Six Bulls

by Paul van Winkle

Conchita Cintron, the "Goddess of the Bullring," died in Lisbon today at 86 after having killed over 750 bulls in the ring. She had been injured in the ring many times and seriously gored twice, once in each thigh, but both times she fought on and killed the bulls. She once described the technique of killing a bull: "The bull to a certain extent commits suicide when he charges, exposing to the matador's sword only upon charging a small, vital and lethal spot just forward of the shoulders and behind the horns. No, it doesn't take great strength to kill a bull, but rather a keen eye, a steady nerve and a true hand." La Diosa Rubia, as she was called, entered the bullring for the first time at 13, killing her first bull in Tarma, Peru at 15, having gotten used to the idea of killing by practicing, day after day, at a slaughterhouse, endlessly jabbing and stabbing at doomed oxen who bellowed - but did not die. When told by her teacher that she was closing her eyes at the moment of the strike, she became determined, and now keeping her eyes wide open, killed six oxen the next day, painlessly and instantly, with just six, sure strokes.

6S

Paul van Winkle currently lives in Atlanta and has worked to master the art and science of business development for global creative groups just so he can allow himself a little time to read, write and think. Mostly about how interpretation, communication and intelligent selection are the existential centerpins of all evolving lifeforms. (Because the marketplace battlefield is rarely easy or uncomplicated.)