This ethnic group bridges the border between the provinces of Chayanta (Department of Potosí) and Oropeza (Department of Chuquisaca). The population is close to 20,000 people living in low Andean plateaus and valleys, cultivating potatoes, wheat, barley, some quinoa, maize, peas, beans, squash, green vegetables and a few fruit trees in the lowest areas. Small family herds are comprised of sheep and goats, along with some oxen and donkeys.

With the Agrarian Reform of 1952, the Jalq’a were organized in ex–hacienda communities and some the original ayllus (basic political and social units based on pre-Inca and Incan organizational structures), such as Qhara Qhara, Moro Moro (present-day Ravelo) and Quila Quila cantons. Unlike the Northern Potosí ethnic groups, the Jalq’a do not have a single, centralized social and political organization for the whole group. Their unity is reaffirmed in the name Jalq’a, by which they distinguish themselves from other neighboring groups such as those they call Llameros, Tarabucos, Ch’utas (in the surroundings of Sucre) and Katus (from the Tacobamba region).

Different communities surrounding the town of Tarabuco appear today as a homogeneous culture. They speak the same language, Quechua, they celebrate common festivals and rites, such as the well–known phujllay ritual, and above all they wear characteristic clothing, which allows them to be recognized by outsiders as “Tarabuqueños”.

However, it was not always this way. When the Spanish reached this region they found it populated by different ethnic groups from very distant places.

It should be remembered that Tarabuco was situated on the former Inca border with cultural groups lying farther east. To guard this border from constant invasions, especially by the Chiriguanos, the Inca moved warriors from several different provinces into this area. Very little research has been conducted on this period, but at some point the descendants of these different groups began to adopt similar customs and dress which, in spite of minor differences in the design of certain garments, gave them a common appearance.

In spite of this unity, Tarabuqueños do not themselves have a name for all those communities that persist in wearing a montera -a sort of Spanish-style helmet-, nor do they possess collective forms of organization that might indicate a single origin for them all. Even so, the unity of their clothing and music testify to the dynamism of the Andean peoples, able to create new identities, not only in the distant past, but right in front of our eyes.