Galicia is currently celebrating its cultural festival in honor of poet Luísa Villalta, the writer to whom this year’s Día das Letras Galegas is dedicated. In addition to honoring this “committed,” “complex,” and “attractive” creator, the day has been marked by a debate on the future of the Galician language, which is reportedly losing speakers among children and young people. Víctor Freixanes, the president of the Real Academia Galega, has called on institutions and political groups to agree on promotion measures. He urges the need to design “a new horizon that corrects mistakes and opens up hopes” for the language, 41 years after the Language Normalization Law and 20 years after the Normalization Plan were implemented partially.
Villalta was the focal point of an institutional event at the Teatro Colón in A Coruña, the city where she was born in 1957 and which heavily influenced her work. Her sister, Susana, praised the poet’s activism “for Galicia” and her ability to “capture the essence” of her hometown. The author, who passed away in 2004, balanced her profession as a teacher with that of a writer and violinist, and in addition to poetry, she wrote plays, narratives, essays, and articles in the media. Ana Romaní, the 2018 National Award winner for Cultural Journalism, highlights Villalta’s avant-garde feminism and the “complexity and breadth” of her work, which “demands expanding the circle, opening the windows.”
In Santiago, at the same time as the institutional event, thousands of people marched through the streets to demand policies promoting the Galician language, an annual march that takes place on May 17th in the capital of Galicia. Representatives from opposition parties to the PP participated. The spokesperson for Queremos Galego, the organizing platform, emphasized the 20th anniversary of the unanimous approval in the Galician Parliament of the Normalization Plan, drafted by Manuel Fraga’s government to reverse the “critical situation” in which the language was then considered to be. Marcos Maceira warned that in these two decades, and after the PP under Alberto Núñez Feijóo implemented measures against this plan, the problem has become a “linguistic emergency” that requires a national commitment to be respected and upheld by the Xunta.
The need for a pact for the Galician language was raised in the regional Parliament a few days ago by the newly appointed Culture, Language, and Youth Conselleiro, José López Campos. On Friday, the President of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda, advocated for the promotion of the Galician language to be carried out “by all and against no one,” avoiding methods that are foreign to Galician sensibilities and in harmony with Spanish. The leader of the opposition, Ana Pontón (BNG), responded to the PP’s policies against the Galician language, which have limited young people’s freedom to use their language. In his speech at the central event of the Día das Letras, the president of the Real Academia Galega highlighted the challenges faced by the Galician language in family transmission and socialization, stressing the importance of usage rather than prestige.
Overall, the celebration of Día das Letras Galegas in honor of Luísa Villalta has sparked discussions on the future of the Galician language and the need for collaborative efforts to promote and protect it. The cultural festival has not only paid tribute to a significant literary figure but has also highlighted the ongoing challenges faced by the language in maintaining and attracting new speakers, particularly among younger generations. Through events, marches, and public debates, the importance of preserving the Galician language as a vital part of Galicia’s cultural identity and heritage has been emphasized, calling for collective action and political will to ensure its survival and flourishing in the years to come.
