Galicia in Brest:

Welcome

Located in the western corner of the Iberian Peninsula, Galicia is one of the European "fisterres" ("ends of the world"). This land, where land itself ends, has been a meeting point between the Mediterranean and Atlantic cultures throughout the history.

Galicia has a rich cultural background, built on its own traditions as well as on the influence of other cultures. Among these we find the Celtic nations, the Portuguese-speaking countries (close to us due to language proximity), the Way to Santiago (introducing influence from Western Europe along the centuries), and the Latin-American culture, conveyed by the hundreds of thousands of Galician emigrants that crossed the Atlantic ocean during the XIX and XX centuries.

These circumstances have presented Galicia with a rich and dynamic culture and made it into a country open to the world, while preserving its roots.

Identity

Galicia has its own specific language, spoken by the majority of the region’s population. The Galician language (galego) is of Latin origin and has strong ties with Portuguese. After a long period of repression, Galician has been granted official status and work is being done to promote its usage in every domain.

Since the end of Franco’s dictatorship, Galicia has its own Parliament, elected by direct ballot, and government (Xunta de Galicia), with jurisdiction over several affairs: health, education, fishing, agriculture, industry, trade, research, transport, etc. The Xunta approved a budget of around 11 billion euros for 2008.

Galicia in Brest

In 2008 Galicia will be a guest of honour at the most relevant event of maritime culture, which takes place from the 11th until the 17th of July in the French region of Bretagne. This invitation means a well-deserved acknowledgment for our country - the first ever nation without the status of state to come to the Festival as we are a reference point in the Iberian Peninsula in organising traditional boat meetings since 1993, as well as proud owners of a vast maritime and fluvial heritage.

Programme

The programme of the Galician delegation in Brest comprises activities both on land and at sea, with 25 traditional boats making up our fleet. At the Galician Village around a million visitors will be able to enjoy workshops, photo exhibitions and films, quality food, music shows... Galicia’s image in the Festival will acquire major relevance on 16July.

We are sea

Galicia and the sea have been an inseparable couple since the time when the Celts inhabited our land, thousands of years ago. The special relevance of fishing in our country dates back to the Roman occupation, when Gallaecia became one of the most important ports in the Atlantic-Mediterranean trade corridor, and it developed after medieval times, when the first fisherman’s guilds were constituted and many still alive crafts developed. Since the XVIII century the salting process helped to export Galician products out of our borders and its profitability was seized by Catalan entrepreneurs, who established themselves in our bays (rías). The Galician maritime activity branched out later into shipbuilding, first in Ferrol, then in Vigo, and fish preserving.

The sea today

Nowadays, Galician ships are present at nearly every fishing-ground in the world and a quarter of the European fish captures comes from Galician ports or is managed by Galician companies. In addition, thousands of Galician men and women earn a living working in aquiculture, gathering shellfish or in the shipbuilding and canned fish industries.
Lately, a new vision of the sea has arrived to Galicia, not exclusively related to work and risk, but as a leisure asset, a place for enjoyment and sports. In this sense, our coastline is becoming a reference point for recreational sailing lovers.

Heritage

Galicians have inherited an immense maritime and fluvial heritage, an invaluable legacy which will always be a crucial factor for our identity and collective memory.

Hence, our maritime and fluvial heritage extends further than the shape of our boats, and includes, in terms of cultural legacy, all material and spiritual displays related to the human activity in coastal and fluvial areas over time. Piers, popular architecture, fishing equipment, art images, the oral tradition, folk songs, names of places... all form part of this vast legacy, a compilation of the collective memory of many generations.

Initiatives

A concern for enhancing the value of these richness is flourishing thanks to the efforts of a network of maritime and fluvial associations. The flagship of this network is the Federación Galega pola Cultura Marítima e Fluvial, founded in 1994 and consisting of 38 clubs and associations from all about Galicia, and three other from Northern Portugal.
Since the celebration, in 1993, of the I Encontro de Embarcacións Tradicionais (I Traditional Boats Meeting) in Ribeira, an increasing number of organizations are devoting themselves to building and repairing traditional boats.
The Galician government has recently started a collaboration programme with the Federación as a serious attempt to promote the Galician maritime culture. Galicia’s presence in Brest is part of this ambitious venture, whose aims are not only to publicise the diversity of our boats, but also incorporate the whole of the Galician society into this project.