Portuguese-style bullfighting
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Portuguese-style bullfighting differs in many respects from Spanish-style bullfighting.
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[edit] Main figures
- Cavaleiro - A horseman (rider), dressed in traditional 18th century costumes fights the bull from horseback. The horses are Portuguese Lusitanos, specially trained for the fights. These horses are usually skilled in dressage and may exhibit their art in the arena. The purpose of this fight is to stab three or four bandarilhas (small javelins) in the back of the bull. Horseback bullfighters are frequently members of old aristocratic families.
- Forcados - The forcados are a group of eight men who challenge the bull directly, without any protection or weapon of defense. The front man provokes the bull into a charge to perform a pega de cara or pega de caras (face catch). The front man secures the animal's head and is quickly aided by his fellows who surround and secure the animal until he is subdued. Forcados were usually people from lower classes who, to this day, practice their art through amateur associations.
- Matadores - Same as the Spanish matadores, but they do not kill the bull in the end.
- Bandarilheiros - These men are the matador's and/or cavaleiro's helpers in the arena. They are skillful and wear the suit of light as the matador, except not with the gold sequins. While in the arena, they are holding the gold/pink cape to distract or position the bull.
[edit] Stages
Most Portuguese bullfights (corridas de touros) are held in two phases: the spectacle of the cavaleiro, followed by the pega. In Portugal, the main stars of bullfighting are the cavaleiros, as opposed to Spain, where the matadores are the most prominent bullfighters. Nevertheless, bullfights with matadores are frequent, notably with Portuguese matadores who practice their trade in Spain and who, when in Portugal, replace the sword in their final strike with a bandarilha. Examples of famous Portuguese matadores are Vítor Mendes and Pedrito de Portugal.
Most Portuguese bullfights are held in two phases: the spectacle of the cavaleiro, and the pega. In the cavaleiro, a horseman on a Portuguese Lusitano horse (specially trained for the fights) fights the bull from horseback. The purpose of this fight is to stab three or four bandeirilhas (small javelins) in the back of the bull.
In the second stage, called the pega, the forcados, a group of eight men, challenge the bull directly without any protection or weapon of defense. The front man provokes the bull into a charge to perform a pega de cara or pega de caras (face catch). The front man secures the animal's head and is quickly aided by his fellows who surround and secure the animal until he is subdued. Many people who watch Portuguese style bullfights in the United States coin the term "suicide squad" to refer to this group of eight men.
The bull is not killed in the ring and, at the end of the corrida, leading oxen are let into the arena and two campinos on foot herd the bull along them back to its pen. The bull is usually killed, away from the audience's sight, by a professional butcher. Some bulls, after an exceptional performance, restored to health and then released to pasture for breeding.[citation needed] Nevertheless, tradition was so strong at the small frontier town of Barrancos, where the bull was illegally put to death in the arena, that the government was forced to relent and permit the town to follow its ancient matador tradition and kill the bull in the arena.
[edit] Other forms
There are many forms of traditional, popular bullfighting in Portugal, differing from the "official" version, some of which involve groups of people doing a tug-of-war with young bulls, by holding large wooden structures into which the animals charge. In the Azores, bullfighting is often reminiscent of the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, in which those most at risk are human beings, not the bulls themselves. A widely popular event would be the "Touradas a Corda" (bull on rope).
[edit] Hazards
- See also: Bullfighting
In Portugal, some bulls have their horns severed and covered in a way that they do not present sharp points. This practice is believed to have been introduced by King Joseph I of Portugal after a tragic event in a bullfight he was presiding. The son and heir of the Marquis of Marialva was fighting a bull on horseback when the animal wounded his horse. The young man fell, was kicked by the bull and killed. The Marquis himself, then around 70 years of age, jumped from the royal cabin that he shared with the king, drew his sword and killed the animal.
[edit] History
The Portuguese now practice a type of bullfighting which is in many respects different from its original form. An idea of the original form can be constructed from the Spanish style.
Much later, in 1836, due to the action of queen Mary II, Portugal deemed the killing of bulls to be immoral, and passed a law banning the public killing of bulls. However, this law only lasted for a year; the next time a law was passed prohibiting the public killing of bulls was in 1928.
The Portuguese Parliament made bullfights to the death legal again in 2002, saying that it has been a social tradition. Previously when the Portuguese government deemed it illegal to kill the bulls, there was a great social outcry to re-legalize it. In contrast, there was again a social outcry in 2002, but this time to keep killing the bulls in the fights illegal.
[edit] Modern decline in bullfighting
Bullfights are not accepted in some parts of Portuguese society, as it is in some parts of Spanish society, and to that extent, has seen a decline in the number of spectators in those sectors. However, southern and central regions such as Ribatejo and Alentejo, and Terceira Island, in the Azores are traditionally more interested in the corrida de touros, than Portugal's northern regions, where it has little or no presence.
