| José Gallego Mateo | |
| Nickname: | Pepete |
| Nationality: | Spanish |
| Birth Date: | 19 March 1883 |
| Birth Place: | Seville, Spain |
| Death Place: | Murcia, Spain |
| Occupation: | Matador |
| Years Active: | 1905–1910 |
| Sport: | Bullfighting |
José Gallego Mateo (19 March 1883 – 7 September 1910),[1] [2] known as Pepete III, was a Spanish matador.
The Seville-born matador José Gallego Mateo appeared on , or promotional posters, as José Claro "Pepete," likely because his patronym Gallego seemed ill-suited for a bullfighter. (Gallego means "Galician," and there were no bullrings in Galicia at the time.)
After taking the alternativa in 1905,[3] the right-hander appeared as a bullfighter in Spain and especially in Mexico.[4] According to his contemporaries, he was brave and had a good technique, but he was seriously injured frequently—seven times throughout his five-year career as a matador.On 7 September 1910, at the Murcia bullring during a mano a mano with the bullfighter, the first bull of the afternoon, "Estudiante" from the ranch, knocked down a picador. Pepete rushed to help the picador, but the bull sank his horn into the matador's right thigh, rupturing his femoral artery. Pepete died only a few minutes later at the bullring's infirmary.