What he designed is a remarkable feat of engineering. The Osborne
bulls found in
Spain today weigh nearly 9,000 pounds apiece, and
each measures almost 45 feet high - the average height of a
four-story building. El Toro is a massive jigsaw puzzle of sorts,
made from seventy 35-by-75-inch pieces of 5/64-inch-thick iron;
1,000 bolts; four scaffolding-like turrets held in place with bases
that, combined, weigh 55 tons; and 20 gallons of black paint.
Tejada is both the brains and the brawn behind the entire endeavor;
his family workshop is the backdrop for each bull's "birth."
When Tejada explains the process of engineering the design,
crafting the pieces, and building the bulls, he speaks with the
pride of a father. No wonder - until five years ago, he himself
made all the bullboards, fashioning each new bull according to his
design plan, forging the pieces and the scaffolding in his
workshop. Then, along with his team, he assembled each at its final
roadside home.
"We put all the pieces together with fire. So we have buckets of
water prepared. We've never had an accident," Tejada says with
well-deserved satisfaction. It might sound old-school, and, well,
it is. But Tejada doesn't believe in fixing something that's not
broken. Osborne apparently abides by the same tenet. "[The
Osbornes] have never bothered me," Tejada says. "Lots of things in
the business have changed. But they've never asked me to change a
thing." The people of Spain clearly value tradition.
That, of course, includes those traditions inspired by the bulls.
Graduating marines in El Puerto climb the bulls, crowning them with
their graduation caps. In Tejada's own family, whenever a child
reaches the age of seven, he or she climbs up through the turrets
to the top of the 45-foot bull that sits on the road leading to the
town of Conil de la Frontera. And all throughout Spain, people
paint the bullboards, decorate them, climb them, you name it - and
it rarely fails to make the paper.