A matador encourages a bull to charge with his colorful cape at a bullfight in Graciosa, Azores, Portugal.
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. 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).
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