Vaqueiros

The vaqueiros de alzada are a human group whose ancestral roots are still being studied. With its own culture, clothing, dances and folklore, its populations are spread throughout western Asturias. Its main characteristic, the “alzada”, consists of a transhumance where they left with their livestock and all their belongings to the high pastures, the “brañas de verano”, which they did not leave until the beginning of autumn.

Due to the reticence shown by the rest of society because of their transhumant lifestyle, as well as the clashes with the clergy and the nobility, among other things because of the discrepancy in the payment of tribute, the marginalization suffered by the vaqueiros lasted until well into the twentieth century.