The Galician Language: A Historical Timeline from 1900 to the Present
The Galician Language Between 1900-1936
Although political powers continued to oppose the complete recovery of languages other than Spanish, and it was absent from any official use in schools, this period saw some successes in the struggle for the retrieval of the Galician language. It seemed condemned to assimilation, but in 1906, the Real Academia Galega was founded. However, this was primarily at a symbolic level, as its practical work was minimal. One of the motivating factors was the high cultivation of literary language in essays and the press, but especially in formal public oral language. Literary language expanded its areas of use in several acts. Narrative prose and poetry were developed, and there were important scientific trials, dissemination, and translation of foreign texts by the Nós magazine. During this time, the Irmandades da Fala (Brotherhood of Speech), the Partido Galeguista (Galeguista Party), and the Seminario de Estudos Galegos (Seminary of Galician Studies) were born. These organizations were monolingual in Galician. For their members, the language was a sign of identity. These fully nationalist organizations began the struggle for co-officiality of the language and its introduction into administrative, judicial, and educational fields. In 1936, during the Republic, a plebiscite was won for the approval of the first Autonomy Statute for Galicia, which recognized the co-officiality of Galician and Castilian. However, it had no effect, as the Republican legality was abolished by the military who won the Civil War that year, resulting in a long period of silence for the Galician language and culture.
The Galician Language Between 1936-1975
After the troops of General Franco won the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), the dictatorship established by the victorious military (whose ideology was based on extreme Spanish nationalism) practiced strong repression against Galician intellectuals. The Galician language lost all opportunities for official status and public use. The dictatorship used powerful means such as schools and the Church to survive. Galician culture only survived in exile in the Americas. Despite all this, after the Allied triumph in World War II, Galician began to recover little by little. The few who continued the Galeguista movement focused on a cultural plan. The Editorial Galaxia (1950) and the Grial magazine were of great help in this recovery. During this time, there was an exodus of the rural population that tended to adopt Castilian. This, united with political oppression, caused desertion among Galician speakers. Castilian became the urban language. In the 1960s and 70s, clandestine political activity increased, leading to the creation of new nationalist political parties such as the PSG and UPG, as well as cultural associations, in order to disseminate the Galician language and culture. The result of all this was that by the 1970s, a new phenomenon appeared: many young people whose first language was Castilian began to defend Galician. Thus, Galician entered, for the first time, radio, newspapers, and the university in an official report form.
The Galician Language from 1975 to the Present: Legal Framework
With the death of Franco in 1975, and three years later, the Cortes approved the current democratic constitution. It established the co-officiality of Galician and Castilian in Galicia. Official recognition came in 1981 with the Autonomy Statute, which established that Galician is the native language of Galicia and that no one shall be discriminated against for its use. In 1983, the Law of Linguistic Normalization came into force, regulating its use in administration and services. Galician became the official language of the autonomous administration (the Xunta de Galicia and its delegations). It is the language of education, with some exceptions. It is compulsory in primary and middle levels, where it is established that at least half of the subjects must be taught in Galician. These standards have validity in the university. In September 2004, the Parliament unanimously approved the General Plan for the Normalization of the Galician Language (with nearly 450 measures to increase the use of Galician), and a year later, the Council of Europe recommended that education be primarily in Galician. The situation is different in other institutions (state administration and the judiciary). The Church allows its use in masses, but the majority of priests are foreigners and do not use Galician. Qualitatively, the situation today presents areas that were unthinkable years ago (political, institutional, cultural, and university). Its use seems to be prestigious in relation to certain commercial products. Quantitatively, the situation is negative, as the number of speakers is decreasing rapidly. Its use is recognized by the majority, but this number decreases according to the age of those surveyed. Until recently, it was the sole language of the countryside, but today it is no longer so.