Asturias
Speaker
Lucía Velasco
Livestock breeder and president of the Asociación de Ganaderas Asturianas
This Asturian lady seeks to secure the survival of a culture that dates back a whole century. She runs a business of more than 100 head of cattle that spend half the year in the mountains of the Principality.
A former professional soldier, 37 years old, she returned to the mountains of Asturias to take up the family business and live among her cows. Alongside her two children and her husband to help out, she runs a business of more than 110 animals as a transhumant cowgirl.
Her efforts to preserve the tradition of transhumance and dignify the profession, especially for women, have been acknowledged with many prizes and honours. To quote just a few, she inaugurated the 2018 Transhumance Fair, was declared Young Female Breeder of the Year, she won the Ministry of Agriculture's Innovation Excellence for Rural Women's Award, and was Honorary Cowgirl 2019. In 2018 she was ambassador of the PGI "Ternera Asturiana".
Lucía Velasco is also the president and founder of Asociación Ganaderas Asturianas, an association of local female breeders, supporting the role of women in rural areas and working for their subsistence and consolidation.
