A Brief Introduction

Spain is a country immortalized in legendary cultural exports, such as flamenco dancing, the corrida de toros, the raucous town fiesta, the gloried and still-controversial Age of Discovery and even the world's third most widely spoken language: Castilian Spanish. But it is commonly observed that Spain is a cultural composite, one nation made of many peoples, or one people made of many nations. Throughout the centuries, centralism and regionalism have vied for prominence in Spain's political life.

The competing kingdoms that once controlled the territories now known as Spain, were governed by different dynasties, had distinct legal structures and varied religious and political priorities, and often struggled for control of shared borders and for lands beyond their historical reach. Unification was never really achieved until the culmination of the Reconquest, in 1492, when the kingdoms of Castilla and Aragón, joined by the marriage of Fernando and Isabel (the Catholic Monarchs), ended the last rule of Moorish muslims on the Iberian Peninsula.

Since then, successive generations of rulers have sought to craft a uniform Hispanic culture, based primarily in the Castilian language, a process which has repeatedly led to severe repression and persecution of cultural minorities and regional languages. Today, as Spain's democratic unity deepens and gains strength, so too the autonomous regional interests are seeing new precedents in self-government and cultural independence.

The regional diversity of the country is due in large part to the existence of various distinct languages spoken throughout a number of the autonomous regions. The best-known is Castilian (castellano), spoken as a first language in Castilla and in the South, and by many Spaniards in the provinces where the indigenous language is other than Castilian. This is the language known to many outside Spain as Spanish and spoken throughout Latin America.

Catalán is spoken as a first language by most of the inhabitants of Catalunya, and variants of Catalán are spoken in the provinces of the Comunidad Valenciana (valenciano) and in the Balearic Islands (mallorquín, menorquín). Catalán is also based in Latin, but evolved separately from Castilian, around the same time. It's closest modern linguistic relative is the Langue d'oc of southern France.

Gallego, or Galician, is spoken as a first language in the northwestern region of Galicia, and is also a Romance or Latin-based language. Basque (Euskera) is spoken in the Basque country, which extends from the Pyrenees into both France and Spain. These languages are not dialects of Castilian, as many visitors believe, but wholly independent languages, with their own historical development and literary culture, rooted in distinct kingdoms dating to the middle ages or before. Each of these distinct languages has given rise to various 'nationalist' movements, which claim an independent national identity for the culture and the people involved in each of these languages.

While Catalán and Gallego share the Latin roots of Castilian, and evolved more or less parallel to it, Basque is an entirely unique linguistic phenomenon. Its origins are not well understood, and for most of its history, it was a language maintained through a potent oral tradition, leaving little in the way of historical record. It is distinct not only from the other languages of Spain, but from all known European languages. It appears to date to prehistoric times, and yet has no clear residue of other language groups, making it unique in all the world, and a source of constant attention and controversy for many, both among speakers and non-speakers.

Linguistic independence and regional autonomy are powerful issues still, as there interests were suppressed, by law and by violence, during the four decades of fascist rule under General Francisco Franco (1936-1975). During the late 1970s, a new constitution was adopted, ensuring a peaceful and effective transition from authoritarian rule to democracy. The Constitution also guaranteed vital autonomy to the culturally distinct regions of the country, gathering select groups of provinces with similar cultural identities into Autonomous Communities.

In some ways, the national government resembles a community of nations, with a shared parliamentary electoral structure, a unifying constitution and one common king. Catalunya and Valencia, for instance, each elect their own Generalitat, or regional government, headed by a President. The central government, while maintaining ultimate authority on issues of federal law, keeps regional offices that in some ways resemble foreign relations embassies. Americans may find it useful to think of the distinction between State and Federal governments, where federal authority is often thought to be a matter of cooperation between governments instead of a top-down command structure.

But the issue of self-rule is vital to Spain's autonomous regions, and for understanding Spanish democracy, because it has allowed the establishment of unique official languages, the renaming of streets for "national" heroes of local history,a nd the resurgence of cultural, historical and language education in the schools and cultural institutions controlled by regional authorities.

Catalán has been the most prosperous of the lesser-known Spanish languages, as it is now spoken by roughly 11.2 million people, in various dialects, from Alicante on the Valencian coast, north through Catalunya, and in the Balearic Islands. Outside of Spain, Catalán is also spoken in Rousillon across the French Pyrenees, in the tiny country of Andorra, and in Alghero, Sardinia. Compare that with the total national population of Sweden, at only 8.9 million.

Visitors to Spain will likely find it convenient, however, that all speakers of Spain's minority languages are also fluent in Castilian. This bilingualism facilitates travel for many foreigners whose knowledge of local languages is limited to medium to good Castilian Spanish.

A Chronological Account

The history of human civilization in Spain dates back as far as 15,000 years ago. Cave paintings, tools and artifacts point to prehistoric settlements and wandering tribes. The caves at Altamira, in Asturias, are an archaeological treasure dating to this period. Roughly 3,000 years BC, Iberian tribes from North Africa migrated into the south and the center of the Peninsula. History has long considered these groups to be the original inhabitants of what is now Spain, but traces of Neanderthal presence have been found along the Costa Brava, suggesting even more ancient native populations.

After the Iberians, Ligurians crossing the Pyrenees came to Spain from the north. These groups inhabited a territory loosely described as Celto-Iberia, and retained distinct and closely guarded tribal identities, doing battle to resist integration through the centuries. It is thought that the Basque people may date from this period and may have had ties to one of these migratory tribal groups.

Iberians in the south built fortified settlements and began mining copper, silver and gold. During the Bronze Age, merchants and explorers came to the Guadalquivir valley, in search of mineral riches, laying the scene for the arrival of classical civilizations. Following on the heels of Bronze Age prosperity, the Phoenicians came to the south, while Izmiri Greeks settled at Empúries, in modern day Catalunya. The city of Roses also dates to this period and was settled by Greeks from Rhodes.

Though mineral wealth drew opportunistic adventurers to the Peninsula, it was Greek agriculture that took root, leading to Spain's long and storied history of olive-growing, and the extensive cultivation of a wide variety of wine-producing grapes. Around 545 BC, another wave of Greeks settled Empúries. Both Empúries and Roses would be of strategic importance for another millennium before larger cities to the south, like Barcelona, would develop their trade.

It was during this time that the Celts moved in from the North to settle northern and northwestern Spain and northern Portugal. The Romans were interested not only in agriculture and olives specifically, but also in using Spanish shores as trading ports and the country's terrain as a strategic stronghold to maintain the borders of an expanding and ever more seafaring empire.