Galician people

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Galicians

Galician civil flag

Total population

approx. 10 million of descendents worldwide

Regions with significant populations

Galicia
A Coruña Province	1,126,707
Lugo Province	357.625
Ourense Province	339.555
Pontevedra Province	938.311
Total	2,737,370
Diaspora
Spain
Argentina
Cuba
Uruguay
Switzerland
Venezuela
Brazil

Language(s)

Galician language, Eonavian, Spanish

Religion(s)

Roman Catholic

Related ethnic groups

other Spaniards, Portuguese, French, Italians

The Galicians are an ethnic group or nationality whose homeland is Galicia (or Galiza), which is a historial region in southern Europe, embracing a territory situated in the north-west of Spain. The language of Galicia is Galician.

[edit] Geography and Demographics

[edit] Political and administrative divisions

The autonomous community (a concept established in the Spanish constitution of 1981) that is known as (a) Comunidade Autónoma Galega in Galician , and as (la) Comunidad Autónoma Gallega in Spanish (in English: Galician Autonomous Community) , is composed of the four Spanish provinces of A Coruña, Lugo , Ourense and Pontevedra.

Other Galician-speaking locations are situated in the Spanish provinces of León and Zamora in the Autonomous Community of Castile and Leon and in the Autonomous Community of Asturias.

[edit] Population, main cities and languages

There are 2,767,524 people living in the Galician Autonomous Community (1,129,141 in La Coruña, 356,595 in Lugo , 338,671 in Ourense and 943,117 in Pontevedra). The most important cities in this region, which serve as the provinces' administrative centres, are Vigo , Pontevedra (in Pontevedra), Santiago de Compostela , La Coruña , Ferrol (in La Coruña) , Lugo (in Lugo) and Ourense (in Ourense). The official languages are Galician and Spanish. Knowledge of Spanish is compulsory according to the Spanish constitution, and virtually universal. Knowledge of Galician, after declining for many years specially in towns due to lack of reputation, is again on the rise due to favourable official language policies and popular support. Currently about 90 per cent of Galicia's population speaks Galician.

[edit] Galician language

Speakers of Galician as first language according to Population and Housing Census of the Galician Statistics Institute (2001)

Main article: Galician language

Galician is an Iberian Romance language belonging to the Western Ibero-Romance branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken in Galicia, an autonomous community with the constitutional status of an "historic nationality" in northwestern Spain. Galician is also spoken in the neighbouring autonomous communities of Asturias and Castilla y León, near their borders with Galicia.

Galician and Portuguese were, during medieval times, a single language spoken in the Kingdom of Galicia and in Portugal. The language is variously called Galician-Portuguese, Medieval Galician, or Archaic Portuguese. The two modern languages continue to be linked by a dialect continuum in the north of Portugal.

Despite the positive effects of official recognition of the Galician language, Galicia's socio-linguistic development has suffered from the growing influence of Castilian Spanish, a world language. The drift toward Spanish is ascribed to the growth of urban centres, the emergence of a Galician middle class, and the worldly influences of education and the media.

Galicians, increasingly, have also had contacts with other European nations along the Atlantic seaboard, particularly with the so-called Celtic countries, with which Galicia shares a cultural and musical tradition. Cultural influences from across the Atlantic have also manifested themselves in Galicia from the second half of the 20th century onwards; Galician emigrés have maintained their ties to their motherland, and they have shared aspects of the cultures of their adoptive homelands with friends and family who remained behind.

The fact that Galicia is home to Santiago de Compostela, the terminus of the most famous Christian pilgrimage route, has enabled Galicians to absorb European thought and art forms from medieval times until the present.

Galicia also boasts a rich oral tradition, in the form of songs, tales, and sayings, which has made a vital contribution to the spread and development of the Galician language. Still flourishing today, this tradition constitutes a priceless cultural heritage, much of which is shared with its neighbour Portugal.

Today Galician culture is vibrant, firmly rooted in tradition, yet open to contemporary contributions.

[edit] Culture and society

[edit] Culture and landscape

Galicia's cultural heritage is characterised by its extensive, abundant and varied geography. Indeed, the entire region could be considered as a sort of museum that never closes its doors to the public.

It boasts a wealth of Roman remains, highlights of which include the Walls of Lugo, declared a World Heritage Site, as well as the Tower of Hercules in A Coruña. The Way of St James has also been acknowledged by UNESCO, as has Galicia's capital, Santiago de Compostela, declared a World Heritage City in 1985.

More than 30,000 centres of population make up a decidedly humanised land and landscape. These settlements are home to magnificent examples of the Galician people's architectural and ethnographic heritage. Stone crosses, raised granaries and shrines… are all fine examples of the traditional constructions to be found in this land.

[edit] Emigration

Like other Iberian regions, Galicia's history has been defined by mass emigration. There was significant Galician emigration in the 19th and early 20th centuries to other parts of Spain, Portugal and to the Americas.

Unlike the Basque and the Catalan regions, which were rich, urbanized, and industrialized, Galicia remained relatively poor, agricultural and dominated by rural and village society, as industry had yet to make its appearance there on a large scale. Moreover, its agricultural sector continued to be among the most backward in Spain, and farm productivity was severely hampered by the tiny size of the individual farmsteads, known as minifundios. The minifundio was the product of an attempt to distribute land plots in a closed rural system to a growing population by requiring that equal shares be bequeathed to each heir. After just a few generations, the land had been subdivided so much that most of the plots were too small to support a family or to be economically viable.

For these reasons, Galicia was a net exporter of population to the rest of Spain. Between 1900 and 1981, the net outflow of people from Galicia was more than 825,000.

In fact, the city with the second greatest number of Galician people is Buenos Aires, Argentina, where immigration from Galicia was so massive that all Spaniards are now known as gallegos (Galicians). During the Franco years there was a new wave of emigration out of Galicia to other European countries, most notably to France, Switzerland, and Britain.

[edit] Galician cuisine

Pulpo á feira

Empanada

Queimada

Galician cuisine refers to the typical dishes and ingredients found in the cuisine of the Galicia region of Spain. These include shellfish and fish, many pork-related dishes (chourizos, zorza, botelo, androlla), empanadas, Tarta de Santiago (cake of Santiago), polbo á feira (a dish made of octopus), the cheese queixo de tetilla, the ribeiro and albariño wines and orujo liquor.

Compared to the wide variety of foods in the cuisines of France and India, for example, Galician cuisine could be considered to be fairly simple. Galician recipes are in general less elaborate than in other cuisines. In Galician cuisine, the freshness and quality of the produce are paramount.

Potato is nowadays a staple of Galician cookery. However potato crops only started to be widespread in Galicia as late as the 18th century. Potato supplanted the ancient use of chestnuts in many Galician dishes, such as the popular caldo galego (Galician vegetable soup). Another innovation was the widespread use of olive oil from the 19th century on, which replaced the older use of pork tallow.

Some taboos of Galician cookery, which are only disappearing in the globalization age, are the wide disregard for most mushrooms (with some exceptions) and some mollusks such as snails.

In Galicia, a wide variety of sea produce can be found in traditional dishes, due to the province's long shoreline and traditional fishing economy. Agriculture products such as potatoes, maize, and wheat are also a staple in the Galician diet, along with dairy and meat products from animals such as cows, sheep and pigs; Galicia's grasses and shrubs are green year-round and are excellent for grazing. Historically, rye was the most traditional cereal crop in Galicia.

[edit] Religion

The majority of Galicians are Roman Catholics with a non-religious minority.

[edit] Nationalism and history

Galician nationalism, which appeared as early as the 1840s, recalled a "Golden Age" when the medieval kingdom of Galicia had existed. There had been a king of Galicia who was crowned in 1111, but the kingdom was partitioned some years later. The northern half of Galicia was hemmed in and isolated while the southern portion expanded southward in the wake of the Moors' withdrawal. This southern part of the realm eventually became Portugal; the northern part fell into disorder.

[edit] A Revival and a sense of national willpower

Nationalism meeting in 1931 Following the union of the kingdoms of Aragón and Castille, Galicia became swallowed up in the creation of the Spanish protostate, a process that was later to continue with the establishment of the Borbon dynasty in Spain in the 18th century and the setting up of a liberal state in the 19th. This would lead to the gradual centralisation of the monarchic institutions and the loss of Galicia's political rights and institutions.

With the spread of Romanticism throughout Europe and its call for the acknowledgement of the cultures of stateless nations, Galicia began to experience a Revival, characterised by a resurgence of national awareness. Nineteenth century political movements such as provincialism and regionalism, and the appearance of nationalist groups, such as the Irmandades da Fala cultural association and the political party known as the Partido Galeguista in the early 20th century, spur on the creation of alternatives designed to provide the region with its own self-governing institutions and to embark upon a process aimed at standardising both the language and culture.

[edit] Galicia during the time of exile and resistance

The process of setting up Galicia’s first government following the passing of the Statute of Autonomy in 1936 suffered a sharp setback following the military coup that took place that same year and marked the start of the Spanish Civil War.

During the forty years of dictatorship, the Galician nationalist movement was forced into exile, leading to its restructuring in order to be able to carry out the political and cultural projects that would have been practically infeasible in Galicia until the consolidation of democratic resistance groups that challenged the dictatorship.

[edit] Democratic self-government for the future

The final years of Franco's regime saw the revival of the sense of national identity amongst the people of Galicia, starting off in the field of culture, and then gradually generating an extending towards political movement in favour of self-government and cultural standardisation within the framework of the Spanish State, seen as a plurinational and plurilingual reality.

[edit] Fraga's Galicia

In 1990, Manuel Fraga took over as President of Galicia and ruled with a sometimes hard hand. He believed that Galicia should try to modernise itself without losing its valuable traditions. Fraga's past as a Franco minister was put aside during this stage of his life, in which he assumed some of the reivindications of Galician nationalists such as the use of the Galician language. Fraga's rule over Galicia came to an end in April 2005.

[edit] Galicia today

Today that culture is flourishing. Firmly rooted in tradition, it has also gradually incorporated more contemporary aspects. The fact that Galicia was home to the end of a pilgrimage route that acted as the cultural backbone of Europe enabled it to soak up European thought and art forms throughout the Middle Ages.

[edit] Galician Cultural Future

[edit] A strong cultural fabric

The Galician City of Culture Modern Galician culture has been built on solid historical foundations, with a cultural industry currently under consolidation supported by a dynamic cultural framework. The principal cultural spaces include, within the field of art, the Centre for Galician Contemporary Art (CGAC) in Santiago de Compostela and Vigo’s Contemporary Art Museum (MARCO), without forgetting, in the area of dramatic art, the network of theatres and auditoriums. In addition, the Galician City of Culture, although currently undergoing the redefinition and reorganisation of its contents and spaces, also constitutes a global cultural project. A description of Galicia’s cultural scene would not be complete without a mention of the many socio-cultural centres, networks of libraries, alternative exhibition centres and the multiple associations that organise, promote and support root cultural projects.

[edit] Cultural Institutions

The principal official institutions in terms of cultural affairs include the Galician Royal Academy, founded in Cuba in 1906, and the Galician Council for Culture, whose aim is to advise the Galician autonomous governments in all matters concerning culture. The region’s universities also play a major role in Galicia’s cultural development. This is particularly true of the University of Santiago de Compostela, which first took on this task back in the 15th century.

The major driving forces for culture in Galicia today are the publishing industry, which is producing a growing number of publications, and the audiovisual and art industries, in which private initiative is currently thriving.