Galicia

Ramón Piñeiro said the following of Galicia, "Those who look at Galicia with a spatial gaze will see before their eyes a mountainous land, though it is softened by erosion; a land with a rugged and predominantly green surface, though with the brown relief of the mountains."

"A land abundant in rivers and rain, in mist and clouds that give movement to the light, that make it changeable and 'responsive,' as if your surroundings were alive; but that also has sun to ripen the crops and grapevines."

"Anyone who simply looks at it as a land, a landscape, will see an earth of great beauty, with an enormous, almost infinite, variety of shapes and shades of green in its structure. And everything goes together so smoothly and harmoniously, it enchants the most sensitive onlooker."

"But in this beautiful land live a people who promote many centuries of history."

"Galicia is not just a place in space that awakens admiration and sympathy in anyone who comes near it. It is also a place in time, a historical experience propelled by the people who live in it, who pass the cultural identity that distinguishes Galicia and makes it stand out from other places from one generation to the next, all the while renewing it."

"The Galician landscape that we see was shaped by the patience and determination of generations and generations of Galicians, through their work and by their own hands."

"Transforming the land of Galicia into this landscape, which now shows us how precisely and carefully the vital structure of the community was created, is a great living history because it is the collective achievement of a people over the passage of time."

In the prologue of her book Galician Songs (Cantares gallegos) (1863), Rosalía de Castro describes the Galicia she knew, "No pen can recount so much accumulated charm. The earth covered in every season of small grasses and flowers; the mountains full of pine, oak, and willow trees, the light winds that pass by."

In 2001, Carlos Casares wrote, "In Vigo, what is felt is not History, but rather nature and the touch of the people. Nature is in the magnificent geology of the mountains that surround the city, which Hemingway described … as 'great dinosaurs lying out on the seashore.' It is also in the water and the trees, in the fish and in the salty sea."

"Everything has the people's touch: the layout of the roads, the construction of the boats, the stonework of the quarry workers, the work of the tradespeople."

In 1930, Otero Pedrayo wrote: "Oseira, like the pazos and castles … fell victim to the paralysis of obedient centralization; full of the green of the forests and expectations, she became a meager Castilian cloister.

With all her sadness, the years of ruin were good for the stone of Oseira: a natural bath from which to emerge even stronger and with a new human consciousness."

In 1929, Eduardo Blanco Amor wrote: "When a cloud breaks, far away in a wavering midday haze, shattering the boredom of this muted horizon for our own excitement, Santa Trega raises its head and washes its bearded cone of pine trees in the clouds. Suddenly, the whole mountain lights up with sunshine, and marks out … the beginning of the Galician land."

"At its mouth, the Miño River separates lands of political geography, but it joins them simultaneously, in a spiritual identity and a likeness of green beauty and gentleness. Portugal and Galicia embrace each other by the arm of this fraternal river, and at the center of its beautiful final flow into the sea … the hill of Santa Trega … has the upright slenderness of an enduring symbol."

In 1944, Galician nationalist Castelao wrote that "There are Galicians so in love with their indigenous sod of Earth that after emigrating, driven by necessity, they return, drawn by the urge, with the same happiness that horses feel when they return to the stables. They carry pictures of their native world and cling to them with such fervent longing that they almost become some kind of novel."

"… For us, the supporters of Galician autonomy, the Country is so great, in its span and in its depth, that there are not enough days in life to see it all; and we love it so much that we only have thoughts of making it a happy Homeland."