Judge removes custody of 4-yr-old from mother for having brought her to Catalonia

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A Tenerife judge took custody of a 4-year-old girl away from her mother because of the supposed linguistic barriers that moving her to Catalonia, Ripollet in this case, imply. According to a report in the newspaper El Punt Avui, the ruling of the first instance judge in instruction number 2 in Güímar, Tenerifa, María de la Paloma Gálvez, says that because the parents do not agree, what is important is to protect the interests of the minor. And she says, “She is in an autonomous community defined by special characteristics of integration, because in addition to the normal adaptation to a change in territory or customs, one must add the difficult of learning a language that is co-official with Spanish, that is Catalan, that, as everyone knows, is the language used by a large part of Catalan society, as well as in the schools. […] Neither has it been proven that the minor is adapted to the language and that this circumstance is not acting as a barrier to her development.”

The judge’s ruling is even more surprising given the fact that, in addition to the language, the judge penalizes the mother because she has a job. “The flexibility of her schedule makes the judge doubt the mother …” On the other hand, “the father is unemployed, and therefore has more flexibility in his schedule,” said the judge.

“What an outrageous view this ruling suggest for motherhood. The love I feel for my daughter means that this whole battle will be worth it,” said the mother, who added, “I will always communicate to her that a language and a new place to live never imply a barrier, as long as there is a will to figure it out.”