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Spain The Galicians
Galicians live in the four Spanish provinces located
along
the far northwest coast of the Iberian Peninsula, but
their
language zone shades into northern Portugal as well. The
autonomous region of Galicia covers about 6 percent of the
total
peninsular territory of Spain. The four provinces that
make up
the region are La Coruna, Lugo, Orense, and Pontevedra.
The total
population of these provinces in 1981 was about 2.8
million. None
of the provinces was densely populated. 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 plots, known as minifundios. The
minifundio was the product of an attempt to
distribute
land parcels in a closed rural system to a growing
population by
requiring that equal shares be left to each heir. After
just a
few generations, the land had been subdivided so much that
most
of the parcels 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.
Galician nationalism, which appeared as early as the
1840s,
recalled a mythical "Golden Age" when the medieval kingdom
of
Galicia had existed. There had indeed been a king of
Galicia who
was crowned in 1111; the kingdom was partitioned some
years
later, however, leaving the northern half 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.
Finally,
in 1483 Castilian forces restored order in Galicia, and
the
kingdom of Castile incorporated the region into its realm.
Castilian rule also brought on economic and cultural
stagnation
that lasted into the nineteenth century.
The emergence of Galician nationalism in the 1840s was
principally a literary and cultural phenomenon; its
economic and
political strength had been sapped by the continuation of
its
traditional, rural, even anti-industrial social structure.
The
peasantry was conservative; the bourgeoisie was tiny and
was
largely non-Galician; the church opposed modernization.
The
Galician language survived principally as a rural
vernacular, but
it had no official standing. Despite Galicia's
contemporary
nationalist movement, which dates from 1931, and the
activities
of the region's autonomous government, in power since
1981,
Galician nationalism continued to be almost silent in
comparison
with the louder demands of Basques and Catalans in the
late
1980s. The use of Galician in political and official
forums
remained principally a strategy of parties on the left of
the
political spectrum; more conservative political figures
continued
to use Castilian either predominantly or exclusively.
About 60 percent of the population of the autonomous
community can be identified as ethnic Galician, the great
majority of whom retained some use of their language, the
remainder retraining, at least in the home. According to
one
source, some 80 percent of the population could at least
understand the language, although it remained primarily a
language for the rural and village poor of Galicia and was
not
much heard in the larger cities. Another source argues
that at
least 80 percent could speak the language but probably
only about
60 percent actually did so on a regular basis, the
remainder
refraining, at least partly, out of a sense of
inferiority. In
any case, only an insignificant percentage would be unable
to
understand the language, given its similarities to
Castilian
Spanish. Nevertheless, like Catalan, Galician seemed
condemned to
second-class status while Castilian continued to enjoy the
role
of the dominant language in official and formal contexts.
Galician nationalists were sharply critical of what they
termed
the "so-called bilingualism policy," because they believed
that
Galician, unless it were given privileged status vis à vis
Castilian, would eventually be overwhelmed by the more
popular
and more dominant official language.
Data as of December 1988
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