"We don't have a language. We have a problem"

The recent changes in the Spanish Senate continue to gather attention everywhere. A very vocal response to the issue comes from writer Manuel Rivas, who had an article in Galician published in the Spanish-language newspaper, El País.

The article, titled As Senadoras, o galego e o Espírito Santo ("The Senators, Galician and the Holy Spirit"), deals with the first multilingual Senate meeting, in which Galician Senator, María Jesús Sáinz, chose to speak in Castilian, as opposed to exercising her newly acquired rights and speak Galician instead. The other nacionalista parties did not applaud her choice. Basque Senator, Miren Leanizbarrutia, said her part in Basque during her turn, as was expected, while the translators in the booth took care of relaying her message in Castilian to the non-Basque Senators in real time. In her speech, Leanizbarrutia added in Galician, directed at Senator Sáinz: "É unha pena que vostede sexa galega e non faga uso da lingua na que Rosalía de Castro escribiu tan fermosos versos" ("It's a shame that you, being Galician, don't make use of the language in which Rosalía de Castro wrote such beautiful verses").

Manuel Rivas starts off the article by saying that "we don't have a language; we have a problem" ("Nós non temos un idioma. Temos un problema."). The language and the problem referring directly to Galician, as the author explains that, for some, speaking anything else other than Castilian is simply "an expense", not even worth the "price of an earpiece", i.e. what the Senators use to hear the translations. He reveals that "I thought I spoke Galician and what I speak is a problem."

Rivas's point revolves around what being part of a "historic moment" truly is. For the other political parties, having spoken in the languages of their autonomous regions was the historic moment. For the Galician Senator, if she had spoken Galician, that would've been her historic moment; choosing not speak it, even when she could, makes it now two historic moments.

The Galician writer sums up his point with the following:

Se o que temos non é un idioma senón un problema, ou un Idioma ao que chamamos Problema, pois máis que política lingüística o que nos fai falta é ir ao santo Freud.
Ou ao Espírito Santo.

("If what we have isn't a language, but a problem, or a Language which we call Problem, then, more than linguistic policy, what we need is to go to the holy Freud.
Or to the Holy Spirit.")

If you speak even only Spanish or Portuguese and are interested in the issue, read the entire article, beautifully written in Galician. If you speak both Spanish and Portuguese, you've probably read through it all already.