Professional Matadora. She was a professional matadora, or female matador. Called "La Diosa de Oro," or "Blonde Goddess," she was arguably the best-known female bullfighter of all time, killing roughly 750 bulls over the course of her career. Born Concepcion Cintron Verrill to American parents, her father was a Puerto Rican West Point graduate, who was living in Chile for business reasons. She was raised in Lima, Peru, from age three. At around age 11, Conchita was taught horse riding by Ruy da Camara, a retired Portuguese rejoneador, bullfighter from horseback, whom she would always call "my maestro." Trained by da Camara as a rejoneador, utilizing the standard technique of a practice-fight with either a cow or a young bull, she simultaneously acquired the skills of a matadora (bullfighter on foot) from Spaniard Diego Mazquiaran, and made her first novillo at 13 in the Lima bullring. After refining her skills by killing animals in a slaughterhouse, she killed her first bull in the ring at 15 in Tarma, Peru, and, against much family opposition, fought in her first Mexico City corrida in the Plaza del Toreo on August 20, 1938. Conchita was soon much in demand, in part due to the novelty of an attractive girl killing bulls, but also because she was one of the few bullfighters to mix the styles of both rejoneadora and matadora within the same corrida. She would fight in Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Portugal, France, and, once, in 1941, San Francisco, though bulls are not killed in the United States. Conchita was gored severely twice, once in each thigh; in a 1940 Mexico City corrida, she broke away from medical personnel, returned to the ring, and killed the bull, while at Guadalajara in 1949 she was to do the same. Spain in the time of Franco required females to fight from horseback, and though she appeared in a few exhibitions, her official debut in Seville did not occur until April 23, 1945. She intended the final corrida of 1949 in Jaen, Spain, to be her last, with a young novillero, assigned to actually dispatch the animal. The crowd was to witness one of the legendary moments in bullfighting history when, after her performance, she rode to the presidential box, asked permission to dismount for the kill, and when denied, jumped down and took the muleta and sword. Conchita stood with her weapons, dropped them when the bull charged, patted him on the back, and walked away. The novillero killed the bull, and Conchita was immediately arrested, though a near-riot forced the president to pardon her on-the-spot. After one final fight in Spain on October 18, 1950, she retired to marry wealthy Portugese nobleman Francisco de Castelo Branco, nephew of da Camara. She lived in Lisbon, worked as a journalist, was a noted dog breeder, and served as an unofficial Peruvian diplomat. Her mother penned a 1960 biography of her, and her own "Memoirs of a Bullfighter" was released in 1962. She died of heart disease. Having seen three bullfighters killed in the ring, when asked how she faced a dangerous job, she said simply: "I never have any qualms about it. A qualm or a cringe before 1,200 pounds of enraged bull would be sure death."