A Bull-Filled Day (Part II)

So, after we watched the bulls run, it was time to attend a bull fight. We were fortunate enough to run into one of Nick and Kristy's friends, Tanya, who is from the island but speaks pretty good English. She was able to give us a crash course of education when it comes to bull fighting.

Here we are enjoying our kid-free evening in the arena. The seats are incredibly squished and uncomfortable and you can rent a cushion to sit on for a euro (which we did.) However, there isn't a bad seat in the place. Everyone has a great view, and it was fascinating to watch. It's amazing that different people are totally into things that we have no awareness of at all. It was nice that our friends gave me the seat with the most leg room. If my legs are cramped, they will start cramping, literally -- and there would really be nowhere to walk around here.

Portuguese-style bullfighting differes in many way from the Spanish-style bullfighting that we as Americans understand. Especially unique are the cavaleiros and the forcados.

A Cavaleiros is a horse rider. He or she (all three of our's were men), is dressed in traditional 18th century costumes and they fight the bull from horseback. The horses are Portuguese Lusitanos especially trained for the fights. These horses are amazing! They are so incredibly trained and are dressed up for the event with their hair braided.

Here is one of our three cavaleiros. Each of them comes out two different times and fights two different bulls. That means there are a total of six bull fights for the evening. Our first rider was an older man -- obviously the most skilled. This second rider is the son of a famous rider. Our third rider was very young, but very good. He was also a crowd favorite because he was an island local. (The other two were from the mainland of Portugal.) In the past, horseback bullfighters were often members of old aristocratic families.

The purpose of this fight is to stab three or four bandarilhas (small javelins) in the back of the bull. They have to get very close to the bull in order to do this which is what is so exciting.

Here is one of our three cavaleiros fighting the bull. Those colored poles on the bull's back are spears that the rider has stabbed the bull with. The spears do not kill the bull, but the bull bleeds so it obviously does not feel good. It is semi-barbaric. It wasn't bothersome enough that I wanted to look away, but it is confusing to see people cheering as an animal is injured. It's just hard to wrap your mind around. It is so apart of their culture but there is no way our society in America would ever allow it.

By far the most fascinating part of the evening came inbetween each bull fight. After a cavaleiro fought a bull, a group of men (forcados) would come out into the arena. Forcados are a group of eight men who challenge the bull directly, without any protection or weapons of defense. In other words, they are absolutely insane! The first time a group walked into the arena, we were utterly unprepared for what was about to happen. All of a sudden we saw a group of men line up and then begin to challenge the bull. Many people who watch Portuguese-style bullfights in the United States use the term, "suicide squad", to refer to this group of eight men. I can see why!

The front man provokes the bull into a charge to perform a face catch. The front man secures the animal's head ...

 ... and he 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.)

Here they are successfully subduing the bull. There were two teams of forcados at the bull fight we attended. They each took three turns subduing a bull. Sometimes they got him on the first try. But sometimes it took as many as three tries to subdue the bull. These men were getting very hurt -- which probably explains why they performed the sign of the cross dozens of times before they went into the ring. They had extra men on the sides to help if they needed it, and they even had a coach who was "calling the plays" watching from the sideline. If they did a good job, when the rider came out to take his bow to the crowd, so did the lead man on the forcado team.

 This is our group, moments before the forcads came out. Seriously, we were all completely confused as to what was going to happen, and we literally looked at each other and said, "Are they trying to get that bull to charge them?"

JB took two videos of the forcados at work. You must watch these. CRAZY!

• Video 1: Forcados
• Video 2: Forcados

When you are watching the videos, you will also see a bandarilheiros - These men are the matador's and/or cavaleiro's helpers in the arena. These men are what we Americans associate with a bullfighter. But here in Portugal, they are used for distraction. 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.

Most Portuguese bullfights are held in two phases: the spectacle of the cavaleiro, followed by the pega which is where the forcados try challenge the bull. In Portugal, the main stars of bullfighting are the cavaleiros, as opposed to Spain, where the matadores are the most prominent bullfighters.

The bull is not killed in the ring. In addition, if they canot get the bull successfully back into its pen, they will send out a group of cows who are supposed to interest the bull enough to lead him home. This only happened once when we were there, and the bull didn't care a lick about the females.

A bull only goes into the arena one time! That's it. These bulls are four years old, they go into the arena once, and then their career is done. If they are good bulls who charge well and entertain well, then they are cleaned up after the fight. Then they are allowed to live, graze in the pasture, possibly breed, and then they run in the streets in future years.

However, if they are a nice bull, they are butchered after the fight. Go figure! The nice guy dies in the end.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the day. I was not bored in the slightest. It was great fun. But I can't say I'll go again. The treatment of the bulls did bother me and was at the back of my mind the whole time. But what a look into a completely different culture!