Names of the Valencian Community

The names of the Valencian Community are diverse, even though Comunitat Valenciana (in English, "Valencian Community") is the only denomination with official status in its Statute of Autonomy. Nonetheless, this legal document includes in its Preamble other legal denominations that portray the history and nature of the territory: Regne de València (in English: Kingdom of Valencia) and País Valencià (in English literally: Valencian Country, even though the term has mostly been rendered as: Land of Valencia). The first designation refers to the oldest historic denomination, while the second one relates to the origin of the modern concept of autonomy, which the territory has been granted in its Statute of Autonomy first written in 1982 and reformed in 2006.

Denominations

There have been other denominations related with the historical periods that constituted the Kingdom of Valencia and the Land of Valencia. Today, however, the most used denomination are Valencian Community and Land of Valencia.

Kingdom of Valencia

Map of the Kingdom of Valencia in the sixteenth century

The term "Kingdom of Valencia" refers to the conquered territory by the Christian Catalan and Aragonese troops commanded by king James I in 1238. The conquered territory was granted limited administrative, legal and political independence within the structure of the Crown of Aragon as stipulated in the set of laws known first as Costums de València. When these were transformed into the Furs of València, the administrative autonomy was extended to all the Valencian territory. The furs (code of law), its administrative and legal structure, as well as its status as an autonomous political entity were dissolved in 1707 by Phillip V of Spain, in the promulgation of the Nueva Planta decrees, whereby the legislation and structure of the Kingdom of Castile were instituted in the territory.

Nevertheless, the term continued to be used locally during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, an example of which were the government divisions or Javier de Burgos's provincial division proposal. However, it was sometimes rendered as Antic Regne de València (Old Kingdom of Valencia") to clarify the non-existence of the kingdom as a legal or political entity. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the term was confined to the academic, cultural or literary domains, especially after the Valencian Renaixença and the nascent Valencian nationalism, which began to use the term along with País Valencià. During Franco's dictatorship the term was in disuse, only to be revived during the political transition toward democracy in Spain, concurrent with the transition towards Valencian autonomy, at the beginning of the 1980s, as well as by blaverism, even though this movement used it in opposition to "Land of Valencia" (País Valencià).

Nowadays, the term "Kingdom of Valencia" is only used in the cultural or academic realms, even though it is included in the Preamble of the current Valencian Statute of Autonomy, as well as in its first article, in order to evocate the historical origin of what todays constitutes the Valencian Community.

Valencian Region

The term "Valencian Region" (in Valencian: Regió Valenciana) was a denomination that originated during Franco's dictatorship with the intention of emphasizing the intended nature of the territory under the political structure of the time: a simple region within Spain. It must be noted, however, that the etymology of the word "region" is the same as that of "kingdom" in both Spanish and Catalan. In fact, before the twentieth century, several territories dominated by Spain were called "kingdoms", as a synonym of "country" in spite of the fact that they were not monarchies (a clear example of this usage were the several "kingdoms" of the New Spain: the Kingdom of Guatemala, the Kingdom of New Galicia, et al., which were not governed by kings, but by captains). From the nineteenth century onwards, the term "kingdom" began to be substituted by the term "region", especially in books which imitated the French regional geographical nomenclature. In that sense region designated any state, country or nation (all previously used terms that designated the diverse territories of the Spanish Empire or under the King of Spain), regardless of their political and administrative nature of the territory, whereas "kingdom" was reserved to the particular State, country or nation governed by a monarch. Today, the concept of "region" does not refer to a particular political entity, but alludes to regional geography. Within the dictatorship, the term had a centralizing connotation and not simply a geographical meaning.

Land of Valencia or Valencian Country

The term "Land of Valencia" or "Valencian Country" (in Valencian: País Valencià) is the contemporary rendering of the term "Kingdom of Valencia", even though it had been occasionally used since the sixteenth century as well. Agustín Bella, in his work Vida de fra Agustín Antonio Pascual, stated in 1699, while the Furs of Valencia were still in place, that:

"...no le tenía el Señor destinado para el apóstol de las Indias, sino de nuestro País Valenciano"

("The Lord had not destined the apostle [to go to the] the [West] Indies, but [to remain in] our Valencian Country").

Manuel Sanchis i Guarner, in his work La llengua dels valencians, confirms the existence of a satiric document of 1767 which was titled, in Valencian:

"Carta no vista, lletra uberta, combit cheneral i particular, que fa Quelo el Roig d'Albal, nét de la tia Rafela, a tota la Cort de Madrit, per que vinga a veurer o mirar la gran Festa Centenar de la Verche Proectora, ulatant el lluit que estarà en el País Valencià"

("Letter, not seen, open words, a general and particular invitation made by Quelo the Red of Albal, grandson of aunt Rarela, to all the Court of Madrid, to come and see or watch the Great Centennial Feast to the Protector Virgin, proving how splendid the Valencian Country will be")

Although at the beginning it was used as a mere geographic term, by the early twentieth century the Labor and Valencian nationalist movements picked up the term and gave it a cultural and political connotation. For example, the Joventuts Valencianistes (Valencianist Youth), in 1906 published a map of the comarques using this particular denomination. The term became popular during the 1930s, and was widely used in academic, cultural and political papers and publications, most notably the Quaderns d'Orientació Valencianista journal, published by Editorial Estel, nowadays edited by the Unviersity of Valencia).. This denomination was also used officially during the Second Spanish Republic.

During the 1960s, after the publication of El País Valenciano, by Joan Fuster, the term became widely used again (during the dictatorship), to the point of being the most widely used term to refer to the territory in the media, most notably in the regional newspapers of all political ideologies, without any overt censorship from Franco's government. When democracy was restored, the term was proposed in the Statute of Autonomy of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Valencian Country, on October 25, 1979. Before the ratification of the 1979 Statue of Autonomy, which coined the term "Valencian Community", the "Pre-autonomy Council of the Valencian Country" also used the term.

Even though the term was widely used, especially by the Democratic Center Union party (UCD), in the 1980s, the right-wing parties, along with those who supported the blaverism movement, rejected the term, since they considered that its use would imply a political link to the Catalan Countries (in Valencian: Països Catalans). The last major of the city of Valencia before democracy, Miguel Ramón Izquierdo, justified the rejection of the term, since "país és singular de països, llavors es parla d'un País Valencià dins dels Països Catalans" ("country is the singular of countries, thence we are talking about a Valencian Country within the Catalan Countries").

Nowadays, the term is still used, mostly in the Academia, in the names of streets, plazas and avenues, by some political parties (e.g. the Socialist Party of the Valencian Country and the United Left of the Valencian Country), labor unions (UGT-PV, CCOO-PV, etc.), and some media. The term is even preferred to "Valencian Community" in some comarques.

Valencian Community

The Flag of the Agreement of Benicàssim

The Approved and Current Flag of Valencia

The term "Valencian Community" (Comunitat Valenciana) was first used within the articles of the proposal of the Statute of Autonomy drafted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Valencian Country, interchangeably with the term "Valencian Country". In this proposal, known as the Agreement of Benicàssim (Acord de Benicàssim) both the left-wing and right-wing parties reached a consensus regarding the symbols of the territory and soon-to-be autonomous community of Spain. The left-wing parties accepted as the Flag of Valencia, that which included a blue strip and the coat of arms of the Generalitat, and the right-wing parties accepted the term "Valencian Country".

Nonetheless, when this proposal was presented before the Chamber of Deputies of Spain, consensus was broken; UCD did not comply with the Agreement of Benicàssim, and proposed to change the flag to include the crown, and to retain the term "Kingdom of Valencia".

Given that right-wing political parties formed an absolute majority in the Congress, the Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), reached a consensual version with UCD (by the proposal of deputy Emilio Attard), through which the term "Kingdom of Valencia" was substituted with "Valencian Community" within the articles of the legal text, and the terms "Kingdom of Valencia" and "Valencian Country" were only included in the Preamble, so that whichever party was in power in a particular time would use whichever denomination it preferred.

References and external links

• del roig al blau: La transició valenciana. Documental del Taller d'Audiovisuals de la Universitat de València. Any 2004.
• El llarg camí cap a l'Autonomia Valenciana, de Vicente Ruiz Monrabal. Revista Valenciana d'Estudis autonòmics, núm. 41/42, 3^er trimestre de 2003 - 4o trimestre de 2003, p. 372-421. URL: [2].
• El valencianisme polític, 1874-1936, Alfons Cucó i Giner. 1999, Catarroja, Ed. Afers SL. ISBN 84-86574-73-0.
• Història del País Valencià, Vicente Boix. 1981. Editorial Planeta, ISBN 84-3900-148-7.
• Història del País Valencià, Antoni Furió i Diego. 2001. Edicions 3i4. ISBN 84-7502-631-1.