Cole Sinanian
THE province of Leon voted on June 26 to pass a motion demanding independence from Castilla y Leon, and called for the region’s courts to begin procedures to establish Leon as Spain’s 18th autonomous community.
Proponents of Leonese autonomy like the Leonese People’s Union (UPL), which voted with the PSOE to approve the motion, cite Article 2 of the 1978 Spanish Constitution, arguing that the right to “autonomy of nationalities and regions that form it [Spain] and solidarity among all of them” is a fundamental aspect of Spanish democracy.
They call attention to major demographic differences between Leonese cities and those of neighbouring Castilla and the regional PP government’s failure to respond to Leonese needs, as well as a unique cultural heritage more in line with the coastal communities of Northern Spain like Asturias, Cantabria and Galicia than Old Castile, as further justifications for the motion.
The move is historic, although “Lexit” — as it’s been dubbed by the Spanish press — is far from shocking, as it comes on the heels of a decades-long movement dating back to the fall of the Franco dictatorship, fueled by a strong regional identity that dates back even further; to the Medieval Kingdom of Leon.
Kings and Queens of Leon
Should the Castilla y Leon government comply, the new autonomous community would comprise the historic Leonese Region — bound today by the provinces of Leon, Zamora and Salamanca.
The Leonese Statute of Autonomy, put together by the Citizens Collective of the Leonese Region, highlights unique aspects of Leonese history in its preamble that distinguish it from its neighbours.
Ancient Celtic tribes such as the Astures, Vettones, Celtiberians and Vaccaei roamed the rugged and mountainous Leonese region centuries before the Romans invaded, leaving behind petroglyphs and monolithic ruins.
During the final stages of the Roman Conquest of Hispania in the last century BC, Roman armies met fierce resistance from the tribes of modern day Asturias, Cantabria and Leon, who managed to sustain autonomy from the Roman colonisers far longer than the rest of Iberia.
Even after the Romans defeated the tribes in the Cantabrian Wars, local revolts were a constant threat to the empire’s rule.
Following the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in the mid 1st millennium AD, and a subsequent period of Visigothic rule, the Kingdom of Asturias — which ruled over the modern day regions of Asturias, Galicia, and Leon — emerged as the sole nexus of Christian power in Muslim Spain after the decisive Battle of Covadonga in 722, during which the legendary Asturian king Don Pelayo defeated the Arab Umayyad Caliphate, marking the beginning of the Christian Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula.
The Kingdom of Asturias then relocated its capital from Oviedo to Leon, becoming the Kingdom of Leon with the reign of Garcia I, who ruled from 910-914.
During the Middle Ages, the Kingdom of Leon was the most powerful of Christian kingdoms in modern day Spain, playing a significant role in the development of subsequent Iberian kingdoms at a time when most of the peninsula was under Muslim control.
Notably, Leon is said to have had Europe’s first female monarch, Queen Urraca, who ruled over Leon and Castile from 1109-1126.
Fast forward to 1833, when politician and writer Javier de Burgos proposed dividing Spain into provinces and autonomous communities based on shared cultural heritage, a map whose divisions largely still hold to this day.
He divided the region of Leon into the provinces of Leon, Zamora, and Salamanca — the historical reach of the Kingdom of Leon — while Old Castille, which included the provinces of Burgos, Soria, Segovia, Avila, Valladolid, and Palencia, remained a separate community.
However, upon the Spanish transition to democracy in the early 1980s after the death of dictator Francisco Franco, despite widespread support for autonomy in the provinces of both Leon and Old Castilla, it was hurriedly decided that the two historical regions would be joined into a “macro” community — birthing today’s Castilla y Leon.
After the formation of Castilla y Leon, the newly formed regional government began promoting a shared identity between the two regions with the founding of the Fundacion Villalar — an organisation that utilises public money to engage in cultural projects meant to promote cohesion in the macro-community.
In an email statement to the Olive Press, the Citizens Collective of the Leonese Region (CCRL) — a group founded in 2005 to confront the “cultural erasure” of Leon they say has been promoted by the Castilla y Leon government — criticised the Fundacion Villalar as a tool used by the autonomous community to convince Leonese, Zamorans, and Salamancans that their unique cultural identity does not exist.
“We have witnessed comics for children that talked about how Castilla y León existed since prehistoric times,” wrote Alberto Zamorano, the president of the organization.
“They have persecuted any trace of the Leonese past that united the provinces of León, Zamora and Salamanca. This cannot continue like this, and with the Autonomous Community of the Leonese Region we would recover the identity and traditions that have been stolen from us.”
Still, dreams of autonomy in Leon have remained strong.
A 2020 poll found that 81% of Leon residents surveyed supported autonomy.
In Zamora, 59% supported autonomy, while in Salamanca this percentage stood at 56%.
Juntas Vecinales
A notable feature of Leonese society and integral part of the region’s independence push is its robust network of Juntas Vecinales, or neighbourhood councils.
In the rest of Spain, provinces are politically organised into two levels: the provincial and municipal, with municipalities being the smallest unit of government.
Leon however, in a practice that dates back to the pre-Roman period, organises provincial politics into three levels: provincial, municipal, and neighbourhood councils.
According to Zamorano, the Juntas Vecinales are direct descendants of the Consejos, or local councils, whose role in Leonese society was solidified at the peak of the Kingdom of Leon in the High Middle Ages.
“In Spain, the Juntas Vecinales are the only examples of direct democracy,” he wrote.
“It is the citizen himself who has a voice and a vote. An autonomous Leon would reinforce this role, with specific legislation that grants them at the legal level the corresponding powers.”
The system has local councils composed of everyday residents making collective decisions regarding public resource management, conservation efforts, and maintenance of public spaces — a necessary organ, given that half of the land in Leon is communally owned.
The practice is widespread in Leon, which counts 1231 neighbourhood councils — the most in any Spanish province.
Additionally, the organisation said that autonomy would give local administrations greater power to effectively tackle rural depopulation, which has had drastic effects on the sparsely populated western regions of the Leon province
“Having the self-government that an autonomous community offers to manage our own resources is a necessary condition to bring forward the towns forgotten during the forty years of Castille y Leon,” Zamorano said.
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