A lingua dos Devanceiros ha florire na túa boca

"The teacher made some cardboard for them kids who spoke in galego. She'd put on them these big donkey ears, along with a sign sticked to them backs with «I am a donkey. I don't know how to talk» (in Spanish) written down.

She (the teacher) did this several times to a friend of mine, and also used to beat her up. I just can't forget about it, my child, for it was so cruel. I didn't even dare to talk about what was going on at school back at home. It was too rough”.

“He answered in galego in a spontaneous way. It didn't matter the teacher used to say he had this preference for that student with such an exemplary behavior, he got brutally beaten up. Hit him nonstop with a vimbio stick until red marks showed up on his skin all over the ears and face. The kid couldn't even understand why he got beaten up like that just for answering in galego. I mean, how would anyone understand such thing while being 10 y/o?"

“What are you speaking? you're not making any sense”

''The nun heard me speaking in galego, she came to me, said that she couldn't understand what I was saying and punished me on my knees at the "hard cement" school yard (a granulated hard texture) in front of all my classmates"

“I am a donkey”

"Back at school, when I was very little, there was a kid who didn't know Spanish. They hanged on his back a sign saying he was a donkey"

“Castillian chair” or “Spanish (from Spain) chair”

"Tied up to a chair for speaking galego at school. Locked down in the classroom closet because of saying words in the «forbidden tongue». On the knees on chickpeas because you didn't answer the teacher's question in spanish. The brutality against the galizan youth through generations left deep scars we all still suffering from with no care nor reparations"

“I'm going to wash your mouth with soap”

"At school the insults, mistreatment and threats for speaking galego made us become self-conscious and ashamed. It stopped us from expressing ourselves the way we were"

“I will not speak gallego” (Galego in Spanish)

"Everytime you spoke a word in galego, they made you write down 1.000, 5.000 and even 10.000 times: «I will not speak gallego»

This was very common through all XX.

Still, last "known" case happened in the year 2002. Two little kids were forced to write “I will not speak gallego at class” 200 times.

"There was this punishment for speaking galego, you had to press a coin with the tip of your nose against the wall for hours. If the coin ever fell, their aggressions increased eachtime... These punishments came with the chants

«The gallego is for hillbillies/pagans/savages. You must speak the language of the Angels and God's Empire».

Another case, shared by Alfonso Eiré, teachers charged against a student at the Seminario de Lugo, because he refused to stop speaking in galego after several "warnings" and threats.

"[…] O. P Rancaño didn't let him finish, the professor punched him on the head making him fall to the ground. When the student tried to stand back up, he kicked him on the back and ass "Puskas" style, and immediately stated that he would remain on his knees through the whole basketball game, in the middle of the school yard.

Also the P.E teacher who was around, stated another (very popular) punishment on top of it: he had to press a coin against a column with his nose. Everytime it fell, he'd hit him in the back of the head (na caluga) provoking the kid to scratch his nose against the stone over and over".

Just a few stories, recopilated in the book of Carlos Callón "O libro negro da lingua Galega"

"Five centuries of keeping the galician language quiet"

People keep silencing, erasing and apropiating our culture and language to this day. Spain keeps denying our right to self determination and exploiting the land from the inside, fascist, imperialism propaganda everywhere. For them, we are the "completely assimilated" ones. Yet we keep being mistreated in many ways, especially if we proudly commit to our own national identity which, for some reason, they take as a personal threat.

"ONLY IN SPANISH. #GaliciansHillbillies. #HeilMadrid " 18 of July, 2023.