[1] Chicuelo had his début as a novillero (novice bullfighter who fights younger bulls) on 24 June 1917 at the Salamanca bullring, where he shared billing with Bernardo González and Juan Luis de la Rosa.

He earned himself another two ears and a tail at A Coruña on 1 August, fighting bulls from the Portuguese ranch Palha alongside Domingo Dominguín and Ignacio Sánchez Mejías.

He began by leaving a bull named Capirote from the Miura ranch earless in his hometown of Seville, while neither of the bullfighters with whom he alternated, Rafael "El Gallo" and Manuel Granero, was awarded any trophy.

[11] At home in Spain, he did exceptionally well at a corrida in Bilbao, earning applause for the afternoon's first bull, both ears and the tail from the second, and several laps round the bullfighting ground for the fifth.

Well rewarded too at this latter corrida were both the other bullfighters who shared the billing, with Valencia II getting two ears and a tail, and Gitanillo de Ricla leaving two more bulls earless and tailless.

[11] The same befell Pintor ("Painter") from the San Mateo ranch on Boxing Day at the same bullring; Marcial Lalanda and Pepe Ortiz rounded out the billing that afternoon.

[11] Once back in Spain, only one corrida seemed to be of much significance, namely one held in Córdoba on 25 May, when Chicuelo earned two ears and a tail, while sharing billing with Zurito (Gabriel de la Haba) and Joaquín Rodríguez Ortega ("Cagancho").

Four days later in Murcia, he earned himself two ears and a tail while fighting bulls from the Encinas ranch alongside Joaquín Rodríguez Ortega ("Cagancho") and Francisco Vega de los Reyes ("Curro Puya").

Two days after that, on 11 July, at Pamplona, he was allowed a lap of the ring after his performance with bulls from the Pablo Romero ranch alongside Marcial Lalanda, Niño de la Palma, and Curro Puya.

On 13 August in San Sebastián, Chicuelo not only reaped a full set of appendages from the afternoon's fifth bull (from the Graciliano Pérez Tabernero ranch), but also earned a lap round the bullfighting ground in the presence of royalty, for Her Majesty Maria Christina of Austria, formerly Spain's Queen Consort, was in attendance, and along with her had come a number of the Infantes and Infantas.

The first happened on 14 April in Barcelona while he was fighting bulls from the Trespalacios (7) and Villarroel (1) ranches alongside Antonio Márquez, Joaquín Rodríguez Ortega ("Cagancho"), and Ricardo González, who was there to take his alternativa.

It happened at a corrida in Málaga on 2 September as he was fighting bulls from the Félix Moreno Ardanuy (Saltillo) ranch alongside Niño de la Palma and Curro Puya.

Chicuelo was awarded two ears and a tail both at Alicante on 29 June and at Gijón on 15 August, in the former instance fighting bulls from the Concha y Sierra ranch alongside Antonio Posada and Niño de la Palma, and in the latter instance fighting bulls from the Herederos de Cobaleda ranch alongside Valencia II and Marcial Lalanda.

However, he began and ended the year in Mexico, earning a lap round the bullfighting ground along with two ears and a tail after fighting bulls from the San Diego de los Padres ranch alongside Heriberto García and Alberto Balderas.

On 11 January, Chicuelo appeared at Toreo de la Condesa in Mexico City fighting bulls from the Zacatepec ranch alongside Carmelo Pérez and David Liceaga (who was taking his alternativa) and earned four ears and two tails.

Filling out the bill at this event were Antonio Cañero (a rejoneador), Joaquín Rodríguez Ortega ("Cagancho"), and "Chiquito de la Audiencia" (Juan Martín Caro Cases).

A corrida on 11 September in Albacete, however, only brought him a goring, 14 cm deep, in the belly, administered by a bull from the Pablo Romero ranch, but only ten days later, in Salamanca, he took a triumphant walk round the bullfighting ground.

Chicuelo left one Alipio Pérez Tabernero bull earless and tailless (the ranch had laid on six), but what set this bullfight apart from any other at which he had performed was the unmistakable sign of a major shift in Spain's political life, for up there in the loge, witnessing the performance, were the country's new leaders, the Prime Minister, later President of the Republic, Don Manuel Azaña, along with the Minister of Governance Santiago Casares Quiroga and an entourage.

Standing out among his performances was, for instance, Barcelona on 7 June 1936 (lap of the ring, two ears, tail, fighting Julián Fernández bulls alongside Antonio Márquez and R.V.

On Sunday, 30 August 1936, there was a magnificent bullfighting festival at Madrid's Monumental bullring to benefit blood hospitals and popular militias organized by the provincial committee of the Communist Party of Spain and Radio Sur.

Chicuelo, Rayito, Eladio Amorós, Antonio Sánchez, and Finito de Valladolid drew loud ovations from the stands as they fought six young bulls from the Don Vicente Martínez ranch.

He travelled to Latin America, returning to Venezuela specifically, performing three afternoons at the Nuevo Circo de Caracas: on 14 January, alongside Antonio García "Maravilla" in a mano a mano, fighting bulls from the Marquis of Villamarta ranch; on 21 January, with Joaquín Rodríguez "Cagancho" and José Ignacio Sánchez Mejías, who received the alternativa from "Chicuelo" (considered invalid in Spain; bulls from the Rosalía Surga cattle ranch were fought); on 28 January, bulls from the Don Felipe Bartolomé ranch were fought by the matadors Chicuelo, José Ignacio Sánchez Mejías, and Jaime Pericás.

In hometown Seville on 15 August, he earned a lap round the ring after a fight with bulls from the Villamarta ranch, and also stood as "godfather" as the Portuguese novillero Manolo Dos Santos took his alternativa.

The Pinohermoso, Escobar, J. Cossío, Osborne, Esteban González, Juan Cobaleda, Concha y Sierra, Graciliano P. T., and Montalvo ranches each contributed one bull for the festivities, and the bullfighters were Ángel Peralta (rejoneador), Joaquín Pareja Obregón (rejoneador), Manuel Jiménez Chicuelo, Domingo Ortega, Rafael "Gallito", Manolo Dos Santos, Juan Silveti, César Girón, and Curro Galisteo.

In his right hand he held a bundle of clothes tied with a belt… Juanito's friends, who brought the bad news, looked sadly at the bullfighter, not daring to speak.

It was an August night…[11]Not only was Chicuelo Roman Catholic, but he also belonged to a Catholic brotherhood in Seville known as the Pontificia y Real Hermandad y Cofradía de Nazarenos de Nuestro Padre Jesús del Gran Poder y María Santísima del Mayor Dolor y Traspaso ("Pontifical and Royal Brotherhood and Confraternity of Nazarenes of Our Father Jesus of the Great Power and the Most Holy Mary of the Greatest Sorrow and Trespass"), or Gran Poder ("Great Power") for short.

[25][26][27] On 21 July 2009, Seville's mayor, Alfredo Sánchez Monteseirín, unveiled a bronze sculpture in Chicuelo's honour on the city's Alameda de Hércules measuring almost six metres tall counting the pedestal.

[4] Some minor literature, mainly biographical in its orientation, was published about Chicuelo in the 1920s, as witnessed by the two flanking images of booklet covers in this section (neither of which is as long as 30 pages), but he later received major literary attention from a prominent writer.

Writing originally in the newspaper El Imparcial, Alcázar used notably hyperbolic language in describing Chicuelo's various moves and the crowd's reactions thereto, and concluded his piece thus: It has been the work of a god, of an enlightened one, of a sublime and brilliant madman….

From that afternoon onwards, the bull was chosen more towards that type of modern bullfighting and even years later the peto (padding for the picador's horse) would be imposed to transform an art of blood and fire into that celebration of pure science that Chicuelo knew so well.