The Role of Galician Centers in the Promotion of Galician Culture Abroad

Abstract

This chapter explores the role of Galician community centers in the Americas in the promotion of Galician culture abroad and in the production and maintenance of a collective imaginary of Galician identity. On the one hand, educational initiatives aimed to provide a generally working class and poorly educated migrant population with some minimum tools of literacy and general knowledge. On the other hand, other resources and initiatives were aimed more broadly at generating, within the Galician colony as well as throughout the host society, a positive image of Galicia and its emigrants. Those centers played a key role in strengthening a sense of common belonging and pride in Galician-ness among people who often departed from their homeland with internalized negative perceptions about the value of their language and their culture.