The 120-kilometer walk of gay ranchers who denounce discrimination: "In the town I am not Baldo, they call me 'the fagot'"
“In town they don't call me Baldo, they call me the fagot”. The rancher Baldomero López (42 years old two days ago) began a 120-kilometer march earlier this week, together with his Valencian cow, through the province of León to denounce what he considers discriminatory treatment by the mayor of the district from the El Bierzo region where he lives, Tejedo del Sil (León), and from the majority of the neighborhood council because of his homosexuality. In 2020, he transferred his hospitality business in Villablino -a rural house- and together with his partner, Isidro Lorences (30 years old) -“the one who is having the worst time”-, they started farming with the exploitation of 107 cows of meat. In this way, de facto, they became the only shared ownership between two people of the same sex in force in Castilla y León.
However, since then, they have denounced that they are going through a “true ordeal”, and not only because of the economic viability of the beef sector (“without aid it is impossible to maintain the business”, he reflects), but for what they consider “total discrimination” and “persecution” in their condition as gay ranchers. Insults, obscene gestures and mockery on a daily basis, which reach their zenith, alert, in the meetings of the neighborhood councils of the town, made up of only 34 inhabitants, according to the data of the last official census, which fosters all kinds of tensions .
“The fag is going to speak,” Baldo assures that they tell him when he is going to speak at these meetings that function as municipal plenary sessions in these villages.. «Usually I am insulted, I am also called illiterate…». And it is there where the activity of Tejedo del Sil is managed -which belongs to the municipality of Palacios del Sil- and the use of the nearby mountains, with peaks of more than 2,000 meters of altitude in the middle of the Cantabrian Mountains. In this place, he assures, they are prevented, from the beginning of their livestock activity, from accessing the rich communal pastures with their cows. “They try to ruin our livestock and if possible we leave town because they can't stand that we are homosexuals.”
Baldomero López and his partner, Isidro Lorences, pose in the village of Tejedo del Sil (León). Aid from the CAP
The detriment of the ban not only falls on the feeding of the animals, but this entails the lack of acquired rights to be eligible for CAP aid, essential subsidies to maintain the exploitation. The lack of income in these last campaigns would have already exceeded 120,000 euros: «Neither in the public forests nor in the private one (Camposagrado), because the mayor also acts there as president of that community and does not allow us to access, among other things things because he also dedicates himself to hunting in those lands”, he complains. All these accusations are denied by both the Neighborhood Council and the mayor himself, David Verano (Popular Party), who threatens to sue for violation of the right to honor and for falsehood. “It is radically a lie,” says the councilor, who points out, in a statement, that Baldo “has not appeared in the last three auctions for the use of these pastures in 2020 and 2021.”
From the Neighborhood Board it is argued that the rancher tries to “get privileges to which he is not entitled” and that he also refuses to pay any amount for access to the pastures, as is mandatory: “But how can I refuse to pay 4,000 or 5,000 euros for it when I will later receive 50,000 in aid, doesn't it make sense?” Justifies Baldomero, who clarifies that “we have always requested hectares offering payment, but they have never sent us the settlement of the rate and that have been prevented from paying.
According to the version of the affected farmer, a campaign has been launched in the town against him, who is also accused of having been sentenced for theft ten years ago: “We all have the right to make mistakes and that was a long time ago, I already complied with It was worth it and I paid 800 euros for being an accomplice in what I did not directly participate in, but that has nothing to do with this matter, but they are taking it out now to dirty my image, they even say that they are going to denounce me for animal abuse, everything to throw us out of town, “he tells EL MUNDO.
Letter to the Board
Shortly before starting the march this week to visualize his “discrimination”, the rancher requested help, through a certified letter, from the Junta de Castilla y León. “For a long time they did not answer me and then, when they saw that I was already leaving, they told me to be calm, that everything was going to be solved and they recommended that I not start the trip.”
Baldo specifies that he has all the rights for his animals to graze: on public land as he is the only partner farmer in the town, and on private land for having inherited some shared land that was owned by his maternal grandfather and a paternal great-grandmother since 1927, once their parents have died: “We are the only cattle farm in Tejedo del Sil, we believe that we are brave for managing and defending it, and we are not going to allow them to take over us”.
Deep down, he assures that he no longer cares about being called a “faggot” on the streets on a regular basis, because, among other things, “I am”. In each of his five walks that end today in León to visualize his situation, Baldo has been received with applause from the neighbors, who even offer them their accommodations to spend the night and rest.. He also has meetings with mayors, such as Mario Ribas, the one from Villablino.
Together with him, the Valencian march always “endures” the pilgrimage, of more than 20 kilometers a day: “Much better than me”. Meanwhile, in the town, Isidro has stayed in the care of the rest of the animals.. “How do they want to fix the population in emptied Spain if they don't help two homosexual ranchers in their town get hectares to whom the Neighborhood Council mocks, discriminates and defames?”, he wonders.