The town council plans to commemorate this date at the end of February.
The Mequinenza City Council has issued a press release to remind everyone that this month marks the 40th anniversary of the Mequinenza Declaration, which promoted the teaching, protection, and dignification of the Catalan language of Aragon, according to the document.
The official commemoration will take place at the end of February, coinciding with International Mother Language Day, in a more assertive event than planned, according to the Bajo Cinca council, due to the announced modification of the Heritage Law regarding the recognition of Catalan in Aragon and Aragonese.
On February 1, 1984, seventeen municipalities from eastern Aragon, meeting in Mequinenza with the Aragonese government's Minister of Culture, José Bada, and with Sebastián Caballé as the host mayor at the time, signed the Mequinenza Declaration. This document recognized that, in Aragon, "different languages are spoken and that the Catalan language spoken in the Eastern Strip belongs to the cultural heritage of Aragon," and served, among other things, to promote the teaching of Catalan in schools.
The commemoration of this anniversary, which marked a decisive step in the struggle to defend, dignify, and promote the Catalan language of Aragon, has been scheduled for Saturday, February 24, coinciding with International Mother Language Day. The event will be more assertive than initially planned following the Aragonese government's announcement to remove the explicit recognition of Aragonese Catalan and Aragonese from the Heritage Law, as outlined in Article 4, and the cuts made to funding for regional languages, according to the Mequinenza Town Council.
According to the statement issued by the city council, this situation is reminiscent of what happened in June 2013 with the approval of the Law of Languages, which established that the languages and linguistic varieties proper to Aragon would be the Aragonese Language of the Eastern Area (LAPAO) and the Aragonese Language of the Pyrenean and Pre-Pyrenean Areas (LAPAPYP). This prompted the second Mequinenza Declaration, a document signed by 28 municipalities, this time hosted by Magda Godia. The document denounced the absurdity of this designation, stating that it “has no scientific or academic basis,” and called for the repeal of the law.
