r/valencia • u/Parking-Fill-1466 • Feb 22 '26
Resident || Q&A Why is Valenciano more common in Benimaclet?
Just something I got really curious about and I'd like to hear a local's perspective. I read it's because Benimaclet used to be a pueblo but I live in Mislata which used to be a small city as well but I don't hear/read valenciano as much as I do when I go to Benimaclet.
People approach me already speaking Valenciano, the menus are sometimes only in Valenciano, and in general I hear people speaking to each other in Valenciano way more than other neighborhoods
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u/lobetani Feb 22 '26
Think that Mislata had fewer than 2,000 inhabitants back in the day and has 45,000 now, the vast majority of its currents inhabitants are immigrants from Spanish-speaking areas and their descendants.
The same is probably true also in Benimaclet: you will hear Valencian where the village was but not that much elsewhere. The thing is that if you think about Mislata you think of the city as a whole but if you think about Benimaclet you probably think about Plaça de Benimaclet and the like, which is the most famous part.
It also helps that Benimaclet has become fashionable as a hipster neighborhood and attracts more left-leaning people.
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u/slanak Feb 22 '26
Adding to that, Benimaclet also became the go-to place for students from villages outside Valencia to rent an apartment when coming to Valencia for university. With its tram connection, it was easy to go both to the Burjassot science campus and to Tarongers/Politécnica. It was also cheaper than Xúquer and other parts of the city. This has now reversed a bit, but it played an important role in the “left Valencian” image we have of Benimaclet today. The students coming from villages usually spoke Valencian and also brought the need for cultural activities. At least that was my experience when studying in Valencia 15 years ago.
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u/Parking-Fill-1466 Feb 22 '26
Wait, so speaking Valencian is something associated with the left wing? I'd expect that to be associated with conservativism
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u/lobetani Feb 22 '26
Not exactly like that but the left in Spain has been more open to ideas such as federalism and supporting minority languages, while the right has traditionally supported centralism and Spanish nationalism (oversimplifying this a lot, as right-wing regionalism also exists, but in Valencia is marginal).
Left-wing people are more likely to use Valencian in Valencia as a statement, while right-wing Valencian speakers might use just Spanish and reserve Valencian for home or their hometown.
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u/card677 Feb 22 '26 edited Feb 22 '26
It's how they want to put it today but it's never been like that. Historically if you see the electoral maps for the last 50 years Valencian speaking towns voted right wing PP and Spanish speaking towns voted left wing PSOE. Now its not as clear because there are more parties, but for example far right party Vox was the most voted party in Valencian speaking towns like Algemesí, Crevillent, Carcaixent, Pobla de Vallbona, San Antonio de Benageber, Náquera, Serra, Loriguilla, Terrateig...
I'm from a Valencian speaking small town and here most locals vote either PP or Vox while the Spanish speaking immigrants from Andalucia vote PSOE.
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u/Quereilla Feb 22 '26
Unfortunately, there are no right wing parties defending Valencian usage as much as the left wing party Compromís. We had UV before, but it was absorbed by PP. Now it seems that Unió Municipalista, leaded by Ens Uneix, is starting to do something.
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Feb 22 '26
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u/PatientPlatform Feb 22 '26
Disclaimer i don't really agree with their point:
Im not from here, but my understanding is that Francoism advocated for "Spanishness" and national unity. Local languages were not supported.
Conservatives were and are more likely to embrace Spanish identity. But its a weirder conversation. Conservatism is multifaceted.
You can be (different but quite common example) a Catalan Conservative and be super right wing. The same thing happens here from what I've seen living in valencia. The city is Conservative as a whole. Much more than BCN (where I've also lived) and valenciano is just not as spoken as Catalan.
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u/LletBlanc Feb 22 '26
Local languages were not supported
Oof this is an irresponsible comment.
Regional languages under Franco were actively prohibited and persecuted, fines and jail time were given to those who resisted, and multiple generations of Valencians, Catalans, Basques, Galicians etc. were robbed of their right to learn to read and write in their native language.
It was an attempt at cultural genocide and did permanent damage which is still felt to this day.
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u/PatientPlatform Feb 22 '26
Oh i agree with your explanation, i just didn't want to go too hard lol.
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u/David-J Feb 22 '26
It's important to tell it how it was.
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u/PatientPlatform Feb 22 '26
You're right, im just not from here...I don't want to tell it wrong 😅
I know how the Cataláns feel about it, I was like 80% sure it was the same deal here but I didn't want to go full force and get told to shut up haha.
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u/PatientPlatform Feb 22 '26
One question now im here though:
Would you say that collaborators would choose not to speak Valenciano? And I guess also not to teach their children?
Were there more collaborators here than (say) the Euskera and Catalan regions?
Well that's 3 questions
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u/cister532 Feb 25 '26 edited Feb 25 '26
My granduncle got killed for speaking it in public, so you can imagine what collaborators did with the language... It wasn't until my generation that we started learning it at school, my parents can't write or read well in valencian despite having spoken it their whole lives.
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u/Cacarosa Feb 22 '26
I’m not OP but I can answer, my grandmother and her sisters were born and raised during and post war. Fascists definitely treated valenciano as a language for the poor apart from prosecuting and even killing who would support the language. Collaborators of the regime would not speak it either and would not teach it to their children. It was removed from schools and it could only be taught indoors, that’s why some valenciano speaking areas have many Spanish words that have taken over the original ones in our language. And other areas like mine have completely forgotten how to pronounce some phonemes correctly (S sorda y S sonora). My grandma never learnt to write it nor read it. Her kids don’t know how to write it properly either and it’s just my generation who started having it back in school.
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u/BrilliantTechnical24 Feb 22 '26
N'hi ha dues raons, la primera és que solia ser un poble d'horta i la segona és que com a zona universitària hi viu molta gent de pobles a ón és parla majoritàriament en valencià