MERIDA - Nine-year-old Cesar Paredes is one of 17 children aged six to 14 -- one of them a girl -- learning the tricks of the bullfighting trade at a torero school in Merida.
This city in the Venezuelan Andes is where the tradition persists despite protests by animal rights campaigners.
One day "I want to leave (the ring) through the big door as a great bullfighter," the boy told AFP.
It is in Cesar's blood: His older brother is a bullfighter and their pursuit is encouraged by their mother, an avid fan of the controversial pastime.
Bullfighting is an income generator for Merida, with continued high attendance despite a long-running economic crisis that has severely diluted Venezuelans' purchasing power and caused a mass exodus.
esar and his classmates are taken through their paces by retired torero Mauro Pereira, 73, who gives three-hour classes outside of school time.
The pupils learn the correct posture and how to extend their arms as they swish the cape in the direction of the bull.
They take turns playing the animal, pretending to charge with fake horns.
The children also learn how to "look brave" as they confront the bull, and how to bend their knees in a fall in order to get up again quickly and avoid being trampled.
"We can't hesitate, we have to be determined and also have to show respect," said Leonardo Rangel, a 14-year-old among Pereira's pupils.
"When you start, you don't win... from the get-go. It happens step by step. You have to practice to be good," he told AFP.
Seven countries apart from Venezuela still allow bullfighting: France, Spain, Portugal, Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador and Peru, sometimes with restrictions.