Conchita Cintrón’s first public appearance was in Lima, when she was only 13 years old. She allegedly killed over 750 bulls during her career.
Conchita Cintrón, one of the most famous female bullfighters in history, died on this day in 2009. She was of very interesting descent. Namely, her father, Francisco Cintrón Ramos, was a former U.S. soldier from Puerto Rico. He was allegedly only the second Puerto Rican in history who graduated at the famous West Point military academy (Puerto Rico still belongs to the USA today, but most of its inhabitants are of Latino American descent). Still, he soon quit his military career and moved to South America together with his Irish American wife.
Conchita Cintrón was born in northern Chile, but at the age of 3 she and her family moved to the Peruvian capital at Lima. It was in Peru that the young Conchita learned bullfighting. At first she fought on horseback (such bullfighters are called „rejoneadores“).
Conchita Cintrón’s first public appearance was in Lima, when she was only 13 years old. She went on to perform in many other countries – Mexico, Portugal, Spain, France, Ecuador, Venezuela, Columbia, and even Morocco, which was then still under Spanish rule. She even performed in the USA once, near San Francisco, but was not allowed to kill the bull on that occasion.
As well as a „rejoneador“, she also fought as a “matador” (on the ground). During her career she allegedly killed over 750 bulls. Her last fight was in Spain in 1950, when she was aged 28. However, she lived to be 86, dying on this day in 2009, in Portugal.
