Вакейрос-де-Альсада: Кочевой народ северной Испании

Northern Spanish nomadic people in the mountains of Asturias and León

The Vaqueiros de Alzada (Asturian: Vaqueiros d'Alzada, "nomadic cowherds" in Asturian language, from their word for cow, cognate of Spanish Vaquero) are a northern Spanish nomadic people in the mountains of Asturias and León, who traditionally practice transhumance, i. e. moving seasonally with cattle. Vaqueiros have a culture separate from their non Vaqueiro Asturian and Leonese neighbors and can often be distinguished by their last names, many of which are unique to Vaqueiros including Alonso, Ardura, Arnaldo, Berdasco, Boto, Calzón, Feito, Gancedo, Gayo, Lorences, Parrondo, Redruello, Riesgo, Sirgo, and Verdasco among others.

The ancestral territory of the Vaqueiros is in western Asturias and northwestern León. The traditional communities, or brañas, of the Vaqueiros can be found in the Asturian municipalities of Belmonte de Miranda, Cangas del Narcea, Cudillero, Gijón, Gozón, Llanera, Navia, Oviedo, Pravia, Las Regueras, Salas, Siero, Somiedo, Teverga, Tineo, Valdés, Asturias, and Villayón and the Leonese comarcas of Laciana, Omaña, El Bierzo and Babia (es). There is a diaspora throughout Spain, Latin America, and the United States with a particularly large diasporic community in Madrid. Large areas of Vaqueiro immigration can be found in Cuba, Argentina, Mexico, and France with substantial populations in the states of Florida, New York, West Virginia, and the Western United States, especially Nevada.

The word Vaqueiro is an exonym and until more recent years, this term was not frequently used by Vaqueiros themselves. In Vaqueiro Territory and surrounding areas, the term Vaqueiro is used exclusively to refer to the Vaqueiros de Alzada and has connotations of race and ethnicity instead of a profession. De Alzada was added by Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos to help distinguish the Vaqueiros from the non Vaqueiro cattle herding population. It comes from the Asturian verb alzar, to raise or to go up, after Jovellanos observed that the Vaqueiros raised, or brought their homes up, every summer to the higher summer brañas. The full name Vaqueiros de Alzada, which is used most often in outside sources, is not often used in Asturias and León. Vaqueiros refer to valley dwelling non Vaqueiros as xaldos and coastal dwelling non Vaqueiros as marnuetos, maranuetos, or marinuetos, though in more recent years the term marnueto has fallen more out of use in favor of referring to all non Vaqueiros as xaldos.

The exact origins of the Vaqueiros are unknown. The non Vaqueiro population historically considered the Vaqueiros to be descendants of Muslim Moriscos, particularly Moriscos from Alpujarras, though most anthropologists consider this unlikely.

Vaqueiros do not have a tradition of writing and therefore lack their own early written documents. The first specific written mention of the Vaqueiros is in 1433 CE in a receipt by the Count of Luna (es), detailing his payments to a group of Vaqueiros migrating to Laciana. 52 years later in 1485 CE, in a written account of attacks against Vaqueiros and their cattle, it is mentioned that the Vaqueiros consider themselves a people. Most of early written Vaqueiro history is recorded in civil cases brought up by Vaqueiros against discrimination, physical attacks, and land theft.

The drafting of Vaqueiru men has been a major early cause of assimilation of Vaqueiros into non Vaqueiro society. During the Spanish Civil War, important Vaqueiro brañas were burned in the fighting, including El Puerto (Somiedo) and Torrestío (es) in Babia which burned in 1937. The Council of Vaqueiro Culture was founded in 2016 in the braña of El Pevidal in Salas and held its first Forum of Vaqueiro Culture that year.

The exact number of Vaqueiros, in Vaqueiro Territory and abroad, is uncertain and the majority of the last estimates come from the end of the 20th century. An estimate from 1965 put the Vaqueiro population at around 15,000 in Asturias and another from 1980 estimated 6,448 Vaqueiros in Asturias. There are more Vaqueiros in diaspora than remaining in Vaqueiro Territory and there are estimated to be more Vaqueiros in Madrid alone. Marriages were arranged with a neutral intermediary and the bride's family gave a dowry, which often consisted of livestock or agricultural products, but never land.

Traditionally, Vaqueiros speak their own dialect of Asturleonese which is most similar to Paḷḷuezu, save for the easternmost Vaqueiros that migrate between Torrestío and speak their own dialect which more closely resembles a central dialect of Asturleonese. The che vaqueira (es), is characteristic of the Vaqueiro dialect and it is named after the Vaqueiros. Today, most Vaqueiros speak Spanish.

Nomadic Vaqueiros participated in subsistence farming and engage in swidden agriculture, an uncommon practice in Spain. Vaqueiros commonly grow clover, wheat, alfalfa, rye, maize, and potatoes. The introduction of maize greatly impacted Vaqueiro agriculture for maize grows faster than wheat or other staple foods. Much of what Vaqueiros grow is to be consumed by their cattle. Vaqueiro houses traditionally kept two pigs and slaughtered one once a year on a feast day.

Discrimination against Vaqueiros has been recorded since nearly the first written record of Vaqueiros. Vaqueiros were segregated in most public places, particularly the Church, and were banned from running for local office or from voting. Because Vaqueiros were nomadic and lived in the brañas, some Vaqueiros did not pay taxes or tithes which led to the forced sedentarization of Vaqueiros for purposes of tax collection. For most of their known history, Vaqueiros were considered a separate and inferior race to non Vaqueiro Asturians and Leonese and the concept of purity of blood was evoked to oppress Vaqueiros on the basis that they were an inferior race. In 1551, Vaqueiru men were ordered to be castrated by regidor Don Diego das Marinas to prevent Vaqueiros from reproducing. Vaqueiros were the subjects of scientific racism, in particular a case in the early 20th century in which the Vaqueiros of the braña of Buspol in Salas were the subjects of phrenological studies in which they were deemed ‘mongoloids’. The Vaqueiros were considered by race scientists and their non Vaqueiro neighbors to be brachycephalic due to inbreeding, though they have proven to be no more brachycephalic than nearby non Vaqueiro populations. Segregation of Vaqueiros occurred in churches, cemeteries, bars, and holiday festivals. Early church segregation most often presented as class segregation between nobles, peasants, and Vaqueiros, with Vaqueiros at the bottom of the hierarchy and eventually evolved into ethnic segregation, dividing non Vaqueiros and Vaqueiros. In bars, Vaqueiros were not allowed to drink out of glasses and instead were made to drink from cups made of animal horns. In 1844, a law was passed to make segregation illegal, however it was largely ignored and did little to curb the segregation of Vaqueiros. Today, Vaqueiros face environmental inequality and a lack of opportunities. Many Vaqueira brañas lack sufficient roads, some lack electricity, and others lack running water. Many Vaqueiro brañas face environmental threats such as mining. In 2007, an electrical substation was installed in the braña of Buspol in Salas, notwithstanding the protests of the Vaqueiros.

A study of Vaqueiro mitochondrial DNA by Pedro Mercader Gómez et al. in 2013 suggests that the Vaqueiros are native to western Asturias and share a common background with non Vaqueiros but have evolved to become genetically distinct from the non Vaqueiro Asturian and Leonese population.