Galician people
(Galegos)

1nd row: Alfonso VII • Diego Sarmiento de Acuña • Pedro Fernández de Castro y Andrade • Maria Pita • Martín Sarmiento • Vimara Peres • Francisco Antonio Mourelle 2rd row: Jerónimo Feijoo • Rosalia de Castro • Alfonso Daniel Rodríguez Castelao • Manuel Curros Enríquez • Pero Pardo de Cela • La Belle Otero • Fidel Castro 3rd row: Paula Vázquez • Carlos Núñez • Fernando Caldeiro • Charlie Sheen • Silvia Jato • Francisco Javier Gómez Noya • Susana Seivane</small></small>
Regions with significant populations
Galicia           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 Diaspora  Spain (rest of the country) 374,307[1]  Argentina 118,085[1]  Venezuela 33,443[1]  Brazil 29,601[1]  Switzerland 29,075[1]  Uruguay 28,470[1]  France 16,026[1]  Germany 13,254[1]  Cuba 11,114[1]  United Kingdom 10,051[1]  United States 9,482[1]  Mexico 8,003[1]  Portugal 2,787[1]  Netherlands 2,685[1]  Andorra 2,546[1] Other countries 158,203[1]
Languages
Galician, Spanish
Religion
Roman Catholic
Related ethnic groups
Asturians and other Spaniards, Portuguese, French, Italians

The Galicians (Galician: Galegos) 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[link]

Political and administrative divisions[link]

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.

Other Galician-speaking areas are situated in the Spanish provinces of Asturias in the same name of the Asturian Autonomous Community; León and Zamora in the Autonomous Community of Castile and León; and in the north of Portugal.^[2]

Population, main cities and languages[link]

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,^[3] 355.406 in Lugo,^[4] 336.002 in Ourense,^[5] and 953.218 in Pontevedra^[6]). 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^[7] and about 61% has it as a mother tongue.^[8]

Galician gaiteiros

Ancient Peoples of Galicia[link]

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[link]

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 industry, and apart from ship building, large scale industry 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.

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, Germany and, to a lesser extent, the United Kingdom.

Galician language[link]

Galician linguistic areas

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.^[9]

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[link]

• See List of Galician people

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

Notes[link]

See also[link]

Galicia portal

• 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 [link]

• 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