Background - Don Gallo!
Posted: Mon Jun 24, 2013 9:29 amPaublo Manuel was born to poor peasant farmers, and his parents died fording a river in their oxen cart when he was very young. He was taken in by some of the ranch hands at El Rancho Acosa, where he quickly showed an aptitude for training the bulls the ranch was famous for. While he was well treated by the ranch hands, lacking the proper family that is at the core of the Castillian personal identity, Paublo latched onto the idea of bull-fighting as a replacement. The bull-fighting ring became his life: its bulls his daily companions, it's heroes his distant relatives, and it's prestige the only thing in life worth having. Paublo swore to himself that one day he would be the greatest of all bullfighters, and for nine years the boy scrimped and saved every scrap of wages he could get his hands on, until he had enough to convince an old, bitter, and long retired bullfighter to teach him the trade. Paublo took to it like a fish to water, years of hard work and determination finally paying off.
For 3 more years the boy worked the ranch by day and practised his true love at night, until he was a boy no longer. But the name Paublo Manuel meant little to anyone beyond a few other dayworkers at El Rancho Acosa, an orphaned boy who would never amount to much in the larger world. So Paublo took up his sword, cape and a new, grand name, one destined to be shouted in bull-fighting rings all over Castille. The newly christened Don Gallo set out for Altimira to make his name and fortune, and secure his place in legends of the bullring for all time.
For 3 more years the boy worked the ranch by day and practised his true love at night, until he was a boy no longer. But the name Paublo Manuel meant little to anyone beyond a few other dayworkers at El Rancho Acosa, an orphaned boy who would never amount to much in the larger world. So Paublo took up his sword, cape and a new, grand name, one destined to be shouted in bull-fighting rings all over Castille. The newly christened Don Gallo set out for Altimira to make his name and fortune, and secure his place in legends of the bullring for all time.