Sometimes when I´m speaking with someone about my country they use to ask me what exactly do I mean when I say “Andalucía”, “Cataluña”, “País Vasco” and so on. They are not exactly cities or countries but you can find differences among them even when they belong to the same country, Spain. Today, I´m going to try to clear up all this mess a little bit.
In Spain we have what we name as “Comunidades Autónomas”, 17 totally. These are just delimitated areas made up of a number of cities or provinces which have a certain grade of self-government on several fields. Next you can see a map with every one of the “Comunidades Autónomas” that exist in Spain and following another map with the provinces that compound each “Comunidad Autónoma”:
As I was saying each one of this “Comunidades Autónomas” have their own legislation in relation to aspects as education, health service or treasury. This legislation can be a new law and increase the former one but under any circumstances it can go against the basic legislation laid down and valid to the whole country established in the Constitution of 1978.
Let´s see some examples of it. Bullfightings (corridas de toros), a pretty controversial issue in Spain. Right, as every “Comunidad Autónoma” has law competition, in Catalonia, as an example, bullfighting are banned what doesn´t happen on others “Comunidades Autónomas” as it is the case of Andalucía where bullfighting are so popular. Another example, even though all “Comunidades Autónomas” are ruled by the same and basic education regulation each one has certain competitions according to which they can modify or raise up the curriculum for the student, I mean the subjects or the matter of the subjects pupils need to achieve. Obviously all students must study common subjects as Maths, History and so on but for example pupils must study deeply the history of Andalucía in this “Comunidades Autónoma” while pupils of Basque Country must do the same on their respective “Comunidad”.
You can also find that in some of this “Comunidades Autónomas” there is more than one language spoken, not only Spanish. This way you can find that in Galicia they speak Spanish and “gallego”, in Catalonia they speak “catalán”, “valenciano” in Valencia, “vasco” in Basque Country, and even you can find some minor languages. These languages are usually treated as a co-official languages within the “Comunidad Autónoma” in a similar way as Welsh and English in Wales but with the difference that here in Cardiff where I´m living in just a few people can speak and understand Welsh what doesn’t happen in Catalonia, Galicia or Basque Country.
Well I hope all is clearer now and next time you hear that someone comes from Catalonia you don´t think that he is from Barcelona because he may come from Tarragona, Gerona or Lleida as well.
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