Estatua a José Cubero "Yiyo"
Plaza de Toros
Madrid Spain
2008

The Plaza de Toros de Las Ventas, known simply as Las Ventas, is the largest bullfighting ring in Spain, located in the Guindalera quarter of the Salamanca district of Madrid. It was inaugurated on June 17, 1931.

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Ventas

Between the years 1913 and 1920, bullfighting reached such a peak in Spain that the Madrid bullring , built in 1874 on the Aragón highway (current Alcalá street, in the vicinity of Goya street) was too small. It was José Gómez "Joselito" , who expressed the convenience of building a larger bullring, called monumental, which would open the show to the entire city and lower the price of tickets (keep in mind that since there is no television, the only way to see a bullfighting show is by going to the bullring). Around 1918 the Provincial Council, owner of the old square, agrees to build a new arena. It is a friend of Joselito, the architect José Espelius, who starts the project.



This monument, modeled by the sculptor Luis Sanguino, has been standing in front of the Plaza de Toros Monumental de las Ventas since 1987 as a tribute to the Bordeaux bullfighter José Cubero "Yiyo" (1964-1985), who at only 21 years of age was fatally caught by the Burlero bull in the arena of the Madrid town of Colmenar Viejo, being the second effigy of the matador that was erected in the capital, after the one that crowns his own mausoleum in the Almudena Cemetery, and prior to the one dedicated to him by the board of Canillejas in 1995, which is the work of the same sculptor.