COUNTER COVER 09

THE BELEGUIN DEER

From cave paintings to Eastern and Western cultures, humankind has represented the deer as a symbol related to the Tree of Life, attributing to it a meaning of innocence, strength and beauty.

In the Sierra, the term belequines refers to men who display restless behaviour such as deer in rutting season. In La Nava and El Cabaco, villages in the Sierra de Francia, the emboiderers called the rampant deer depicted in their cloths ‘beleguines’, supposedly because they were in rutting season, known locally as the ‘berrea’.