Galicians

Galician people
(Galegos)

File:Galician people 2.jpg 1nd row: Orosius • Alfonso VII • Diego Sarmiento de Acuña • Maria Pita • Pedro Fernández de Castro y Andrade • Vimara Peres • João da Nova 2rd row: Jerónimo Feijoo • Rosalia de Castro • Francisco Antonio Mourelle • Manuel Curros Enríquez • Pero Pardo de Cela • La Belle Otero • Martín Sarmiento 3rd row: Paula Vázquez • Carlos Núñez • Fernando Caldeiro • Carlos Irwin Estevez ( Charlie Sheen ) • Octavio Vazquez • Francisco Javier Gómez Noya • Manuel Rivas
Regions with significant populations
Province of A Coruña	1,126,707
Province of Lugo	357.625
Province of Ourense	339.555
Province of Pontevedra	938.311
Total	2,737,370
Spain (rest of the country)	374,307
Argentina	118,085
Venezuela	33,443
Brazil	29,601
Switzerland	29,075
Uruguay	28,470
France	16,026
Germany	13,254
Cuba	11,114
United Kingdom	10,051
United States	9,482
Mexico	8,003
Portugal	2,787
Netherlands	2,685
Andorra	2,546
Other countries	158,203
Languages
Galician, Spanish
Religion
Roman Catholic
Related ethnic groups
Asturians and other Spaniards, Portuguese, French, Italians

The Galicians (Template:Lang-gl) are an ethnic group and nationality, whose historical homeland is Galicia in north-western Spain. Most Galicians are bilingual, speaking both their historic language, Galician, and Castilian Spanish.

Geography and demographics

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.

Galician gaiteiros

Ancient Peoples of Galicia

In pre-historic times Galicia was dominated by a Megalithic Culture, common to other areas of Atlantic Europe. Galician cultural elements can be traced back to the Bronze Age Celtic civilization 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.

Emigration

File:Centro Gallego de México en el centro de Puebla.jpg

Galician folk dances in Mexico

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

Unlike the Basque and the Catalan regions which were rich, urbanized, and industrialized, Galicia remained relatively poor, agricultural village society, as large scale industry, and apart from ship building, had yet to make its appearance. 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. On the positive side, the system ensured that there were relatively few who were completely without means and the rich seas and large fishing industry provided alternative sources for a living.

Gaiteiros in New York

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 people of Galician descent is Buenos Aires, Argentina, where immigration from Galicia was so large that all Spaniards came to be called 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, Germany and, to a lesser extent, the United Kingdom.

Galician language

Galician linguistic areas

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 neighboring autonomous communities of Asturias and Castile and León, near its border with Galicia, and in Portugal.

Medieval or Old Galician, more usually known today by linguists as Galician-Portuguese, was the language spoken in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia. Old Galician diverged into the two modern languages of Galician and Portuguese when the County of Portugal became the independent Kingdom of Portugal. The two modern languages still share some mutual intelligibility, particularly in northern Portugal where they are joined by a dialect continuum.

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 centers, 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 constitutes a priceless cultural heritage, much of which is shared with Portugal.

Celebration of Santiago Apóstol day in Cartago, Costa Rica.

Famous people of Galician origin

• See List of Galician people

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See also

• Galicia (disambiguation)
• Galician nationalism
• Genetic history of the Iberian Peninsula
• Genetic history of Europe
• Fillos de Galicia
• Nationalities and regions of Spain
• Spanish people

• • Wikipedia:WikiProject Galicia

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
• Galician History
• Santiago Tourism
• Page about The Way of St James
• Oficial page about The Way of St James