The Black Matador, "Sugar"
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I could’ve been alone inside an invisible bubble as I stood to pull the broomstick out of my pant’s leg; to uncurl the muleta from around my waist, take the quick walk down the arena steps and hop over the double fences into the bullring. I heard two words – “Mira! Mira! Espontaneo!”
“Yambu” was about ten or fifteen yards from me. And for one solid moment I felt the urge to hop back over the fence and forget about the whole thing. But that urge was over whelmed by a kind of high, an intoxication. I was in a real bull ring with a real bull and there was no one close enough to stop me from doing a pase or two. If the audience was shouting I couldn’t hear them. I wasn’t aware of anything but the bull and my own fears.
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About the Book
The Matador Negro “Azucar” (Black Matador, “Sugar”), is the story of a young African-American man, born and raised on the Southside of Chicago, who is obsessed by the idea of becoming a matador. Chester Simmons is opposed by his parents. “Bullfighting!? Get serious about yourself, Chester!” Dondisha Phillips, the kindergarten teacher who loves him, “Chester, you could get hurt messin’ around with those bulls”. Chester trips to Mexico City. He spends time in the projects called Tlaltelolco before he does an “espontaneo”/jumps into the bullring during a fight in the Plaza Mexico. He does four suicidal passes and is taken under the wing of an unscrupulous promoter, -- re-named Matador, Juan Negro, “Azucar”. Señor Flores holds him as an indentured servant/bullfighter until Maya de las Reyes, the great Mexican artist, bails him out. He returns to Chicago to work under his father in Gelman’s Electronic Affairs. He uses his knowledge of the bullfight to create a bullfighting video game (funded by Mr. Gelman) that makes him a wealthy twenty some year old. Whenever he is asked about his year as a Matador, he answers, “I lit my fire, I greased my skillet and I cooked.”
About the Author
Odie Hawkins an alumnus of the Watts Writers Workshop, (established by Budd Schulberg). His instructors were Louise Meriwether, John . W. Bloch, Al Jenner, Robert Lewin and Harlan Ellison. Hawkins is the author of twenty-eight novels, website: www.odiehawkins.com or google his name.