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The integration of a ‘cultural’ event with the ideological, spiritual and political positions of individuals and groups within a legally recognised community can, in the case of coexisting languages, provoke such defensive and counter-defensive responses as to cause a rupture in the Language-People-State triad. The tensions and links between politics and languages can thus affect either the language itself, considered as an otherness, or the contact between the two languages (bilingualism), an abstract and dual unit with asymmetrical resolutions. Drawing on specific events, this paper examines the treatment and identifications of bilingualism as presented in the signage of regional and national institutions in the context of Spain’s co-official languages.