Galician people

Not to be confused with the people of Galicia (Eastern Europe).

Galician people
Galegos

Total population
c. 3.2 million
Regions with significant populations
Province of A Coruña	991,588
Province of Pontevedra	833,205
Province of Lugo	300,419
Province of Ourense	272,401
Galicia	2,397,613
Spain (rest of the country)	355,063
Argentina	147,062
Brazil	38,554
Venezuela	38,440
Uruguay	35,369
Cuba	31,077
Switzerland	30,737
France	16,075
United States	14,172
Germany	13,305
United Kingdom	10,755
Mexico	9,895
Galicians inscribed in the electoral census and living abroad (2013/09)	414,650
Languages
Galician, Castilian Spanish
Religion
Roman Catholicism, Evangelicalism; Atheism

Galician people or Galicians (Galician: galegos, Spanish: gallegos) are a national, cultural and ethnolinguistic group whose historic homeland is Galicia, in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. Two Romance languages are widely spoken and official in Galicia: the native Galician, and Castilian.

Etymology of the ethnonym

The ethnonym Galicians or Galegos, derives from the Latin Gallaecos or Callaeci, itself an adaptation of the name of a local Celtic tribe known to the Greeks as καλλαικoι (Kallaikoi), who lived in what is now northern Portugal and who were conquered by the Roman General Decimus Junius Brutus Callaicus in the 2nd century BCE. The Romans later applied this name to all the people who shared the same culture and language in the north-west, from the Douro river valley in the south to the Cantabrian Sea in the north and west to the Navia river.

The etymology of the name has been studied since the 7th century by authors such as Isidore of Seville, who wrote that "Galicians are called so, because of their fair skin, as the Gauls", relating the name to the Greek word for milk, but today scholars derive the name of the ancient Callaeci either from Proto-Indo-European *kal-n-eH₂ 'hill', through a local relational suffix -aik-, so meaning 'the highlanders'; or either from Proto-Celtic *kallī- 'forest', so meaning 'the forest (people)'.

Languages

Galician

Main article: Galician language

A map of Galicia showing speakers of Galician as first language in 2001, Galician Institute of Statistics.

Galician is a Romance language belonging to the Western Ibero-Romance branch; as such, it derives from Latin. It has official status in Galicia. Galician is also spoken in the neighbouring autonomous communities of Asturias and Castile and León, near theirs borders with Galicia.

Medieval or Old Galician, also known by linguists as Galician-Portuguese, developed locally in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula from Vulgar Latin, becoming the language spoken and written in the medieval kingdoms of Galicia (from 1230 united with the kingdoms of Leon and Castille under the same sovereign) and Portugal. The Galician-Portuguese language developed a rich literary tradition from the last years of the 12th century. During the 13th century it gradually substituted Latin as the language used in public and private charters, deeds, and legal documents, in Galicia, Portugal, and in the neighbouring regions in Asturias and Leon.

Galician-Portuguese diverged into two linguistic varieties - Galician and Portuguese - from the 15th century on. Galician became a regional variety open to the influence of Castilian Spanish, while Portuguese became the international one, as language of the Portuguese Empire. The two varieties are still close together, and in particular northern Portuguese dialects share an important number of similarities with Galician ones.

The official institution regulating the Galician language, backed by the Galician government and universities, the Royal Galician Academy, claims that modern Galician must be considered an independent Romance language belonging to the group of Ibero-Romance languages and having strong ties with Portuguese and its northern dialects.

However, the Associaçom Galega da Língua (Galician Association of the Language) and Academia Galega da Língua Portuguesa (Galician Academy of the Portuguese Language), belonging to the Reintegrationist movement, support the idea that differences between Galician and Portuguese speech are not enough to justify considering them as separate languages: Galician is simply one variety of Galician-Portuguese, along with Brazilian Portuguese; African Portuguese; the Galician-Portuguese still spoken in Spanish Extremadura, Fala; and other dialects.

Nowadays, despite the positive effects of official recognition of the Galician language, Galicia's socio-linguistic development has experienced the growing influence of Spanish, a major 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.

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 shares much with that of Portugal.

Castilianization

Main article: Castilianization

Many Galician surnames have become Castilianized over the centuries, most notably after the forced submission of the Galician nobility obtained by the Catholic Monarchs in the last years of the 15th century. This reflected the gradual spread of Spanish language, through the cities, in Santiago de Compostela, Lugo, A Coruña, Vigo and Ferrol, in the last case due to the establishment of an important base of the Spanish navy there in the 18th century.

For example, surnames like Orxás, Veiga, Outeiro, became Orjales, Vega, Otero. Toponyms like Ourense, A Coruña, Fisterra became Orense, La Coruña, Finisterre. In many cases this linguistic assimilation created confusion, for example Niño da Aguia (Galician: Eagle's Nest) was translated into Spanish as Niño de la Guía (Spanish: the Guide's child) and Mesón do Bento (Galician: Benedict's house) was translated as Mesón del Viento (Spanish: House of Wind).

Geography and demographics

Galician bagpipers in New York.

Ancient peoples of Galicia

In pre-historic times Galicia was dominated by a megalithic culture, common to other areas of Atlantic Europe. Galicians are descended from Spain's second wave of Celtic invaders who came across the Pyrenees mountains, known as the Castro Culture. Later, it was taken over by the Roman Republic and Empire. It was at this time that Latin, which is the ancestor of modern Galician, replaced the old Gallaecian language.

The decline of the Roman Empire was followed by the rule of two Germanic tribes, the Suevic, who settled in considerable numbers, and the Visigoths, in the Middle Ages. In 718 the region briefly came under the control of the Moors after their conquest of the Visigothic Kingdom but the Galicians successfully rebelled against Moorish rule in 739 and Galicia joined their Christian neighbour the Kingdom of Asturias.

Political and administrative divisions

The autonomous community (a concept established in the Spanish constitution of 1978) 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.

Population, main cities and languages

The official Statistical body of Galicia is the Instituto Galego de Estatística (IGE). According to the IGE, Galicia's total population in 2008 was 2,783,100 (1,138,474 in A Coruña, 355.406 in Lugo, 336.002 in Ourense, and 953.218 in Pontevedra). The most important cities in this region, which serve as the provinces' administrative centres, are Vigo, Pontevedra (in Pontevedra), Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, Ferrol (in A 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 owing to the pressure of Spanish and official persecution, is again on the rise due to favorable official language policies and popular support. Currently about 82% of Galicia's population can speak Galician and about 61% has it as a mother tongue.

Emigration

More than any other Iberian region in modern times, Galicia's history has been affected by emigration. There was significant Galician emigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to other parts of Spain, other parts of Europe and to the American continents.

Unlike the Basque and the Catalan regions which began to industrialize in the 19th century and were urbanized and rich, Galicia was a relatively isolated village society whose main sources of income were subsistence agriculture and fishing. 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 result of a system of inheritance that distributed land plots in a closed rural system to a growing population by requiring that equal shares be bequeathed to every descendant. The land had become subdivided so much that most of the plots were too small to support a family or to be economically viable. The rich seas and large fishing industry provided an alternative to agriculture.

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. During the Franco years, there was a new wave of emigration out of Galicia to other European countries, most notably to France, Switzerland, Germany and, to a lesser extent, the United Kingdom.

South America

South America has the largest number of people of Galician descent outside of Spain. Several million South Americans are descendants of Galician immigrants, mostly in Argentina, Venezuela and Brazil. In northeastern Brazil, people with light or blue eyes or light colored hair are often called galegos (Galicians), even if not of Galician descent, because of the large number of Galicians that settled in the region in the early 20th century.

In Argentina, the term gallegos was often used for all Spaniards because a large part of them were Galicians when they arrived in the first half of the 20th century. Today, Buenos Aires is the city with the second largest number of people with Galician ancestry, although most share the mixed origins of most Argentinians.

Culture

Celtic revival and Celtic identity

See also: Castro culture, Celtic place names in Galicia, and List of Galician words of Celtic origin

In the 19th century a group of Romantic and Nationalist writers and scholars, among them Eduardo Pondal and Manuel Murguía, led a "Celtic revival" initially based on the historical testimonies of ancient Roman and Greek authors (Pomponius Mela, Pliny the Elder, Strabo and Ptolemy), who wrote about the Celtic peoples who inhabited Galicia; but they also based this revival in linguistic and onomastic data, and in the similarity of some aspects of the culture and the geography of Galicia with that of the Celtic countries in Ireland, Brittany and Britain. The similarities include legends and traditions, decorative and popular arts and music. It also included the green hilly landscape or the ubiquity of Iron Age hill-forts, Neolithic megaliths and Bronze Age cup and ring marks.

During the late 19th and early 20th century this revival permeated Galician society: in 1916 Os Pinos, a poem by Eduardo Pondal, was chosen as the lyrics for the new Galician hymn. One of the strophes of the poem says: Galicians, be strong / ready to great deeds / align your breast / for a glorious end / sons of the noble Celts / strong and traveler / fight for the fate / of the homeland of Breogán. The Celtic past became an integral part of the self-perceived Galician identity: as a result an important number of cultural association and sport clubs received names related to the Celts, among them Celta de Vigo, Céltiga FC, or Fillos de Breogán. From the 70s a series of Celtic music and cultural festivals were also popularized, being the most notable the Festival Internacional do Mundo Celta de Ortigueira, at the same time that Galician folk musical bands and interpreters became usual participants in Celtic festivals elsewhere, as in the Interceltic festival of Lorient, where Galicia sent its first delegation already in 1976.

Celtic Galicia
Galician bagpiper in traditional dress  A castro (hill-fort) at Baroña, Porto do Son A castro (hill-fort) at Baroña, Porto do Son  Dolmen at Axeitos, Ribeira  Medieval interlaced cross, church of Santa Susana, Santiago de Compostela  Iron Age carvings from the hill fort at Santa Trega, A Guarda  Massive gold torc of Burela  Galician Neolithic or Bronze Age cup and ring marks  Cliffs near Cape Ortegal, Cariño  Iron Age golthsmithing: triskelion and spirals  View of the hillfort at San Cibrao de Las, Ourense
Celtic and non Celtic elements common along the western Atlantic coast of Europe and which are popularly perceived as characteristically Celtic.

Literature

Main article: Galician literature

• 

  Rosalia de Castro was one of the most representatives authors of the Rexurdimento (revival of the Galician language).

• 

  Eduardo Pondal, considered himself a "bard of freedom", he imagined a Celtic past of freedom and independence, which he tried to recover for Galicia with his poetry.

• 

  Manuel Curros Enríquez, a Galician journalist and writer who was famous for his compromise with the Republicanism against the Spanish Monarchy as well.

• 

  Manuel Rivas was born in A Coruña. A famous Galician journalist, writer and poet whose work is the most widely translated in the history of Galician literature.

Science

• 

  Benito Jerónimo Feijóo y Montenegro was monk and scholar who wrote a great collection of essays that cover a range of subjects, from natural history and the then known sciences.

• 

  Martin Sarmiento. He wrote on a wide variety of subjects, including Literature, Medicine, Botany, Ethnography, History, Theology, Linguistics, etc.

Music

• 

  Carlos Núñez is currently one of the most famous Galician bagpipers, who has collaborated with Ry Cooder, Sharon Shannon, Sinéad O'Connor, The Chieftains, Altan among others.

• 

  Susana Seivane is a Galician bagpiper. She was born into a family of well-known Galician luthiers and musicians (The Seivane).

• Octavio Vazquez Composer.jpeg

  Octavio Vazquez is a New York-based composer of classical music.

• 

  Carlos Jean is a DJ and record producer. He was born in Ferrol and has Haitian roots.

Sport

• 

  Fernando Torres Fernando José Torres Sanz (born 20 March 1984 in Fuenlabrada, Madrid) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a striker for La Liga club Atlético Madrid, on loan from Serie A club Milan.

• 

  Francisco Javier Gómez Noya (1983-), former triathlete, Silver in 2012 Summer Olympics.

• 

  Óscar Pereiro is a professional road bicycle racer. Pereiro won the 2006 Tour de France.

• 

  David Cal Figueroa is a Galician sprint canoer who has competed since 1999, he became the athlete with more Olympic medals of all time in Spain.

• 

  Nacho Novo is a professional footballer who played in several European countries and teams.

Cinema and TV

• 

  María Castro (1981-) is a well-known Galician actress who performed in severals Spanish TV series and movies, such as Sin tetas no hay paraíso, Vive cantando or Los Serrano among others.

• 

  Luis Tosar has starred in some successful Spanish movies such as Celda 211 or Te doy mis ojos.

People of Galician origin

• 

  Cuban ex-president Fidel Castro

• 

  American musician Jerry Garcia (Grateful Dead)

• 

  Portuguese explorer João da Nova

• 

  American actor Martin Sheen, born Ramón Estévez

• 

  Brazilian writer Nélida Piñon

• Argentina.RaulAlfonsin.01.jpg

  Argentinian ex-president Raúl Alfonsín

• 

  Tabaré Vázquez, president of Uruguay

• 

  José Alonso y Trelles, Uruguayan poet

See also

• List of Galician people
• Galician nationalism
• Fillos de Galicia
• Spanish people
• Nationalities and regions of Spain

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Library of Congress Country Studies.

External links

• Galician Portal
• A collaborative study of the EDNAP group regarding Y-chromosome binary polymorphism analysis
• Galician language portal
• Galician Music, Culture and History
• Galician Government
• Galician History and Language
• Santiago Tourism
• Page about The Way of St James
• Official page about The Way of St James
• Arquivo do Galego Oral - An archive of records of Galician speakers.
• A Nosa Fala - Sound recordings of the different dialects of the Galician language.