1936 Galician Statute of Autonomy

During the Second Spanish Republic (1931-39), calls for Galician autonomy grew. The Royal Galician Academy continued to develop, maintain, and standardize the Galician language, while the Seminario de Estudos Galegos (Seminar of Galician Studies) drafted the first Statute of Autonomy in 1931. The statute called for Galicia’s autonomy within Spain, with Galician and Castilian as co-official languages of the region. Though the document was finalized in 1932, political instabilities prevented a referendum vote from being held until June 28, 1936. Intense campaigning  by the Partido Galeguista helped to bring the statute to a vote  . The referendum results were overwhelmingly (99%) in favor of autonomy, and the document was quickly passed to the Spanish court for ratification [Beswick, 2007: 67-69; Warf & Ferras, 2015; Nandi, 2018: 32] . However, the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War stopped the autonomy movement in its tracks, preventing Galician autonomy from being enacted. Even though the 1936 document was never ratified, it remained symbolic for Galician autonomy and heavily informed the the formulation of the eventual1981 Statute of Autonomy of Galicia.