
and his first wife, Carmen Ordóñez (May 2, 1955 - March 23, 2004),Both daugher of a bullfighter and mother of two famous matadors: Francisco Rivera Ordóñez and Cayetano Rivera Ordóñez.
Their wedding in 1973, one year before I took my photo of them.
The way i remember them looking in the photo I took in 1974,, but this picture may be from a few years earlier than that:
Other Photo from his matador days:
Here is a link I found to a very short video of him and how he died. It even shows him still alive during his surgery:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J24dD2EQqxA