ENGLISH [INGLÉS]

MANIFESTO

INTRODUCTION

The Galician language is the most cherished immaterial heritage of the Galician people. It is what identifies us as Galicians, and confers upon us a place in the world.

BACKGROUND

As Galicians, we feel proud to possess an ancient language with a glorious history. Because of political circumstance, Galician entered a tunnel of enforced silence during the first decades of the sixteenth century, endured marginalisation and suffered morally and physically over many generations. However, the uninterrupted oral practise of the language by the poorer strata of Galician society and the intellectual elite, who began to speak it from the beginning of the nineteenth century, safeguarded this principle feature of Galician identity and the essential basis of our culture. Their collective efforts mean that today Galicia is an historical nation that enjoys political autonomy. Successive autonomous governments have laid the foundations for the social recuperation of the Galician language, especially in the fields of education, administration and the public-sector news media.

PRESENTATION

ProLingua was established by people with very diverse ideological outlooks and professions whose chief aims are the promotion of Galician as the first language of Galicia (and of her border regions), and the attainment of a truly official status for Galician, consisting of a normalised presence in those fields where the language remains practically excluded, such as commerce, law and other public and private services, especially the media. We therefore declare as ProLingua’s inalienable objectives the entire contents of the 1983 Lei de Normalización Lingüística, as well as the 2004 Plan Xeral de Normalización da Lingua Galega, which both enjoyed unanimous approval by the Galician Parliament. Living as we do in a State based on the rule of law, we, as citizens, demand that the current laws regarding language policies be adhered to, just as we also demand that no legal steps be taken that diminish the rights of the Galician people to employ and know Galician and to regard it as a seal of their Galician identity.

PROCEDURE

- ProLingua’s only membership requirement is that members commit themselves to the defence of the Galician language and the promotion of its usage in all areas of public and private life.

- Given that the Galician language is the heritage of the Galician people, we reject any attempt to appropriate or attribute it by or to any organization or ideology. ProLingua is therefore an apolitical and pluralist grouping.

- Membership of ProLingua is a personal commitment and does not signify any representation of a given organisation or association in this grouping.

- ProLingua seeks to promote all those activities that contribute to the achievement of its objectives, and will never take part in actions removed from these, although members may freely do so on an individual basis.

- No other logo may accompany that of ProLingua in any given initiative, irrespective of design or purpose.

- The representative nature of Prolingua falls to all its members in their condition of absolute equality and has no other purpose in partaking in dialogue with public institutions than that of the complete fulfilment of its objectives.