Two alguacilillos on horseback look up to the president's box and symbolically ask for the keys to the puerta de los toriles. Behind that door the bulls are waiting. When the door opens and the first bull enters the spectacle starts for real. It consists of three parts, called tercios ("thirds"), the separation of which is signalled with a bugle call. There are three toreros-bullfighters (the better-known word "toreador" is actually never used in modern Spanish)-in each corrida, each being allotted two bulls. In the first tercio the bullfighter uses the capote, a rather large cape that is a pinkish-mauve colour on one side and yellow on the other.




Now the two picadors enter on horseback, armed with a sort of lance. The second tercio is la suerte de banderillas. Three banderilleros must stick a pair of banderillas into the charging bull's back. In the final suerte suprema the bullfighter uses the muleta, a small red cloth draped from a stick. He has to show his mastery to dominate the bull, and to establish an artistic symbiosis between man and beast. The corrida ends with the torero using his sword to kill the bull.