MEXICO CITY — It was not long after the first trumpets on Sunday that José Tomás found himself in familiar territory: inches from the vicious horns of a fighting bull, so close they nearly brushed up against the pink silk of his traje de luces, or suit of lights.
Careful not to twitch a muscle, which could have triggered the bull to attack him, Tomás stood firm in this dangerous position and alone at the center of the Plaza México, the biggest bullring in the world. Tomás’s cultish followers are called Tomásistas, and the bullring was filled with more than 45,000 spectators, the largest draw for a matador in recent memory.