The torero is the person in bullfighting who challenges and fights the bull. In most bullfights (Spanish: corridas), several toreros perform in succession: the picadores, who wound the bull with spears; the banderilleros, who drive barbed spears into the bull's body; and finally, the matador, who kills the bull (matador means "killer").
Toreros are generally quite small, slender, and agile men. The only known torera (female torero), Cristina Sánchez, retired from the bullring at the end of 1999.
Outside Spain, the torero also performs in bullfights in Portugal, France, Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador.
Outside Spain, the term torero is also used instead of toreador. Experts generally consider this term a misconception. It's often said that this word was coined by Georges Bizet, who uses it to refer to the bullfighter in the opera Carmen. However, that opera was based on a novel by Prosper Mérimée, which also mentions the word toreador. In reality, the word "toreador" existed much earlier, and it is indeed of Spanish origin: until the eighteenth century, a toreador in Spain was a mounted bullfighter.