The Azambuja-born bullfighting rider Paulo Jorge Ferreira is preparing to put an end to his career in the arenas of California, where he built much of his professional career and has lived for many years. The farewell is scheduled for Monday, September 14, in Gustine, an evening that closes a long connection to bullfighting of the Portuguese community in that American state.
It is also the closing of a cycle that the rider himself had anticipated, although for a later date, in an interview given to Valor Local in January 2019. At the time, Paulo Jorge Ferreira had just renewed for another ten years his contract with the Coudelaria de Jorge Martins and planned to remain in California until 2029. Despite the professional stability achieved in the United States, he already admitted then that a return to Portugal could happen before the end of that contract, confessing: "My wish is to return to my homeland, as year after year it becomes increasingly difficult to bear the homesickness with the passage of time."
Seven years later, the farewell to the arenas arrives before the date he had set as the horizon for the end of his career. When he spoke to Valor Local, Paulo Jorge Ferreira had been living in California for about a decade and was going through a particularly positive period, developing work related to horses and horse breeding. In 2019, Jorge Martins' structure had sold three horses to the renowned rider Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza.
The farewell is scheduled for the Gustine Bullring, at 7:00 PM local time, being presented as "a historic night" and "an unforgettable farewell." For Azambuja, the farewell has a particular significance, as it was to "my homeland" that the rider confessed he wanted to return when Valor Local interviewed him in 2019.
