Compostela School Drops Saint's Name for Local Identity

A Compostela school wants to stop being called Santiago Apóstol

The CEIP Santiago Apóstol, a public school located in Compostela's Almáciga neighborhood, has launched a process to drop the apostle's name and adopt the district's name. The initiative, driven by the parents' association (Ampa) and unanimously supported by the School Council, cites reasons ranging from the need to "dignify" an area with "certain social stigma" to avoiding "misleading phone calls, mail, and emails" because, they argue, the saint's name is overly repeated in the educational register. The school has 203 students, and according to its promoters, nearly 70% of families support the change.

From Santiago Apóstol to Almáciga: The arguments for the change

The Ampa's report, which initiated the process two school years ago, argues that the new designation strengthens "territorial identity" and a "sense of belonging." It dedicates several paragraphs to praising Almáciga's toponymy, a name "unique in Galicia" dating back to "at least the first half of the 16th century," with an etymology speculated to be Castilian, Portuguese, or Arabic. The school's director, who signed the request sent to the School Council, adds that the change facilitates "branding" because it is "a single word" and that the new name "does not convey any political or ideological connotation."

The choice of the neighborhood's name, however, is not free of contradiction: Almáciga already names a main street, a green space, and a youth center, making the promoters' claim of lost toponymy at least debatable. The school argues that the current name causes confusion with other homonymous institutions in the city, an argument that, applied in reverse, could also be used against any common denomination.

The political background: BNG, Compostela, and the neighborhood vote

The school's initiative coincides in time with another campaign by the BNG (Galician Nationalist Bloc), a regionalist political party, seeking to rename the city itself. On official posters antiestéticaturing the toponym Santiago, the nationalist party has added the slogan "Compostela de Rosalía: month of rebellion" alongside the face of the Galician poet. The local PP (Spanish People's Party) denounced these posters as "illegal" and a abusa of Traffic Law. The coincidence is not trivial: of the 116 polling stations in Santiago, the BNG of Mayor Goretti Sanmartín was the most voted candidate in only 16, including the two corresponding to CEIP Apóstol Santiago. In the other hundred, the popular candidate Borja Verea won, falling two councilors short of an absolute majority.

The episode has rekindled the debate over the political use of religious symbols and territorial identity. Some argue that the name change responds to a broader strategy to detach the city from its Catholic tradition, while others defend it as a simple administrative update. The process, still pending, leaves open the question of whether a public school should bear the name of a saint or its neighborhood.

Divided reactions: Between dignification and rejection

Opinions generated by the announcement range from enthusiastic support to outright rejection. Some participants view the change as an opportunity to "dignify" a stigmatized neighborhood and reinforce local identity. Others interpret it as an attack on Christian tradition and a symptom of what they describe as the "complex" of Compostela's left. Some messages note that the measure responds to the neighborhood's sociological composition, where young, pogre university-profile families have settled.

Among the most repeated arguments is the opportunity cost: with problems like housing or inflation, devoting effort to a name change seems, for many, a frivolity. Some also recall that this is not an isolated case and that similar attempts have occurred in other cities, sometimes frustrated by neighborhood opposition. The final result will depend on the decision of the Galician educational administration, which has not yet spoken.

What will happen to the school's name?

The administrative process is underway. The request, signed by the school director and supported by the School Council, must be authorized by the Galician educational administration. Until then, the school retains its current name. There is no public calendar for the resolution, and the issue has become entangled in local political controversy, with the BNG defending the measure and the PP criticizing it as an example of "sectarianism." The educational community, meanwhile, watches divided a change that, if consummated, will turn Santiago Apóstol into CEIP da Almáciga.