Hi cornubian,
Before answering your question I’d like to tell ya a little bit about Castilians. We aren’t a minority, in fact, we are the biggest national group in Spain in terms of population. The main problem we suffer in order to be recognised as a nation, it’s the use that different kings and governments has made of Castilians symbols and culture across history. In some stages, they had (tried) to extend our costumes, language and traditional organizational models to the whole Spain. That’s why many people, especially catalan and basque nationalists, think of Castile as a synonymous for Spain . We were obliged to support the imperialistic politics of Spanish kings with our men and money, while other nations of Spain weren’t obliged to do that, obtaining clear advantages that still persists today.
Although our bigger population we aren’t the hegemonic group in Spain at all. We don’t even have representation in our parliament, since Castilian nationalism is minoritary nowadays. Our culture is constantly being attacked, being replaced by a “Spanish culture” that mixes typical elements of different parts of Spain - mainly taking elements from Andalucia. After suffering that situation for long (centuries) time, even our identity has been robbed by the Spanish one, and there are even places of Castile people don’t even know they are Castilians and feel themselves only spanish.
In my opinion, every culture must be respected and supported, no matter it’s minoritary or majoritary. In some places of Castile, some minoritary languages are spoken, and that isn’t a problem but richness for us. We are proud in having a vast and rich culture.
The two main political parties are “Tierra Comunera” (Comunard Land:
www.tierracomunera.org ) (centre/left centre) and “Izquierda Castellana” (Castilian Left:
www.nodo50.org/izca ) (left/extreme left wing). Both parties feel inheritors of the communards who fight against the Spanish king and aristocracy in order to defend Castile, that was being treated as a colony, and also to improve the conditions of medium and low social classes in the 16th century.
I hope you take part in our discussions.
Greeting from Madrid (Castile)
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