The Way

Hollywood has been in town to honor the Galician roots of Martin Sheen and his son Emilio Estevez. Their family (Martin's dad) is from a small town in Galicia. It's not the first time they've been in town, a year or so ago Mr.Sheen was in researching for the film, The Way, which they made about the Camino de Santiago and filmed on the pilgrimage. Last night they premiered the film in Santiago and tonight they are off the premiere in Madrid. The Camino looks incredibleand I love that they've filmed it to honor their family.

Desde Galicia

Saturday morning I turned on the TV and caught a program on the Galician Channel called Desde Galicia para el mundo a cultural magazine that features the best of Galician Culture and Geography. It was pretty fantastic. Watch episodes here.

You are what you speak

Most people in Galicia are bi-lingual from birth, speaking both Spanish and Galician (Gallego, Galego). Spain is a nation of many languages, in various regions of the country you hear not only Spanish being spoken but also Gallego, Basque-Euskadi, Catalan, and other dialects like Valenciano and Aragonese. Although these languages have a very long history, for a part of the 20th century they were forbidden by the government. Only, after the death of the Francisco Franco and the end of his dictatorship, did they begin to resurge. Walking around Santiago de Compostela today, most of the signs you see are written in Gallego, most of the conversations you hear are in Gallego, and even clerks at the grocery store speak first in Gallego then in Spanish if you don’t speak Gallego. There are Gallego television stations and newspapers, and kids study not only Spanish but also Gallego in school. Here in Galicia language is a very important part of the people and their culture, they take pride in re-establishing their own language and culture. On the New York Times website today I found an article about a Native American language that is dying after a century or more of being suffocated by government. Today only 200 people speak the language, but there is a movement to save the language and the culture by teaching the language to the children in school. Maybe as this language is reborn there will be a newfound pride and identity among the Arapaho people too.
Check out the article and the slideshow in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/17/us/17arapaho.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

And, if you’re interested in the Galician language, check out the Galician newspaper, Galicia Hoxe:

http://www.galicia-hoxe.com/

And, why not, here’s the Wikipedia post on Gallego (I’m a language nerd):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galician_language

¡Ata pronto e bo dia!

(ps...I found a Halloween window display!)

El líder de una nueva generación

It's a beautiful grey day in Santiago. A perfect first day of October. The only thing missing in my apartment is a pumpkin, so to make up for it I bought a squash at the grocery store the other day. My little botanical garden is looking lovely. In the herbs, the boraja is blooming like crazy and the basil is starting to pop up too. I also finally started working. Until the papers go through all the way, I put up signs (well, so far I've only put up one, but I will put up more once I can walk around) for clases particulares and have recieved a few calls to teach kids and adults by the hour. I taught my first class yesterday and it went pretty well. It's a great way to really be immersed in Galician life. The mother picked me up and spoke only Gallego with me, and in the house I met Grandma and the other kids, and everyone spoke gallego. It's a fair trade, I'll teach them English, they can teach me Gallego.
In other news, the presidential campaigns of Obama and McCain is always on the front or the second page of the all the Spanish papers. The debate last week was being discussed for days after, and the vice-presidential debate tomorrow is also much anticipated. It's pretty obvious who Spain supports...