The Galician Renaissance: History, Language, and Identity

Socioeconomic Context: The Fall of the Ancien Régime

The fall of the Ancien Régime paved the way for modern society. This period saw the transition from the Enlightenment and Neoclassicism to Romanticism. In Portugal and Spain, the socioeconomic structures of the Ancien Régime hindered development. Widespread peasant poverty led to mass emigration, while fishing and services remained stagnant. In Catalonia, the monopolization of shipbuilding and trade facilitated the process of castellanización, which eventually sparked liberal and progressive movements, as well as the emergence of a Galician bourgeoisie asserting its own identity and language.

Precursors to the Galician Renaissance

The movement was rooted in the rationalist ideas of the Enlightenment and the individualistic focus of Romanticism. Key precursors began writing in Galician again, marking a transcendental shift. The pre-Renaissance period saw the appearance of early documents, most notably the pamphlets of Xoán Manuel Pintos, who in 1853 published A Gaita Galega, a work in praise of the Galician language.

The Full Renaissance (1863–1905)

The Galician language became the primary element of political and cultural claims. This process, born in the late 1840s as provincialism, evolved through the Restoration into Regionalism and, by the 20th century, into Nationalism.

Literary Standardization and Key Figures

Although Galician was the majority language, it was heavily fragmented by Castilian influence. Figures of the Renaissance—such as Rosalía de Castro, Curros Enríquez, Eduardo Pondal, and Lamas Carvajal—transformed it back into a learned literary language. This evolution occurred in two stages:

• Dialectal Stage: Writers used the specific dialect of their region of origin.
• Interdialectal Stage: The appearance of the first grammars and dictionaries (by Saco e Arce, Valladares, etc.) improved writing quality.

As the use of castellanismos decreased, hiperenxebrismos emerged. The growing need for a unified standard led to the founding of the Real Academia Galega in 1906. Curros, Murguía.