Asturian-American Migration Forum

To set the record straight, the ‘vaqueiros de alzada’ are a sub-culture in western Asturias known for sticking tenaciously to their lifestyle since the 15th century. They practiced a type of semi-nomadism, herding their cattle from one highland pasture (‘brana’) to another according to season. Because they prized their lack of attachments and often did not pay taxes, they suffered discrimination from the ‘xaldo’ (settled farmer) population. Churches had specially designated areas for ‘vaqueiros’, as a form of segregation. Rumor had it they descended from stray Moors and were in essence foreigners, much like Spaniards regard the gypsy population. Their villages and pastures are scattered over the following counties in West Asturias: Cuideiru, Salas, Valdes (L.luarca), Tineu, Ayande, Somiedu and Cangas del Narcea

Hey! We have those guys in northern NM! They claimed to have learned their excellent abililties to train the best cutting horses and raise the best cattle from the vaqueros from Spain, or they had been such. We say vaqueros because we are just too far removed. They take their cattle to the mountains in summer, have private and shared lands. That's the way it is throughout all the Northern New Mexico communities.
They didn't like to pay taxes here either. Well, they wern't required to by the King. They hadn't in settlements like the Tierra Amarilla area, NM (old Spanish land grant). Their land was taken from them for not paying taxes to the American Gov't, and practically handed over to American voyeurs, hince the Tierra Amarilla Uprising of 1967. There was a gunfight at the courthouse and the Nat'l Guard had to come in to capture the perpitrators in Coyote, NM. There were two deaths at the couthouse of officials, I can't recall who, and a couple men went into exile into Mexico. Feisty bunch. Oh, I love the wild, wild west! What is old is all that's new.
I added some articles relating but they don't mention the problem with the taxes and how non-English speaking landowners were tricked and swindled. The leader of the uprising was a Mexican/American itransplant from Texas, a preacher, but the grant owners were originally from Spain.

http://southwestcrossroads.org/record.php?num=739
http://larrycalloway.com/historic.html?_recordnum=125

The vaqueiros are not genetically distinct from the rest of the native Asturian population.

Thank God for that! Those guys are soooo handsome!

Thanks for posting those links, Donna. It's a very compelling story.

It's sad that both Native Americans and these Spanish-American ranchers suffered because their way of assigning property rights was too different from the gringo's "private property."

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Gracias por publicar esos eslabones, Donna. Es una historia muy convincente.

Es triste que tanto los indios americanos como estos ganaderos hispano-americanos sufrieron debido a que su forma de asignación de derechos de propiedad era demasiado distinta de la "propiedad privada" de los gringos.

Aquí teneis 2 vídeos y 19 fotos de la Boda Vaqueira y Festival vaqueiro de 2012 en Aristébano.
El primer vídeo se centra en la Boda Vaqueira, a la que acuden los novios a caballo con el ajuar y una cama tirada por bueyes. Es fiesta de interés turístico nacional de España
El 2º vídeo se centra en el Festival de Música Vaqueira, con Ambas y Carminina como protagonistas
http://videoblogasturias.com/2012/08/04 ... ristebano/
Ojalá os guste

Era gente discriminada por su oficio, por parte materna, una parte importante de emigración atlántica que lleva viniendo desde siempre, desde el colapso de Doggerland, 8.000 años, sólo presente hoy en Dinamarca, parte de Doggerland.