Vaqueiros de alzada

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.