Andrés Hernando

Andrés Hernando García was born on 26 February 1938 in La Velilla, in the province of Segovia, Spain. Nobody in his family had been involved with bullfighting, and he learned the craft in the village fiestas and capeas of Castile. He made his debut with picadors in Chinchón, near Madrid, on 24 June 1956, and presented himself as a novillero at Las Ventas in Madrid on 6 July 1958. In the weeks before becoming a full matador in 1962 he fought three novilladas in a row at the Real Maestranza in Seville.

Hernando took the alternativa in the bullring of Segovia on 1 July 1962, with Victoriano Valencia as his sponsor and Santiago Martín 'El Viti' as witness. The ceremonial bull was 'Generoso', from the Arranz ranch, and he cut three ears and was carried out on the shoulders of the crowd. Early injuries and setbacks slowed his rise, but a successful afternoon at the San Fermín fair in Pamplona in 1963 opened the way to Madrid.

He confirmed his alternativa at Las Ventas on 29 March 1964, with Antonio Medina as sponsor and José María Montilla as witness. On 23 June 1964 he headed the bill of the Beneficencia corrida in Madrid with El Cordobés and the Mexican Gabino Aguilar, and cut both ears of his first bull, from Atanasio Fernández. That October he cut an ear in the Red Cross corrida at the Maestranza in Seville. Over his career he opened the Puerta Grande of Las Ventas three times and appeared at the Seville April Fair in 1965, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971 and 1974, fighting 19 corridas there as a matador.

On 21 July 1967 he, Victoriano Valencia and Manuel Benítez 'El Cordobés' made the opening paseíllo of the new bullring of Ávila. In 1968, in a corrida at the Monumental in Barcelona, a bull from the Pablo Romero ranch was pardoned, the first such indulto in the city in about thirty years. His busiest and most prominent seasons were between 1966 and 1972. In 1974 he organised a farewell season of 12 corridas and retired after a final afternoon in Segovia on 5 October 1974, when his father cut his coleta in the presence of El Viti and Roberto Domínguez.

After retiring he remained in the bullfighting world as an impresario of several bullrings and later as a breeder of fighting bulls on his estate at Marlín, in the province of Ávila.

Although born in Segovia, Hernando was regarded as an adopted son of Ávila, where he met his wife, Sonsoles Aboín, and where he lived for most of his life. He was remembered in the Spanish bullfighting press as a model of the classical, sober Castilian style and for his spirit of sacrifice and his recovery from repeated injuries in the ring.

Andrés Hernando died on the afternoon of Monday 26 October 2026, aged 88. Shortly before 6 pm, the Ford car he was driving collided with a Jiménez Dorado passenger bus travelling from Ávila to El Barco de Ávila, at a junction at kilometre 260 of the N-110 road by the industrial estate of La Colilla. He was left unconscious and trapped in the car, and the emergency services confirmed his death at the scene. The bus driver was unhurt, and three of the 34 passengers were treated on the spot and discharged. The Guardia Civil opened an investigation into the causes of the crash. His body lay in state at the Palacio de Superunda in Ávila on Tuesday 27 October, so that relatives, friends and supporters could pay their respects.

Hernando was one of the most prominent Castilian matadors of his generation and one of the Castilian bullfighters with the strongest following in Seville. His name is tied to the inauguration of the bullring of Ávila in 1967, and the writer Carlos Abella included him in his history of modern bullfighting, De Manolete a José Tomás. In October 2022 the bullring of Ávila honoured him for the 60th anniversary of his alternativa, and on 11 May 2023 the Centro de Asuntos Taurinos of the Community of Madrid unveiled a commemorative tile dedicated to him at Las Ventas.