Florentino Ballesteros

Florentino Ballesteros was born in Zaragoza, Spain  in 1893. At a young  age he started to do well with calves and graduated to the rank of novillero, where he really caught on. Such was partly due to a rivalry with oen Jaime Balelsteros "Herrerin" who was also from Zaragoza and shared the same last name thought they were no relation.

For a time, the rivalry between the two new toreros was the  talk of Spain and they appeared numerous times together,  but any anticipation of  extended glory died along with Herrerin, when he was killed by a bull that gored him in the chest.

Ballesteros carried on without his frequent alternate on the carteles and lived long enough o take the alternativa in 1916 at the hands of Joselito.

The 1916 season saw him with a deluge of contracts both as a novillero and a matador de toros, but his season ended unexpectedly with a major goring in Motol.

He was not completely recovered when 1917 rolled around and it showed. Still he strove onward until a big Madrid corrida. There he met his end.

While working with the capote, a veronica was poorly-timed and the bull slammed into him, lifting him high off his feet with a horn in the lung.

He died a short time afterward.

The remains of the unfortunate new matador were taken to his native Zaragoza for burial. Both he and his formal rival, Herrerin, sharing gravestones with busts bearing their likenesses, very near each other.