Cabezudos en las fiestas de la Calle San Sebastian, Viejo San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico. (2012) Los gigantes y cabezudos son una tradición popular celebrada en muchas fiestas locales de Europa occidental y América Latina. La tradición consiste en hacer desfilar ciertas figuras bailando y animando, los gigantes, o persiguiendo a la gente que acude a la celebración.
Cabezudos during the San Sebastian Street festival at Old San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico. (2012) Gigantes y Cabezudos (Portuguese: gigantones e cabeçudos; Valencian: Gegants i cabuts; Catalan: gegants i capgrossos; Basque: erraldoi eta buruhandiak; English: Giant and big-headed) are costumed figures in Spanish and Portuguese festivals. The main feature of these figures is typically their papier maché head; bodies are covered in clothing matching the costume's theme. Cabezudos are smaller figures, usually to the human scale, that feature an oversized, carton-pierre head. The heads are worn with a matching costume. The person dressed as cabezudo will use one hand to hold his head, while the other hand carries a whip or pig bladder, used to frighten children or young women. Seeing through the "mouth" of the head, he will chase after these people, though he might pause to calm a frightened child. As with the giants, the cabezudos typically represent archetypes of their town.