By Mike Sain't Louis ·
Ya Sale el Asesino: a bullfighter from behind and a red sun
It looks every bit like an old-style fair poster. Aged paper, thick red and cream lettering, a huge blood-coloured sun and, in the centre, a bullfighter seen from behind in his gold-embroidered suit of lights, holding the red cape that drags across the sand.
We don't see his face. And that, together with the title, changes everything.
Ya Sale el Asesino (Here Comes the Killer) sounds like what gets murmured in the stands when the bullfighters' gate opens. But it also sounds like something else: the person who enters your life with lots of sparkle, lots of embroidery and lots of applause, and whom nobody looks at from behind.
I like that ambiguity. Copla and the bullring have always had something of tragic theatre about them, and here the one who walks into the ring isn't exactly the hero of the afternoon. The question is who plays the bull.
If you're into folklore with a dark edge and a pinch of spite, this one's for you.