Cantares Gallegos

Cantares Gallegos was published in Vigo in 1863 by Juan Compañel. Rosalía de Castro draws on songs and forms from oral tradition, but does not merely reproduce them: she creates a new poetic voice that transforms oral materials into written literature, combining celebration, irony, grief and social observation.

The book presents landscapes, customs, female voices, emigration, poverty and prejudice against Galicia. Its tone may be festive or popular, but also satirical and critical. This variety allows the book to work both as cultural affirmation and as a portrait of a society shaped by inequality and absence.

The date of 17 May, traditionally associated with the dedication and publication of the book, was chosen a century later for the Día das Letras Galegas. This continuity made Cantares Gallegos both a literary text and an institutional reference point in modern Galician culture.