Asturias, patria querida

Asturias, patria querida

English: Asturias, my dear Motherland
Regional anthem of  Asturias
Lyrics	Ignacio Piñeiro

Asturias, patria querida (Spanish pronunciation: [asˈtuɾjas ˈpatɾja keˈɾiða], Asturian: Asturies, patria querida) is the official anthem of the autonomous community of Asturias, in Spain.

This adaptation of a much slower song from the neighbouring lands of Cantabria (Madre, cuando voy a leña) was appointed as official anthem after a contest in Oviedo in the 1890s. It has both a Castilian (Spanish) and an Asturian version. It is also a popular melody for bagpipers.

It has been recently discovered that this song was written in Cuba.^[1] The father of the author had returned to his beloved Asturias to die, the author—Ignacio Piñeiro—dedicated the song to his father. The music was different, it is believed to be a melody that Polish miners from the area of Opole Silesia -that worked in Asturian coal mines at the beginning of the 20th century- had brought to Asturias. In fact, the song is still known in Poland, where it was taught as a patriotic song.^[2]

A few versions of the anthem were created by the republican side of the Spanish Civil War, therefore the anthem was seen as a miners song (it is said the miners revolt in Asturias in 1934 was a wake-up call to the civil war) and as a left-wing song by the right-wing Nationalists. The song was ridiculed in times of Franco, to the point of being considered "the anthem of the drunks", a concept that still exists in some parts of Spain.

Lyrics

Other versions

See also

• Asturian nationalism
• Anthems of the autonomous communities of Spain

References