Portuguese-style bullfighting differs in many aspects from Spanish-style bullfighting. The cavaleiros and the forcados are unique as well as the horsewomen (cavaleiras).
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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.
During 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 use 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, are restored to health and released to pasture for breeding. 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.
There are other forms of traditional bullfighting in Portugal, some differing markedly from the version described above. In the Azores, bullfighting is often reminiscent of the running of the bulls in Pamplona (Spain) in the respect that those most at risk are human beings, not the bulls themselves. The Azorean style involves a group of people vying in a tug-of-war with a young bull by holding fast to a long stout rope tied around the bull's neck. This is called the tourada à corda (bull-on-a-rope 'game').
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 at Salvaterra de Magos. The son and heir of the 4th 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.
The Portuguese now practise 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.
In 1836, due to the action of queen Mary II, Portugal deemed the killing of bulls to be immoral, and they 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 a specific bullfight to the death (Barrancos) legal again in 2002, saying that it has been a social tradition (a rare example of custom with law relevancy in the Portuguese legal system). Previously when the Portuguese government deemed it illegal to kill the bulls, there was a great social outcry to re-legalize this specific practice. In contrast, there was again a social outcry in 2002, but this time to keep killing the bulls in the fights illegal.
Geographic Distribution
The southern and central regions of Portugal, such as Ribatejo and Alentejo, and Terceira Island in the Azores, are traditionally more interested in the corrida de touros. In Portugal's northern regions, bullfighting have a lower presence.