[1] He began bullfighting under the nickname Pepete, starting in the cuadrillas of Antonio Luque Camará and José Redondo "El Chiclanero" [es].

[2] Pepete was considered a valiant bullfighter who thrilled the public, as passionate about the bullring as he was about money.

It is said that on one occasion, having sustained a chest injury from getting very close to the bull, he later showed his lesions to his friends and said: "...

In the 1850s, he toured the most important bullrings across Spain, receiving both fans' recognition and multiple injuries.

[1] On 20 April 1862, in a bullfighting ring in Madrid, the second bull of the afternoon, a Miura bull named Jocinero, knocked over the picador during the suerte de varas [es], prompting Pepete to jump in to lift him from his horse.