Maximino Pérez’s open letter to Cuenca fans after San Julián 2026

Maximino Pérez addresses Cuenca’s season-ticket holders following the 2026 San Julián Fair to thank them for 27 years of loyalty, shared memories and passion. In an emotional letter, he recalls how he helped transform the fair in 1999 into one of Spain’s major bullfighting events and expresses his particular gratitude for the affection he has received this year.

Dear season-ticket holders, dear friends:

A few days have now passed since the doors of our bullring closed following a San Julián Fair that I will find very difficult to forget. I needed to let a little time pass before writing to you. I needed to put my memories and emotions in order and, above all, find the words to tell you something that perhaps, after so many years, I have never said to you often enough: thank you.

Thank you for this fair. Thank you for your affection. Thank you for every ovation that I have felt as my own, for every toast, every embrace, every look and every message. But, above all, thank you for these 27 years of walking this journey together.

When I arrived in Cuenca in 1999, I had enormous enthusiasm and many dreams. The San Julián Fair had barely more than four hundred season-ticket holders at the time. I looked at that bullring and was convinced that Cuenca could have one of the great fairs in Spain. Many people would have thought it was madness. Perhaps it was. But you believed. And little by little, that madness became a reality.

We grew together. The great line-ups arrived, along with historic afternoons, sell-outs, unforgettable bulls and performances that still remain in our memories. José Tomás, Morante, El Juli, Perera, Ponce, Roca Rey and so many other leading figures came to Cuenca; so did Capacitado, Carcelero and so many afternoons that have now become part of the history of this bullring. There were also alternatives, unlikely comebacks, pardons, triumphal exits through the Great Gate and even those days when we gave away cars, because I have always believed that going to the bullfight had to be much more than simply sitting in the stands for two hours. And then came something even more important: you.

From those little more than four hundred season-ticket holders, we grew into thousands. More than five thousand people waiting every August for San Julián. Entire families. Parents who brought their children, and those children who now come with their own. Young people who have made this bullring their bullring. Fans who have occupied the same seat for decades and who, without realising it, have become part of my own life.

That is why I have always said that the San Julián Fair does not belong to Maximino Pérez or MaxiToro. The San Julián Fair belongs to Cuenca and its season-ticket holders.

This year, everything has been different for me. In April, life put a bullfight in front of me that I would never have chosen. I was diagnosed with ALS. Since then, I have been learning to look at many things differently. I have also learnt to value much more those things that, when we believe we have all the time in the world, we tend to take for granted. And this San Julián Fair has made me understand one of them.

I did not know how much you loved me. I have felt it in every corner of Cuenca. I felt it when I received the Ciudad de Cuenca Award, trying to hold back an emotion that got the better of me that afternoon. I have felt it throughout the fair, through the toasts from the bullfighters, the affection of the professionals and, above all, when I looked towards the stands and saw you.

I have spent a large part of my life trying to give things to Cuenca. This year, it has been Cuenca that has given me everything. And you cannot imagine what that means to me.

Because behind the posters, the figures, the contracts, the arguments, the successes and the mistakes, there is a life. My life. And when I look back, I realise that an enormous part of it is written in that bullring.

Twenty-seven years is a long time. Long enough to get things right and to make mistakes. To celebrate successes and spend sleepless nights. To take risks when nobody else could see the way forward. To fight for a bullfighter, a breeding operation, a date or to make sure that the season ticket remained affordable. I have always tried to do it with one obsession: to make sure that Cuenca had the fair it deserves.

If I ever got things right, the credit belongs to all of you. If I ever got things wrong, I ask you to forgive me. But you can be certain of one thing: I never did anything without believing that I was defending what was best for San Julián.

Today I look back at that fair in 1999 and then at the one we have just experienced in 2026, and I find it difficult to believe everything we have built. They call it the Champions League of Bullfighting. And, of course, I feel proud. Very proud. But my greatest source of pride is not the names that have appeared on its posters or the historic afternoons we have experienced. My greatest source of pride is you. Having achieved the fact that more than four thousand people feel that being a season-ticket holder in Cuenca means belonging to something.

That cannot be bought. It cannot be improvised. It is built over many years. And we have built it together.

Now my children continue to walk alongside me and are taking on more and more responsibilities. I see them working, discussing the line-ups, thinking about promotions, worrying about the bullring and listening to the season-ticket holders, and I feel at peace. Because I understand that what began 27 years ago has already become much bigger than one person.

As long as I have the strength, I will continue to be here. Thinking about Cuenca. Dreaming about the next San Julián. Because those who know me know that I have never known how to give up, and I am not going to learn now.

But after this fair, I needed to stop for a moment and tell you something that, for so many years, may have remained hidden behind the whirlwind of every August:

Thank you for allowing me to fulfil the dream of my life.

Thank you for turning the small fair I found in 1999 into one of the great fairs in Spain.

Thank you for your loyalty when we got things right and for your high standards when we got things wrong.

Thank you for filling this bullring.

Thank you for bringing your children.

Thank you for making the Champions League your own.

Thank you for loving my family.

And, especially this year, thank you for loving me.

I do not know what life has in store for us. Nobody does. But I do know one thing: whatever happens, when I think about the happiest and most intense years of my career, the same name will always appear: Cuenca.

And when I think about who made all of that possible, you will be there. My season-ticket holders. My people.

Maximino Pérez MaxiToro

With all my affection and gratitude

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