Julio Aparicio Díaz

Julio Aparicio Díaz (born 1969), also known as Julito Aparicio, is a Spanish bullfighter from Seville. Aparicio made his public début in bullfighting at the age of fourteen in 1984. He was confirmed as a torero, or matador, in 1994. Aparicio's mother was Malena Loreto, a famous flamenco dancer and his sister Kika Aparicio is an actress. Aparicio made his first public appearance in relation to bullfighting on 2 September 1984 at the Arenas de San Pedro.

Career Aparicio débuted as a novillero, a fighter of young bulls, on 8 February 1987 in Gandia, Spain alongside Fernando Lozano and Gregorio de Jesús as a picador. Later that year, he went to the European Parliament in Strasbourg to defend the Spanish tradition of bullfighting. Aparicio received his alternativa (alternative), a ceremony which a novillero starts fighting mature bulls for the first time as a torero, on 15 April 1990 at the Royal Cavalry of Seville. After that, he made his French début in Nîmes on 16 May 1991 at the Arena of Nîmes.

Aparicio had his confirmación, a confirmation of his status as a torero, four years later on 18 May 1994 at Las Ventas in Madrid. He also received a confirmación in Mexico on 13 November 1994. On the fifth bull of the afternoon, Aparicio fought a bull of the Alcurrucén breed named Cañego. This performance is regarded as his best, At the 1998 San Isidro Festival, he served as the Godfather to Morante de la Puebla for Puebla's confirmación ceremony. On 4 June 1998 he announced his withdrawal from events and was inactive until 2000. He had his reaparición, or comeback, on 15 March 2000 in an event with José Mari Manzanares and Juan Bautista in Fitero. On 23 March 2008, at Las Ventas, he was gored by a bull which caused a severe laceration in his left thigh. Doctors at Las Ventas operated on Aparicio for an hour and performed an emergency tracheotomy to stabilize him. He went back to the hospital in critical condition on 28 May due to acute respiratory failure that required ventilation through a breathing tube due to swelling from an infection. He left the hospital on 6 June after recovering once again.

After the accident, Aparicio fired his manager Simon Casas who had said in an interview that Aparicio would not be able to psychologically recover so quickly. Aparicio made a return to bullfighting in Pontevedra on 1 August, ten weeks after the accident. He later revealed that on the day of the accident, he had competed with a broken middle finger on his left hand.

Career highlights

Event:Location:Date:Bulls or steers:Notes:Refs: Début novillero Gandia, Spain 8 February 1987 El TorreónCartel: Fernando Lozano Cartel: Gregorio de Jesús Alternativa Seville, Spain 15 April 1990 TorrestrellaGodfather: Curro Romero Witness: Juan Antonio Ruiz Début in France Nîmes, France 16 May 1991 Sánchez DelpCartel: Curro Vásquez Cartel: Emilio Muñoz Confirmación Seville, Spain 18 May 1994 Manolo GonzalezGodfather: José Ortega Cano Witness: Jesulín de Ubrique Confirmación Mexico 13 November 1994 XajayGodfather: Juan Mora Witness: Manolo Mejía Reaparición Fitero, Spain 15 March 2000 Carmen SegoviaCartel: José María Manzanares Cartel: Juan Bautista