MEXICO: Manolete

Some 25,000 eager aficionados paid scalpers up to $200 a seat for the thrill of watching Spain's finest torero, slight, 28-year-old, chinless Manolete (born Manuel Rodríguez,), make his first appearance in the Mexican bull ring. Outside Mexico City's Plaza de Toros, some 200 Federal troops, 50 tear-gas squadmen and two fire-engine crews restrained the thousands who could not get tickets.

All week the coffee-table talk has been of (Manolete: the bullring people had spent $3,500 for a special plane to meet Manolete's ship, rush him to Mexico City; Manolete was training with the gypsy Gitanillo Triana; Manolete was as nervous as a baited bull; Manolete would get rich at $10,350 a fight.

With his first bull, Manolete was as good as his billing. His derechazo (pass to the right) was a marvel of elegance. When he made five naturales (singlehanded pivoting passes) with his left hand, the enchanted aficionados threw their hats into the ring. The kill was magnificent. Fur jackets, coats, ties, even shoes showered on Manolete, who gravely marched around the ring, holding aloft the ears and tail of the bull.

But Manolete was not to be the only star. Mexico's own Silverio Perez took his bull with almost equal skill, got as great an ovation. Determined to outdo Silverio, the visitor from Spain returned to the ring. When Manolete tried a lance (pass with the cape), the bull evaded the cape, drove a horn deep into the Spaniard's left thigh.