TITLE: Black Beast

The name of this festivity, originally in Galician language, is A Rapa das Bestas, which means “The Shaving of the Beasts” It is an 400-year-old festival that takes place over four days, on the first weekend of July. The first morning, at half-past six in the morning, the church bells start ringing and firecrackers are released, in order to call all the villagers to a mass that is celebrated to ask for the Saint Lawrence’s protection and guidance in the Rapa. After hunting for the horses in the mountains they are brought down to the village and kept in a compound outside the village until the Curro takes place. The Curro is the central part of the celebration where hundreds of wild horses, male (garañones) and female (bestas) horses are brought into the stone compound and rounded up and wrestled to the ground for for a 'haircut' as part the tradition. This is a very impressive celebration that dates back to prehistoric times, a real force between man and beast, between humans and nature, between tradition and modernity.

AUTHOR: Diogo Baptista (Portugal)

Diogo Baptista is a photographer from the city of Porto, Portugal. His main work is in the area of photojournalism and documentary photography. He initially developed his studies in the area of Graphic Design and Digital Graphic Production and later in Photography and Audiovisual Communication. Currently working as a freelancer photographer and passionate about travelling, he is always on the hunt for new subjects to photograph.