Arriero

An arriero is a person who transports goods using pack animals. In South America, arrieros transport coffee, maize, cork, wheat, and myriad other items. They remain common in the paisa region (Antioquia and the Colombian Coffee-Growers Axis) of Colombia. In English, an arriero is one form of muleteer, a wrangler of pack animals. In the Catalan language, an arriero is a traginer.

In California, arrieros, or muleteers, work out of pack stations. A muleteer can also be known as a , a more informal term. The term muleskinner means someone who can "skin", or outsmart, a mule.

In Europe, there are still arrieros in the south of Portugal and the southwest of Spain, in the cork producing area. The role of the arrieros is now limited to transporting the cork with their mules, out of the Mediterranean oak forest to more accessible routes, where modern means of transport are available.

Typical arriero outfits vary from country to country:

The fictional Juan Valdez, brand representative of the Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia, is an archetypal arriero carrying coffee sacks with this mule.

In Cormac McCarthy's second Border Trilogy novel, The Crossing, Billy's wolf upsets the arrieros' burros, which wreaks substantial havoc before Billy moves on.

The Mule Skinner Blues is a country music song first recorded in 1930 by Jimmy Rodgers; and has inspired may subseqent variations.

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