ABSTRACT
One can, however, describe the education that the aspiring novillero should receive, one which in reality he occasionally does receive if he is lucky enough to come to the attention of a competent maestro, whether in or out of his own family. Plaza time is the time of happiness, despair, love, or catastrophe, of events mensurable only by their intensity, not by their duration, Toreo, however, differs from love or despairs because in his confrontation with the Toro the torero violates the chain of being, order in nature. Communication between torero and Toro is of a special, ritual kind. The torero's greatest physical security lies in his bravery, knowledge, and control. In Spain and in Latin America the figure of the torero as a man apart—Byronic, bohemian, doomed, and damned—is a pure product of the Romantic Movement at its height.
