MITOS
DE CANO (Cano’s Legends) Photography by Francisco Cano.
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MITOS
DE CANO (Cano’s Legends) Photography by Francisco Cano.
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In February of this year my friend Jane Hurwitz,
Vice President of TBA, informed me that the book MITOS DE CANO, containing
photographs by the well-known taurine photographer Francisco Cano, had been
published in Spain. I became very interested in knowing more about this
publication, since I am a personal friend of Cano, with whom during my days as
a torero I had a professional relationship. I am a great admirer of his work as
well.
I went on the Internet with the goal of finding out
where to purchase the book on line. I was unsuccessful since there was no
reference as to where this book was being sold in the United States. On the other hand, I
learned interesting information about the publication that increased my
interest in obtaining the book.
I learned that Andrés Amorós was
the author of the text. Professor Amorós is a famous man of letters in Spain.
He is a professor of literature and philology at the
Universidad Complutense of Madrid. He is also a busy author who has written
many books and multiple academic papers, as well as articles for the regular
press on diverse subjects. He is a great aficionado and, therefore, some of his
writings deal with bullfighting. Last December he became the taurine critic of
ABC, one of the most important newspapers in Spain, which is unusual for an
intellectual man of his caliber. Also, I found out that Cano’s portraits in the book 
were not of
bullfighters in action in the rings, but rather of famous international and
Spanish personalities from the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s, such as
aristocrats, politicians, writers, movie stars, artists, musicians, singers, or
dancers, as well as toreros interacting with those personalities.
At last, I was able to buy MITOS DE CANO in the
Corte Inglés department store in Seville in April, where I
usually buy my taurine books. The salesman told me
that I was getting the last issue left in the store, and that they were not
expecting to get any more copies from the editors since the edition was sold
out.
When I opened the
big, heavy and attractive book with a sensual picture of Ava Gardner on the
cover, I was impressed by the quality, beauty and brightness of the black and
white pictures, covering one or two whole pages. The people in the images, many
of them beautiful women, seemed to be alive trying to escape from the pages on
which the pictures were printed. I was so engaged looking at the pictures, that
it took me a good while to notice that side by side with Amorós’s text were
complete English translations. This was a great surprise, because in none of
the promotional material of the book that I saw in Spanish was there any
mention of the English text, whose translator is anonymous, since in the
introduction the translation is listed only as “English text ROM editors”.
The bilingual
aspect of this publication doubles its appeal, since English speakers can not
only delight in admiring the qualities of the pictures, but they can, at the
same time, broaden their knowledge of the persons represented in the pictures,
as well as of the circumstances and historical background of the time when the
pictures were taken. For me, as a reviewer, the English text was of some help
since when I quoted from the text, I just copied from the translations, instead
of doing the translations myself, as I have done when reviewing other Spanish
books in English. Nevertheless, I must offer a word of caution about the
English text. I noticed that the translation is rather liberal and it does not
accurately reflect the erudite and articulate style of Amorós. There are even
some inaccuracies.
MITOS DE CANO has three parts. The
first part is an introduction of the book by Amorós (pps. 5-12); the second is
bibliographical in nature, in which Amorós relates the interesting life of Cano
in broad terms, giving us a good idea of his peculiar bohemian personality, and
affable and likeable character. There are also several pictures of Cano in
action with his camera, or socializing with the subjects of his photographs
(pps. 13-35), since he became friends with some of them. The remainder of the
book is a showcase of the work of Cano who, with his camera, captured the
images of famous international personalities visiting Spain in the fourth,
fifth and sixth decades of the past century, as well as the images of famous
Spaniards of that time (pps. 36-283).
In his introduction, Amorós, defines the scope of the book when he
was negotiating with the editors:
We agreed at the very
start that this volume would not concern itself with the in-ring experiences of
professional bullfighters…Although the book is, of course, linked to the
bullfighting world, it focuses on the great personalities of the social world,
the stars and the legends as the title says …(p. 6).
Furthermore, in his introduction
professor Amorós informs thereaders about the close friendship that he has had
for a long time with Cano and his family, and that Cano wanted him to be the
person involved in the project of publishing his book. Also, Amorós shares with
the readers the doubts he had about getting involved in the project due to the
fact that he would have to select and organize the extensive photographic
material that was stored in Cano’s disorganized files:
Let us recall the facts
and figures of the treasures that lie in his archives: more than two million
pictures, grouped into hundreds (perhaps thousands) of reportages using
somewhat doubtful criteria, and to distinguish one group from another, he
usually gives them a name and date whose accuracy can be somewhat
questionable…But that is Cano for you: take him or leave him. You ‘ve got to
take him, of course: both for the importance of his work and out of affection
for the man he is…So you need to be brave in order to head into the wild jungle
of his archive (p. 5).
Amorós’ decision to proceed with
the project is commendable because MITOS DE CANO without the text of this great
writer would have been just another book of beautiful photographs, but with his
writing that contains well researched social and popular historical facts, it
becomes a book that, in addition to giving us the opportunity to enjoy seeing
amazing and beautiful pictures, helps us to learn more about an interesting
period of Spain of the 20th century. Amorós also included in his
narrative the amusing anecdotes and original observations that the 97-year old
Cano shared with the author.
In the biographical section the
author, in 16 pages, highlights some of the meaningful events of Cano’s long
life, that make this photographer 
another legend in his own right, similar to
the personalities appearing in his book. He was born in Alicante in 1912, and
he inherited the love for bullfighting from his father, who in his youth used
to be a modest novillero. Cano also became a struggling novillero, after
having, at the early age of 17, tried his luck as a flyweight boxer, among
other things. During the Spanish Civil War Cano developed an interest in
photography, and after the war ended he gave up bullfighting to become a
taurine photographer, a profession which he continues practicing with great
success until now. Amorós summarizes
the biography of Cano with these words:
If he is unknown to
you, we should tell you three things about him: he is the doyen of bullfighting
photographers. He was the only one present on that tragic afternoon in Linares,
28th August 1947, when Manolete was fatally injured, and his photos
went around the world. He still works today even though he is close to his
hundredth birthday…After his career spanning more than six decades, it is not
surprising that his photographic collection is exceptionally rich. This book
that you are holding in your hands contains a selection of these wonderful
photographs (p.14).
This selection of Cano’s work is
presented in the remaining 255 pages of the book. In this section we basically
can distinguish three groups of photographs.
The first group (pps. 36-179)
contains pictures of super famous international personalities as Ava Gardner,
Lucia Bosé, Grace Kelly, Deborah Kerr, Sofia Loren, Empress Soraya, Lupe Sino,
Ernest Hemingway, Orson Welles, Bing Crosby, Gary Cooper, Charlon Heston, Dr.
Fleming and Prince Rainier of Monaco. Pictures of the dictator Francisco
Franco, “Manolete” and Luis Miguel Dominguín are also included in the same
group
There are several photos of each of
these personalities, which were often taken in taurine environments, attending
bullfights, private parties or participating in tientas organized for them by
bull breeders. In many of these pictures they are shown socializing with
well-known toreros.
Spain has always had a special
attraction for foreign visitors, since they wanted, among other things, to
experience the romanticized Spain of the bullfighters and the gypsy dancers.
But in the 50’s and 60’s that
attraction became even greater, since Spain was again opening its doors, after
a long isolation, caused by the Spanish Civil War and World War II, as well as
by the existing American opposition to Franco’s dictatorship. So it was not
rare that the famous visitors could also share the same interest in knowing the
romantic parts of Spanish culture. Therefore, it was normal that those famous
visitors also would get involved in those exotic worlds. The editors of this
book were lucky that Cano was present with his camera to record the experiences
of those legendary men and women.
Some examples of the interesting
images published in the book are: Gary Cooper fighting a small cow with a cape
on a ranch; Ava Gardner dancing flamenco with matador “Chamaco”; Dr. Fleming
donning a flamenco hat; Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier seated in first row
seats at the bullring in Madrid; matador Julio Aparicio dedicating a bull to
Orson Welles; or Ernest Hemingway drinking in the callejón of the Pamplona
bullring, standing beside his good friend Antonio Ordoñez.
The subjects of the second group of
pictures (pps. 180-283) are images of Spanish popular personalities who,
generally speaking, are persons much better known in the Spanish countries than
in the rest of the world, such as the philosopher Ortega y Gasset, the Duchess
of Alba, barman Perico Chicote, and entertainers Conchita Piquer, Lola Flores,
Juanita Reina, Carmen Sevilla, Lina Morgan, Rocio Jurado, Manolo Caracol,
Juanito Valderrama, Pepe Marchena, “El Principe Gitano” and Antonio Gades.
In these two sections, the pictures
related to each person are grouped together occupying several pages. Then
Amorós introduces each subject with a brief biography, highlighting some
interesting characteristic of his or her personality, and he often adds amusing
commentaries and anecdotes of Cano related to his “mitos” in his text, as the
three examples that follow show:
--Amorós quotes
Cano when he was comparing the beauty of his friend Ava Gardner with the beauty
of the Virgin Mary:
She was the most
beautiful woman in the world. My wife, who’s very religious does not like me
comparing her to the Virgin; so I tell her that she’s got the Virgin Mary, and
I’ve got Ava Gardner, and everything’s settled (p. 54).
--Also, he quotes
the comment that Cano made about the gluttony of Orson Welles when they were
selecting the picture in which the actor-director was eating a paella with a
group of friends at the entrance of the Valencia bullring in 1960. Cano said
“He almost didn’t leave any rice for the rest of us, because he loved it.” (p.
94).
--Furthermore,
Amorós, in his brief biography of the genial Ernest Hemingway, made a reference
to his heavy drinking when he visited Spain in 1959, and he emphasizes
that fact adding Cano’s comments about parting with his friend Hemmingway:
His knowledge of
bullfighting was only so-so, but the thing is that he had a great affection for
Cayetano Ordoñez, the father, and they would get drunk together, because they
both drank like fish. I drank with them sometimes and both [sic] of us were
very drunk on occasion in Pamplona (p. 87).
The last part of the book is titled
OTROS MITOS (Other Legends) (pps. 281-335) and, different from the other
sections, it contains only one picture of each of the famous people that are
featured. Also, Amorós text is limited to identifying the persons in the photos
and clarifying where and when the photos were taken. King Juan Carlos, author
Antonio Gala, boxer Paulino Uzcudun and entertainers Yul Brynner, Broderick
Crawford, Antonio Casal, Nati Mistral and Rocio Jurado are some of the
personalities appearing in this section. Amorós explains his criteria for
placing those pictures in a separate group:
Over the years, Paco Cano has been a good friend to many famous people…that much can clearly be seen from his photographic collection. He has also had sporadic contact with other, equally well-known people; or he has merely taken fewer photos of them, regardless of how good his relationship has been with them…Although the photographs are fewer in number, we still want these pictures to be seen, in order to give a full overview of Cano’s legend (p. 285).
When buying MITOS
DE CANO in the Corte Inglés in Seville I took a fast glance at some of Cano’s
sensational photographs, and I knew right away that later, when I would be
looking more carefully at the many great pictures printed in the 335 pages of
the book, I would be treated to the sensation of beauty. I was right.
Nevertheless, what I did not know then was that, by reading the descriptive and
informative text of the articulate Andrés Amorós, spiced with some of Cano’s
observations and anecdotes that accompany the realistic images, this book would
bring to life a part of the popular culture existing in Spain in the middle of
the past century. A time when, among other things, it was politically correct
for local and visiting famous people to participate in the world of
bullfighting, and to allow themselves to be photographed by Cano when they were
taking part, with obvious enjoyment, in taurine activities.
MITOS DE CANO is a publication that
cannot be classified strictly as a taurine book. Nevertheless, since in
addition to its attractive artistic and historical values, it contains so much
material tangentially related to the Fiesta Brava, that any persons interested
in bullfighting literature should have it in their library.
