Extremaduran People

Extremadurans are an ethnic group living in Extremadura, between the centre and the south-west of Spain.

Extremadura has usually been, and still is, the poorest part of Spain, although the gap between Extremadura and other places in Spain has been reduced. Its landscape (and the landscape of the surrounding territories) is dominated by the dehesa, a kind of man-made pastureland wooded with some holm oaks, used for the grazing of livestock.

The way people from all over Extremadura speak has some features in common with southern dialects of Spanish, such as the speech from Andalusia or Murcia. In northern Extremadura these southern features merge with some Leonese features, forming the Extremaduran language, which is nowadays seriously endangered. In the rest of Extremadura there may be just a few remains of Leonese influence in the southern Spanish dialect which is spoken. Although some leonese features of the northern Extremaduran language are endangered and are seen as quite exotic even within Extremadura itself, the southern features of Extremaduran speech are very much alive all over Extremadura.

There are some towns or villages in Extremadura where Portuguese is spoken, such as Olivenza, Cedillo and Herrera de Alcántara. Olivenza and Cedillo belonged to Portugal until two centuries ago, but Herrera de Alcántara never did.

In three villages located in a small valley of the northwestern part of Extremadura near the border with Portugal, the Fala language is spoken, which is a Romance language from the Galician-Portuguese subgroup mixed with Extremaduran.

Historically, Extremadura has long been one of the poorest regions in the country. As a result, many of its people left to Latin America during the colonial era (1492-1820s), leaving a mark on Latin music in the Americas ever since.