America's First Female Bullfighter Dies at 83 Bryan Mealer - The New York Times
go to original April 14, 2013

American Matadora Patricia McCormick explains her passion for Bullfighting. (ladybullfighter)

During the 1950s, when young women from West Texas were typically expected to take care of the home, Patricia McCormick bucked social convention, and a long male tradition, by entering the bullfighting ring.

By all accounts she was the first woman in North America to become a professional bullfighter. For more than a decade, beginning in 1951, she performed in hundreds of bullfights, receiving top billing in stadiums from Mexico to South America. She drew thousands of fans and became an international celebrity, capturing the attention of the American press.

Time, Sports Illustrated and Look magazines all wrote profiles of her. The bullfighting critic Rafael Solana once called Ms. McCormick, who died on March 26 at 83, “the most courageous woman I have ever seen.”

But in the mid-20th century, the bullring, too, had a glass ceiling. Ms. McCormick could never shake the title of novillera, or apprentice fighter. Elevation to the highest rank required a special ceremony and sponsorship by a matador, and no matador would do such a thing for a woman.

Still, her male counterparts marveled at the artistry of her cape work. “Had she not been born a woman,” one of Mexico’s elite matadors told Sports Illustrated in 1963, “she might have been better than any of us.”

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