Galaxia the three-headed hydra: the Francisco Fernández del Riego, Xaime Isla and Ramón Piñeiro team

Abstract

The Galaxia publishing house and the endeavours of its staff during Franco’s dictatorship can be analysed from multiple perspectives. However, Xaime Isla always insisted that special attention should be paid to its collective organization as a team, an insistence that he reflected in creative form at an undetermined date in his portrayal of Piñeiro, Del Riego and himself as a three-headed hydra. This analysis of the positive, nurturing and productive dynamics of this teamwork is the basis for an explanation of the historical survival of Galaxia and its political and cultural project, as well as the triumph of Galicianism as the main political culture in an autonomous and democratic Galicia. One of the reasons for this success can be attributed to the fact that Galaxia and its personnel established themselves and acted as an exemplary high-performance team, motivated and inspired by an epic of rebellion, resistance, reconquest, enthusiasm and loyalty to the Galicianist ideal and its seven missions. This strict and unyielding commitment enabled the continuity of the Galaxia project despite conflicts, dissidence, disputes and resistance that never compromised the brotherhood and spirit of fraternal camaraderie in service of a common cause: building Galicia.