Paco Morgado

Paco Morgado was born around 1961 in Trujillo, Cáceres. He is a fifth-generation shepherd: his family has been dedicated to sheep farming in the Extremadura dehesas for over a century. At the age of fourteen, he was already accompanying his father with the sheep, and he has not stopped doing so since.

He has been working with sheep for 50 years and practicing transhumance on foot for 25 years. Every year, between May and June, he embarks on a journey of 600 kilometers over a period of 40 to 43 days through the Cañada Real Leonesa Occidental, leading his flock of 1,440 registered Merino sheep from the dehesas of Cáceres to the mountain ports of León. He is accompanied by two carea dogs and twelve mastiffs.

He made his first transhumance "the year Franco died," in 1975. Since then, he has not missed a single year. The journey is tough: rivers need to be crossed, the heat of the Castilian summer must be endured, sleeping outdoors is necessary, and waking up before dawn is routine. But Paco does it out of passion and the conviction that this ancient tradition must not be lost.

Transhumance is a practice declared Intangible Cultural Heritage in Spain. For centuries, thousands of shepherds traversed the royal paths moving millions of sheep between winter and summer pastures. Today, Paco Morgado is practically the only one who continues to do it on foot, in the traditional way.

There is no clear successor. His two sons know the trade but do not share the calling. Paco says: "It is a very hard path, there is water, there is heat, I do it out of passion, because I have always done it and I don’t want it to be lost." When he stops walking, it is likely that a centuries-old tradition will fade away with him.