Discourses of solidarity and resistance in alternative linguistic spaces: Galician improvised poetry as linguistic collective action

Abstract

This article focuses on alternative ways of understanding language in the context of minority language advocacy through an examination of the Galician tradition of singing-in-verse, known as regueifa. It proposes the notion of “linguistic collective action” to refer to the battery of resistance and solidarity strategies that lead to social transformation, implemented in grassroots movements linked to language struggles that not only go beyond the binary tropes of “pride” and “profit”, but also transcend traditional ideas of how language revitalization should be carried out. To tap into the dynamics of this social movement, we draw on a multi-sited ethnography of the interconnected spaces in which urban-based Galician speakers engage in collective action through the practice of regueifa. We examine how progressive values (e.g.: LGBTQ+ advocacy, feminism, and anti-neoliberalism) are intertwined with the use of minoritized language reclamation, acting as a trigger for social transformation.