CATALONIA, OLD NEW NATION 

 

In the last years, Catalonia has been receiving a growing attention by the International Press. For the Spaniards, Catalonia (taking the testimony from the Basque Country) is seen as a problem of difficult resolution. For a foreigner, the present course for Independence in Catalonia must seem as a sudden eruption consequence of the Economic Crisis. But for the citizens of Spain or any learned Hispanist, it is known that always existed the so-called “Catalan Question”. In the next pages we will try to clarify what made of Catalonia a problem for the Spanish State and why belonging to the later was an everlasting nightmare for most of the Catalans. Recounting the History to know the origin and development of Catalonia will help us to answer the aforementioned question. 

 

Different stages conform the life of that nation: birth; the building of its territory and broadening of its linguistic room (Valencia and Mallorca); the enlargement of a Maritim trade mighty Confederation… After that linear narration of the early stages of Catalonia a second block will deal with key breacking points along the life of the Nation, and how those sealed its fatal fate of submission to Spain. All in all, that general look on 1000 years of "national life" will help us to assert the reasons of Catalonia. These, will be finally clarified with a contemporary view on how the bid of Catalonia to regain its independence goes beyond an isolate matter just affecting the Spanish State. As can be seen in the coming Scottish Referendum, the unrest of Flanders and The Basque Country, tectonic movements are reshaping the EU to give birth to a New Europe. 

 

The last block deals with the "distinctive traits of the Culture", which ultimately are the makers of nationhood. The country, despite not enjoying presently the advantatges of being independent, scores high in the ranking of Nationhood soundness. And that, not only because it is one of the oldest political entities in Europe; but because despite difficult times of oppression, lack of selfgovernment or sovereignty, has been able to keep its own language, culture, traditions and identity in a good shape.

 

                                                  

CONTENTS 

History overview

• Ante Catalonia    
• Birth of a Nation 
• Expansion of Catalonia  

        

Breaking points in the Political Development of the Country

• The Casp election
• Catholic Kings     
• The Catalan Revolt - The War of Secession
• 1714 - The War of Succession to the Hispanic Throne
• Recovered Selfgovernment - Mancommunity
• The dream of a Republic      
• Suspension of the Catalan Autonomy        
• The Spanish Civil War - A defeated nation
• Franco Dictatorship
• 1977 - Recovered Autonomy
• Last years of autonomism - The failed New Catalan Charter
• The Catalan Process of Independence
• The Fiscal Deficit & The building of a New EU 
• Catalan Lands 

The distinctive symbols of a culture

• Pà amb Tomàquet
• Sardana
• Human Towers     
• Picasso, Dalí, Miró
• St. Jordi - Montserrat
• The Catalan Gothic
• The Modernisme   
• The Catalan mule   
• Christmas traditions
• Mushrooms & Cooking Revolutions
• A world of wines
• A Language - A way of thinking   

BEFORE CATALONIA

Those who brought Civilization

By the 5^th Century the northern-eastern lands of the Iberian Peninsula were inhabit by the Iberian people. That, in most of the littoral and hinterland. In an area of the western Pyrenees were to be found settlments of Basque People. Exception apart deserves the Greek colony of Empuries, in enchanting Costa Brava. Those Greek settlers arrived from the city of Focea in Minor Asia and here left something more that interesting ruins to visit nowadays. The advanced Hellenic culture introduced then in our lands brought a new ceramic expertise, crops like the olive tree and the making of oil and wine. Through the trading, the less developed and warlike Iberian tribes experienced a progressive cultural transformation. Thanks to this trade contact (barter and then monetary) with the greeks the Iberians progressively adopted a more refined culture. To their own forge, they further developed the pottery to make amphora. They also start minting coins, developing a new economy based in the monetary exchanges, apart from the writing (introduced by some contacts with the Phoenitian traders).

            From these early civilizations it is hard to state what is left in the character of the present Catalans. What we can assert is the presence of some words in the language and specially in the toponymy. Cities like Tarragona or Barcelona were already mentioned with the same root name (Tarrake and Barkeno) when the Iberians inhabited them.

            The Iberian People, that probably own their name to the river Ebre (which ends up in a large Delta with paradise beaches beyond rice fields) were renowned for their fearfulness. In their fortified villages, heads of enemies stucked on pikes were monstrated out over the walls as a deterrent against possible invaders. As the funny Asterix comic tells, the Iberians were also meant to be very stubborn. Perhaps that ethnic characteristic has remained in the spirit of the Catalan people. Despite being repeatedly defeated along its history, do not give up in their collective will to continue being what they are.

            But the fact is that these Iberian people had to come to terms with a much more powerful People that arrived to their lands by the 3th Century B.C, the Romans. In the times of the Republic (before the Empire) the Romans were interested in these lands due to its strategic location in their war against the Carthaginians. It was the Consul and great General of the Legions, Scipion who first raised a military camp in the Iberian Peninsula. This place where he landed was Tarragona, then called Tarraco. The Ebre river became something like a border, a line separating two areas of influence. At the south were established since long time the Carthaginians while newly arrived Romans positioned at the North of the Ebre River.

The Romans finally won the war against the Carthaginians. That gave them an absolute control over Western Mediterranean. And from this point they could go on defeating the different tribes established in the Iberian Peninsula, the land of rabbits as the Greek travellers asserted.

            Once defeated, and parallel to the founding of Roman cities along the main communication ways (like the Via Augusta that went from Gades-Cadiz in the Gibraltar Strait until the Pyrenees to connect with the Via Domitia to further reach Rome), the Iberians were progressively integrated into the new civilisation ways. That meant that the native people left their fortified towns to move to the newly founded Roman cities. In this way the former were fussioned with the later. Many of the Iberian towns were progressively decaying as they were out of the new communications ways (sometimes in hill peaks). Contrariwise, the new Roman towns attracted more and more trade. Baths, fountains, temples, a new standard of life, military service in the Roman Legions, labour or slavery pushed the native people into the new Roman Cities.

The matter is that the Iberians were progressively abandoning their way of living and overall their language. Thus they integrated into the new culture imported from Italy.

            The settlement procedure in the Roman times worked as follows: Citizens of Rome and latter Italy served as legionaries for some years. Apart from their pay, when they completed the military service, they were granted a piece of land in the place were they had been battling. In the case of Catalonia, these legionaries probably came from the very same Rome and the surrounding area of the Lazio (out of it comes the term Latin). These new settlers mixed with the native people, the Iberian, and the latter adopted the customs and language of the newcomers. This process has been called Romanisation, the adoption of the Roman-Latin ways by the native people. All these period that stretches from the 3^rd Century B.C until the 2^nd B.C is key to understand the present culture of the Catalan people.

            Why? Because the cultural ways adopted then are the backbone of the present Catalan society. Let us see. Overall we have the language. Catalan is a branch of that Latin language, an evolution of it, which got its own personality by the 9^th-10^th Century. Apart we have the so-called Mediterranean triad, wheat, olive oil and wine. Then and now these three crops and ingredients conform the backbone of the Catalan cuisine. In a later chapter we will see how in the last decade out of these primary ingredients a full culinary revolution has given fame to the Catalan cuisine.

            Concerning that Latin-Roman heritage we also could talk about some features of our urbanism, as the typical open Squares which are the inheritors of the Forum. But perhaps the most tangible remain of the Roman period is the very same ruins and monuments still standing in different locations. Many tourists that have visited Barcelona probably have seen the mighty sections of the Roman Walls or a hidden section of the temple dedicated to the Emperor-God August.

Nearby Barcelona are to be seen the remains of Imperial Tarraco, with greater shows of the Roman urbs (reason why it has been declared World Heritage. That city called nowadays Tarragona was then the capital of a large province stretching along all northern Hispania. Within the city and surroundings it is worth a visit the Amphitheatre (the fighting place for gladiators, where also the Christians endured martyrdom). One also can see a good section of the Circus (the place for “Benhur” quadriga competition); or to have a walk along the well preserved walls with the particularity of impressive cyclopean Stones on its base. It is also specially rare the paleochristian necropolis, a graveyard of early Christians; or the Aqueduct for the water conduction; an old quarry called “El Mèdol”; or a dome with mosaic decoration in the nearby village of Constantí where the popular say stated that the Emperor Constans had its burial pantheon.

            Roman life, dresses, gastronomy… gets revived in the Tarragona “Roman week” (Tarraco viva), with performances of gladiators in the Amphitheatre, tastes of Roman cuisine and other spectacles recreating the costumes and life in the Roman times.

            The period of the Roman Empire also left us an early assumption of the Christian faith. That happened in the cities and in the areas more heavily romanised, while in the Pyrenees (highlands) the people continued practising its magic Sun & Moon animistic beliefs. Moreover, in some valleys Latin language was not adopted continue using the Basque language. Becoming Christians meant the substitution of the Pagan temples for churches and cathedrals. In some cases like in the Cathedral of Tarragona, the new Christian temples were built right upon the place (and probably recycling its construction material and foundations) where before people made their offers and sacrifices to Minerva, Apollo and other gods.

            Apart from the necessary buildings to have shelter for the mass, also was taking shape a church organisation. The most important cities of the Roman Province became also heads of the ecclesiastical departments, called diocesis. Again Tarragona was scoring high, becoming Archdiocese. The Tarragona Archbishop was the superior above all other bishops in the Roman Hispanic dioceses. But before the new faith was legalised and officialised with the Emperors Constantine and Theodosius it went through the hardships of the persecution.

            Remember those Hollywood movies from the 50s... early Christians enduring martyrdom, hiding in the Roman catacumbs… That happened in all the Roman Empire and cities like Tarragona and Barcelona were rich in these suffered early Christians who paid with their lives their strong application to the new faith. It is believed that the very same Apostole Paul was in Tarragona. Actually, in the New Testament it is said that he went to Hispania and probably the first port to call was Tarragona. Early Christians like bishop Fructós and deacons Auguri and Eulogi tasted the purifiying fire in the arena in the times when the Christian faith was strongly persecuted.

            Barcelona also gave an heroine in these times. She was a 13 years old girl called Eulalia that endured martyrdom because her stubborn affiliation to the new banned religion. Thirteen different tortures were applied to her, so many as her age. The population of Barcelona was so impressed by the brave example of that girl that they decided to dedicate the Cathedral to that brave girl while she was promoted to the category of sainthood. Her bones are to be found in a richly chiselled sepulchre in the Cathedral’s Crypt, right underneath the Altar.

            Another key development of the Roman civilisation of the outmost importance for the future of our lands was the network of roads. The most important axes of communication 2000 years ago still vertebrate the inner and outwards connexion of the land. Obviously, the pavement is not the same, but the nowadays train rails, motorways and highways, do follow pretty close the same delineation of some Roman ways. A good example of it is the Motorway N-II and Highway AP-7 which follow the Roman Via Augusta. That road, in the times when "all the ways lead to Roma", was connecting Cadiz, by the Gibraltar Strait, with Rome, the big metropolis of the Empire.

            That the Iberian Barcelona was on the way of that Via Augusta was probably the reason why the Romans decided to found a city here. That road was one of the most busy axes of the Roman world. And two thousand years later, the dynamism of that road (nowadays named Mediterranean Corridor, western Mediterranean Arch…) continues, being one of the most robust axes of the European Union. As it happens nowadays, Catalonia and Barcelona owns part of its wealth to its geostrategic location, in that Via Augusta. Namely, we are talking about an exit to the sea, for import-export along the Mediterranean Sea and beyond, and through some Pyrenees Passes the connexion with Northern and Western Europe. If you follow north you meet Lyon, Paris and further London. So Barcelona, together with those cities built the western backbone of Europe, which roughtly corresponds with the Greenwich Meridian.

            The Roman Empire started to collapse with the arrival of Germanic barbarian people that went on plundering all in ransacking operations. Those times saw different barbarian People, pushing one against each other while facing the Imperial Legions. The Roman power finally came to terms with these invaders. In some cases Agreements were reached and the Barbarian tribes were rewarded with lands to settle down while some of their membrers were integrated into the legions in order to fight against new barbarian hordes pushing in. The area of southern Galias and Hispania was the chosen territory for the Visigoths, coming from remote eastern Europe. One of its kings, Ataulf, chose Barcino (Barcelona) as its residence. And marrying with Gala Placidia, the daughter of the emperor, even made more sound its bid for recognisition of its authority. Thus, the Kingdom of the Visigoths took its first steps, paral.lel to the final collapse of the Roman Empire.

            The stay of Visigoth king Ataulf and the Queen Gala Placidia in Barcelona gave to that provincial town a much stronger position and commanding role over the area, overcoming Tarraco, the great capital during the Roman period. To have a strong capital as Barcelona, always has been of the outmost importance for the fate of Catalonia.

            So by the second half of the 5^th Century, these lands were ruled by the Visigoths. That doesn’t meant that the whole society and culture changed much. The newcomers were few in number, an elite ruling over the majority of a population increasingly ruralised or isolated in well protected villages and towns. The historians, to state this balance in between Continuity and Change call the population of the 5^th, 6^th, 7^th … Centuries Hispano-Goths.    

            The kingdom of the Visigoths developed solely into the Iberian lands once this people was ousted by the Franks from its southern Galia settlements. That “iberianisation” of the Visigoth Kingdom also implied that its “capital” or royal site moved from Barcelona to Toledo. The later, by the centre of Spain, was more far away from the Franks than Narbona or Barcelona and therefore better protected and more easy to defend.  But that displacement of the Gravity Centre from the Northern-Eastern Coast to the Flat Centre Lands made a perdurable mark on the territories of that “Catalonia before Catalonia”. For these Northern Mediterranean Hispano-Goths, if they were not to be the rulers, they would rule themselves and would feel as something alien the peninsular, future Spanish business. 

            During the Visigoth times, in cities like Tarragona, Girona and Barcelona the figure of the Bishop grew in power and was both a religious and civil authority (together with the Dux). The city of Terrassa, nearby Barcelona has the best shows in Catalonia of the architecture of the times, which follows the achievements of the Roman period. Churches with barrel vault and thick walls with narrow openings enclose gloomy rooms, with a baptismal pile like a pool as then the adults when they made the first sacrament submerged the whole body in the holly water.

            Despite the Visigoths ruled all these lands for three centuries, they could never pretend their own culture to prevail on the native people. On the contrary, the Visigoths adopted the whole pack of the Roman civilisation, specially the language, Latin, and its religion, Christian. Most of the population on the land probably had very few contact with the Visigoths, and the prove of it is the scarce presence of Visigoth words in the Catalan Language as well as very few Visigoth names of places.

            The increasingly ruralisation of the population, the abandonment of the roads, and the fragmentation of Europe in different kingdoms made more and more difficult the trade. Therefore, a crossways land like Catalonia and harbour towns like Barcelona, could not fully develop their potential during these centuries.

THE GESTATION OF CATALONIA

One of the weak points of the Visigoth Kingdom which ruled over most of the nowadays Spain and Southern French Provence was their system of Crown Succession; it was not always hereditary. Following the tradition of the nomadic hordes that devastated the Roman Civilization, the most capable leader to conduct the whole tribe was elected (to take care of the cattle in peace; turning the whole tribe into a war force when plundering was more rentable). When these nomadic tribes settled in the different areas of the Roman world, thus establishing kingdoms, their chieftains became an elite ruling over the native population. Thus, Vandals, Alans, Ostrogoths, Visigoths tended to organise their society more and more hierarchic. Obviously the kings wished and tried to make their position hereditary. But this goal was not always achieved. That happened in the Visigoth Kingdom by 704.

            When the King Witiza died, Roderico got the crown. But the son of the deceased king, Akhila II, claimed that honour for himself and disputed the crown to the new king. Backed by some nobility, Akhila II called for the mercenary help of the northafrican tribes, which already had turned Muslim by the Arab Jihad. Thus, because a succession affair in the Throne dispute, the Islam entered into the Iberian Peninsula. They did it by the Gibraltar Strait, as a mere military help for one of the pretenders to the Visigoth Throne. Once inside they realised they could get a greater booty than the mercenary pay.

They were to stay, to conquer the whole of the Peninsula and further crossing the Pyrenees.

            Historians consider that the quick collapse of the Visigoth Kingdom obeys to the overtaxing and unfair domination of that  nobility over the native population. Peasants and common citizens had nothing to defend and “let themselves be conquered”, showing a weak opposition, accepting the terms of rendition before the sieges in their cities.

            What nowadays is Catalonia was also occupied by the new striking conquering force. Some inhabitants like nobility and High Clergy that had more to loose than to win with the new conditions put by the conquerors, took the exile. They escaped to the neighboring northern Kingdom of the Franks. There, the pressure of these refugees claiming to recover their lands for the sake of Christianity was welcomed by the Franks, which were interested to oust the Muslim from their border. The mighty figure of Charles the Great (Carolus Magnus) made possible a successful military campaign by the Franks. They conquered much land to the Muslim.

            It was that military push that set the border in between the Emirate of Cordoba and the Frank Kingdom by Barcelona, following the Llobregat river. In the times it was called the Marca Pyrenaica or Marca Hispanica. This and other Christian conquering carried by native lords was the seed of the Catalan Counties and later some of the future kingdoms of Aragon, Navarra and Castile-Leon. The mighty and wealthy Emirate of Cordoba was unable to retain and re-conquer the hilly northern humid lands. And that incapacity was to cause them (many centuries afterwards) their own end. Because from their impoverished cornered positions, the little early Counties and Christian Kingdoms were to grow and gain territory at the expense of the sourthern Muslim territories.

            Concerning what was to be Catalonia, the re-christianisaton of it by the hand of the Frankish conquering started obviously by the northern lands. The town of Arbuna in Roussillon fell in 759. It followed Girona in 785; and most important for its future commanding role, Barcelona fell in the hands of the Franks in 801. The border in between the Christian-Franks and the Muslim-Emirate of Corboda was blurry established in a line that goes from Barcelona on the coast to the north-west going inland. All these new Frankish territories were organised as a series of counties that all together built up a defensive-buffer zone known as the Marca Hispanica.

            Counties like Barcelona, Girona, Osona, Besalu, Roselló, Pallars or Urgell (that nowadays built up a part of Catalonia) were leaded by its respective Count, acting as a Civil Servant in behalf of the Frankish King. The hierarchy in between King and Count was put clear by the homage the later had to pay to the former.

            The first steps in this fragmented proto-Catalonia were difficult. The mighty and enlightened Emirate of Cordoba that turned into a Caliphate in 929 carried a fearful military pressure that easily could put an end to these Catalan Counties. The Muslim from sourthern Spain (then called Al-Andalus) never renounced to “re-conquer” their lost lands. But despite the menace, for the cornered Catalan Counties having such a mighty neighbour also meant a positive influence. Algebra, Medicine, Astronomy, the rescued Greek Philosopy filtered throught the plume of Averrroes or the Jew Maimonedes, crossed the Catalan Lands to refill the culturally wasted Western European landscape. But overall, for the Catalan Counties, having these rich and advanced neighbours meant a fruitful trade and the arrival of gold coins which helped to capitalise the land.

            The coastal position of Barcelona, its impressive stronghold wall defences, its background as an important Visigoth town and the possibility to expand itself further south at the expense of the Muslim kingdoms, gave a commanding role to the Barcelona County over the other Catalan Counties. The later were locking each other without possibility to further expand, thus becoming cornered in their northern positions.  

So along the 9^th and 10^th Century the County of Barcelona, leaded by counts like "Wilfred the hairy" or "Borrell II" had the ability to unify and bring under its rule the other Catalan Counties while making his office hereditary. Namely, the birthday of a Dinasty. That, for the politics of the time was like to act independent. The final deed that made fully sovereign that enlarged County of Barcelona was the Muslim attack of Almanzor “The Invincible”. His troops indeed broke down the Barcelona defences, fully ransacking the city aswell as the hinterland and other Catalan Counties. In such cases of outmost danger, it was required the help of the ultimate lord of these lands, the Frankish King. Indeed the Count of Barcelona requested military help to his King, but the later never came. The King, superior and protector   disobeyed its duty to defend a part of its kingdom and its subjects. Thus, after such a grave contract unfullfillment, the Count of Barcelona fell free to go his way. 

Here we have the starting date of Catalonia as an independent Country (986).

But beyond all these considerations of political legal status, the fact, the sap that made possible the birth of the Catalan Nation was the appearance of a distinctive Language, Catalan. We are talking about an evolution of the Latin Language spoken in these lands since the Roman times, with all its transformations (due to others languages' influence and endogenous developing ways) until it became a new language.

That coincidence of an Independent Political Entity that at the same time had its own Language was the platform from which the Catalan People further developed.

THE CONSOLIDATION AND EXPANTION OF THE CATALAN NATION

With the assault of Almanzor, the dictator of Al-Andalus, the Catalan Counties were at the verge of vanishing. Barcelona was left in a ruinous state. Nevertheless, the whole social body (peasantry, citizens, nobility, clergy) leaded by the Count of Barcelona was able to restore the economic and political assets achieved since then and restart the path with a stronger capacity.

            In a U turn, only 25 years after the darkest hour of that early Catalan State, in 1010, the Count of Barcelona leaded a successful military intervention into the Muslim Lands, ransacking the enlightened capital of the Caliphate, Cordoba. Abandoning their cornered defensive position the Catalans started an offensive expansion western and southwards gaining more and more territory at the expense of the increasingly politically fragmented Muslim Iberian lands. By 1153 the village of Siurana surrended, finishing thus the drawing of the Catalan Map.

            The County of Barcelona which came to define the whole of Catalonia was rich and politically respected. That allowed the Catalan Counts to engage in convenient marriages to enlarge their patrimony while enhancing the power of the State they incarnated. The turning point in that concern came when the crown of Aragon became vacant.     

            In 1150 the Count of Barcelona Ramon Berenguer IV married with the heiress to the throne of Aragon, Peronella. Thus, both territories became united in the form of a Confederation, each preserving its Laws and political functioning. Nevertheless, as both territories had the same King that meant common positions in many instances, as War and Foreign Affairs. In the forthcoming centuries that political entity known as the Crown of Aragon or Catalan-Aragonese Confederation was to become one of the mightiest Powers in the Mediterranean basin, incorporating more lands to the Confederation.

            Along the 11^th and 12^th Centuries the County of Barcelona had been building an area of influence at both sides of the Pyrenees. That expansion northwards in an area culturally and linguistically very close to Catalonia was cut short after the Cathar Affair. The Catharism, a way to understand the Christian faith was expanding in all the area known as Occitany. That branch of the Christian faith was reckoned as an heresy by the Pope. But the Bishop of Rome could himself alone not eradicate that problem. Nevertheless he found a good ally in the French King. Together, Pope and King were to cut short the Catharism. These two powers embarked in a holy crusade. The French King did not bother much about that heresy. His true goal was to bring the area of Occitania under his obeyance, displacing thus the “rule” of the King of Aragon. He did succeed, with the cost of a dreadful genocide on the people inhabiting these lands.  

            In the Battle of Muret in 1213, when King Peter I died defending his territories and inhabitants (not all, but some of them Cathars) against the French invasion, the way north was blocked for the Catalan expansion. The son of that defeated king was James I. Some twenty years later he decided to go in another direction for the territorial expansion, winning land at the expense of the neighbouring Muslim Kingdoms.

            Indeed, in 1226 James I was able to convince the Nobility, High Clergy and Merchants of cities like Barcelona, Tarragona, Girona, Manresa… that the conquering of Mallorca would be profitable for all, not only for the king. In the first hand, conquering that island and later the smaller neighbouring ones (Eivissa and Menorca) would put an end to the pirate actions of the Mallorca sailors, wich made incursions in the Catalan Coast while disturbing the Catalan sea Trade. Conquering such an Island as Mallorca also meant much land to redistribute in between the conquerors. For example, as the Catalans finally succeed with that military enterprise, the Bishop of Barcelona, which had partly financed the conquering army, was rewarded with a quarter of the island.

            The conquering of Mallorca, as happened ten years later with the conquering of the Muslim  Kingdom of Valencia, was accompanied by the settlement of Catalan peasants and farmers. Bringing colonisers to the new conquered lands was a way to assure that these lands wouldn’t be conquered again by the Muslims; Distributing lands to Lords and peasants was not only a reward to the family who received the lot, but a future reward to the King himself, which expected the tax revenues from the new activity of the colonisers.

            These were times of urban blooming, and cities like Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca or Valencia saw a demographic growth while renewing buildings, creating new institutions, raising sound and elegant gothic constructions like churches, convents, palaces, Merchants Halls, shipyards… The triangular network “Land producers, city craftsmen and merchants ship forwarders” could increase their activity and benefits thanks to the peace in the land and the incorporation of new territories to the Confederation.

            Whereas in the countryside the feudal conditions gave an absolute dominion to the nobility over the peasantry, the leading group which guided the king’s Foreign Affairs Strategy was the rich Merchants. That group was always up for new markets in which to trade in peace, under the protection of the king. Thus, guided by this purpose, new lands like Sicily, Sardinia, Athens and a Duchee created there were conquered by the Kings of Aragon. The successful military campaigns of the Crown of Aragon both at sea (specially against the Republic of Genoa) as in the land were possible because the fierce effectiveness of the mercenary Corps of the Almogavers. This group of professional military, very well trained in border disputed lands with the Muslim, were absolute masters in guerrilla tactics. Contrary to the usual heavy cavalry and slow moving armours, helmets and shields of soldiers and knights, the “almogavers” were dressed in leather and carried short swords and darts. Thus, this mercenary group was a very rapid and mobile unit that achieved great fame and spreaded panic in the places they served.

            In these times the cargo ships of the Catalan merchants were reaching all the corners of the Mediterranean, both Christian as Muslim Lands. Despite the Pope's interdictions to have any contacts with Muslim lands, the Kings of Aragon were able to work out Peace Treaties for the best of the Catalan Interests. The expansion of the Catalan Sea Trade also had the backing of Consulates in the most important ports like Marseille, Oran, Alexandria, Constantinople or Bruges (which indicates that the Catalan galleys were also reaching the Atlantic coasts). 

All these Catalan Consulates abroad were part of an Institution based in Barcelona called “Consulat de Mar”, the Merchants' Ruling Board. Apart from dealing with their businesses and collecting port taxes to finance works in the port, they were also producing one of the earliest pieces of Maritime Law in Europe. Actually, the so-called “Book of the Consulat de Mar” was the foundation stone of the Modern Maritime Law.

But not all was splendour for Catalonia and the Confederation in these times. The Peast, the Invisible Beast, the Black Death came to ravish and decimate the population for the first time in 1347. Disgrace upon disgrace succeeded, plage upon plage, Horsemen of the Apocalypse charging since the "lo mal any primer" (first bad year). The ignition spark or the culmination of all the calamities used to be a bad harvest, assuring famine and social unrest. The city of Barcelona also went through a local war as the Craftsmen wanted to be better represented in the City Council but the City Lords tried to avoid it. Later on, in 1356 started the war of the two Peters, the Cerimonious from Aragon and the Cruel from Castile. Apart from the exhausting financial consequences of a twenty year long fight, the war also created bitter enmities in between the kingdoms within the Crown of Aragon: Catalonia, Aragon and Valencia. The nobility of Aragon never forgot that the king, in a dreadful revenge, killed some traitors obliging them to drink lead.

Another important move that weakened the country both economically and socially were the attacks against the Jewish communities. In 1391 spreading from Andalusia like a quick wick arrived to Barcelona the violent mob attack against the Jewish people. Violent squads disembarked in Barcelona and induced the mob of Barcelona to fulfil the argument of the Dominican black monks, “baptise or death”. It also has been said that some City Lords and Land Lords had debts with some Jewish citizens and as an opportunity to get clear of their debts these rich figures induced the mob to go on with the assassinations.

Historians believe that 300 Barcelonians of Jewish religion were killed in that pogrom as they refused to convert into the Christian religion. That was the last stroke to a minority of roughly 5000 members out of 40000 inhabitants in Barcelona. Before that pogrom the Jewish community already had been experiencing for some decades restrictive measures. And not only the Barcelona Jewish quarter (Call) came to an end, but also the ones of Girona, Lleida, Tarragona… saw violent scenes.

That violent end of the Jewish quarters led to a further greater impoverishment of the whole society. The Catalan-Jewish were sea traders, doctors, craftsmen like silversmiths, masters in cartography, people with foreign languages like arab (very useful for the royal chancellery), great professionals. As some of them were killed, apart from the horror of it, it left the country deprived from some of their better prepared and learned people. Also it was gone one of the most enlightened schools of Cabala. The two big  Jewish communities, Azkenazis and Sefarad also lost an important Go-in-betweener, the Jewish of the Land of Edom, Catalonia.

The times when Christian preachers and Rabbi could freely argue (like in the Dispute of Barcelona) whether Jesus was or not the true Mesiah, were a memory of the past. Now, to be Jewish was forbidden, and most of them turned cripto-jewish (hidden jewish).

Catalonia closed the 14^th Century in a feverish state, with a diminished population, the consequent lack of productivity in agriculture, a decreasing port activity, several pest waves than beyond decimated, literally tricimated the population… All these difficulties were to confirm with the extinction of the Count-Royal lineage of the House of Barcelona.  

THE REASONS OF CATALONIA

The breaking points in a forced marriage

The first historical slip of the Catalan Nation pushing it towards Spain was in 1410. In that year the last King of the House of Barcelona died without a legitimate heir.

When Martí l’Humà (Martin the Humane) died without a legitimate heir in 1410, the lands of the Crown of Aragon were left in a difficult state. All the Lands of the Confederation turned thus orphan of a Sovereign. What to do, to whom giving the crown? (Despite being a Constitutional Monarchy, to be a Republic it was not in their political calculations). The natural candidate was the illegitimate grandson Frederic of Sicily, but the “antipope” Luna refused to legitimise him. Then, who could opt for the Throne of Aragon, the highest office of a vast Mediterranean Confederation of countries? Who was next of kin? Candidates from different royal families who had been related with the House of Barcelona presented their Rights.

            The matter were to be solved out in an assembly of representatives from Catalonia, Aragon and Valencia (three per country) in the city of Casp. The so-called “Compromis de Casp” resolved positive for Ferdinand. He was the grandson of Peter III, the father of the deceased King. That pretender came from the House of Trastamara. That rich family (a branch of which was already in hold of the Kingdom of Castile)  made his fortune out of the wool. Landownership in the vast flatlands of Castile and the favourable rights of the shepherds for seasonal migration of livestock made the grand Castilian Nobility extremely wealthy. That Trastamara family was as rich as powerful. They had a whole army at their service. And indeed it was not only the wealth with which the Trastamara candidate bribed the delegates of the three Kingdoms, but the army with which he arrived, the ultimate reason that better backed his genealogic Rights.

            The bid of the Catalan Candidate, “Jaume the Unlucky”, ended badly as he lost a battle against the new “elected” king. The Catalans had to come to terms with a new foreign dynasty. 

            For some Historians that was a crucial breaking point diminishing Catalan independence. Why?           

            Given the geographic unicity of the Iberian Peninsula it was reasonable that any power in this times aspired to rule over all the Iberian, ancient Hispanic Roman and Visigothic Lands. Three Kingdoms opted for that Job: Catalonia-Aragon; Basques-Navarra; and Castile-Leon. Navarra became somehow cornered in between the two other, and those two other became stronger extending their lands at the expense of the fragmented Muslim Peninsular kingdoms. These two kingdoms avoided the conflict in between each other as long as the fight against the Muslim kept them busy. Actually, the constant marriages in between members of both dynasties proves their will for approach and understanding. But by 1350, in the times of Peter the Cerimonious of Aragon and Peter the Cruel of Castile, the war finally broke up, ravaging the land for almost 20 years.

            50 years later, the Catalans remembered clearly the Hegemonic intentions of the Castilian Kings, and specially the royal family of Trastamara. And now, one of them had been elected to master the Kingdom! Soon they were going to discover the inconvenience of electing a non native King. First of all, the new Monarch could not speak their language, Catalan. It seems that the king was specially despising the language of his new Lands. In a meeting with the Parliament, the annoyed councillors, members of the Parliament, after stating the non collaborative manners of the king due to his unwillingness to understand the language, they just told him: “si vis amari, ama” which is, “if you want to be loved, do love”.

            The new king also did not want to accept the political functioning of his new kingdom, were the Rights of the Citizens were put on Constitutions, and these citizens assembled in Parliaments were able to deny donations and new taxes to the King if the Sovereign did not gave them something in return.

            With the new foreign dynasty, the community of interests in between the elites of the Land and the King was broken. The Land was represented by the Catalan Governent, called Generalitat (which included High Clergy; Merchants, rich citizens; and Nobility. Peasants, small farmers, and common craftmen were excluded. The land was also somehow represented by the Barcelona City Council due to its important population, his de facto role as the capital of the land; besides being an important financial, manufacturing, harbour and commercial centre. From now on, with a foreign dynasty ruling over Catalonia, the interests of Land and King were diverging enough as to lead to warfare three times in the three forthcoming Centuries.

            From 1410 onwards, when that foreign dynasty came in, for many periods in Catalonia it was felt that the King was ruling not in favour but against the country. Far from being a peace maker in between the different social and political groups of the Land, the King was playing the card of backing only one of the groups to thus undermine the power of the other parts, all with the aim to reinforce his royal role. That clearly happened in 1462, when it took place the Catalan Civil War.

            The King John the Faithless supported the interests of the Party of farmers and Peasantry. Those were fighting for the abolition of the “Mals Usos” which were practices that allowed nobility to quasi enslave the peasants and violently abusing of them. In the other side were the Lords and the City Honorable Men together with some Merchants, all of which held the reins of the Catalan Government (Generalitat). The later stated its Independence refusing its King while giving the crown to other candidates, the Prince of Viana, the Conestable of Portugal and Renat I. All those candidates for Prince of Catalonia died just after taking office. It was then the fate for Catalonia to remain under the Authority of a Monarchy that always found difficult to accept the "Pactism", the political handling and negotiation in between equals. The system of the King in Parliament was inconfortable for the new foreign Monarchy.  

The Second historical slip of the Catalan Nation dragging it into further integration with Castile thus pre-figurating Spain came in 1473 when two young princes, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabel of Castile got married. The parents of both were in a difficult situation in their respective Kingdoms, with Civil Wars and their crowns being questioned. So that marriage was a way to reinforce their Rights to the Crown. But to which crown? Not only to the one of Aragon or Castile separately, but to both.

            The couple who were called to open the horizon of the Europeans with the discovering of the New World also prepared the platform that in a few centuries would lead to the birth of the Spanish State. Short and simple, they made a Union of Crowns. From then on, both Kingdoms, Aragon and Castile, were to be ruled in some common matters by the same monarch. Originally, each of the so-called Catholic Kings was exclusively in command of the Kingdom inherited by their parents. But this duality disappeared with the offspring of the couple. Not the mentally ill daughter, “Juana la loca”, but their grandson Charles V enjoyed both the crowns of Aragon and Castile apart from other lands in Europe and America.

            But why the Catalan historiography always considered that Union of Crowns in between Ferdinand and Isabel like a misstep? Ferdinand was the grandgrandson of that Ferdinand of Antequera who coming from Castile, got the Crown of Aragon. The Trastamara dynasty, who ruled Catalonia from 1410 untill 1516 were somehow “dinationalised”. Actually the grandfather of Ferdinand, “Alfons the Magnanimous” lived most of his reign in Neaples. Ferdinand also experienced the hardship of a Civil War in Catalonia. Then, he was just a boy. He saw how the Catalan Government (the Generalitat) removed from Office his father the King John. No doubt that this event left him a deep mark, a feeling of both respect and mistrust for the Catalan Institutions. When Ferdinand united his crown with the one of Castile, he operated in a way that undermined some of the Rights of Catalonia.

            Overall the itinerant Royal Court was most of the times in Castilian land, to later in the times of Philip II establish itself in Valladolid and Madrid. That was determining in giving to the future Spain the pre-eminence to Castile, and that its language, Castilian, were to be dominant. The reason why the royal court was established in Castile was basically that Castile was a much more docile land than Catalonia. The later had a much more complex social fabric, with rich merchants, cities full of craftmen, that did not bend easily to the King’s will; while in Castile the social landscape of a minority of immensely rich landlords, great traders and an ample peasant and farmer society made easier for the king to impose his will. Therefore, in order to avoid the constant negotiation with the Catalan Parliament (a money saver and jealous deffendor of the Rights of Catalonia) the King decided to establish his Court in Castile.

            The fact that the Court (first itinerary and then permanent) was established in the Castilian Lands made of that country the best partner for the Monarchy, its main supporter both for the good and for the bad. Contrarywise, that Catalonia was put aside in a non directing role in the Hispanic Kingdom had also its good and bad consequences. In the one hand Catalonia could go its way relatively unbothered; but when it came to distribute rewards in between the different territories under the King’s authority, the Principality was also forgotten. Thus, Catalonia could not enjoy the increasing benefits of the Hispanic Empire.

            This last statement is not a matter of Historian’s appreciation, but a sheer fact: America was a monopoly of Castile and the Catalan merchants were considered foreigners. Consequently they were banned from trading directly with the New World. Paradoxically that never had to be like that, as Colombus was probably a native from Catalonia. We strongly recommend for the issue of the Catalanity of Columbus and its political implications the Essay of Jordi Bilbeny “Cristofor Colom, príncep de Catalunya” (Columbus, Prince of Catalonia). Summing up,  Catalonia was literally robed of the vast new territories that one of its countryfolk discovered. To do that, to justify “giving” the new lands to Castile instead to Catalonia and its partners of the Crown of Aragon it was necessary to work out a new identity for the discoverer. Obviously if the Monarchy recognised that Columbus was Catalan the new lands were to be attributed to  Catalonia while Castile had to go with nothing.

            Giving the lands to the submissive Castile meant that the New World were to be for the King, while if America was given to the independent Catalonia, that would have empowered the later, its class of merchants, bankers, craftsmen... to the point of being stronger than the King. The Monarchy did not let that to happen. Thus it was invented the Genoa identity of Columbus. To that goal, the silence of Columbus also was very usefull. The great discoverer probably was from a noble family that in the Catalan Civil War fought against the Royal Party. Therefore Columbus had to keep in secret his true identity.

            This period (end of 15^th C. and reign of Charles V and Philip II saw the arrival and developing of the dreadful Holy Court of the Inquisition. No doubt that in religious matters that Court was effective in cutting short the spreading of the Protestant and Calvinistic Reform in the Iberian Lands. (read “El Hereje” by Miguel Delibes). But for Catalonia, the landing and empowering of the  fanatic Inquisition meant also a direct attack to its Right and Freedoms.

            When Isabel and Ferdinand II got married they had at their hands the ultimate rule over a group of kingdoms that has come to be named the Hispanic Kingdoms. But the different parts, as Catalonia, Valencia, Aragon and Mallorca (assembled in the Crown of Aragon), Navarra and Castile continued running themselves politically independent, under their distinct laws, rulers, parliaments… The King had to swear respect to the Rights of each of these Kingdoms if he wanted to be accepted and be crowned in each of these kingdoms. But with the Inquisition the King found a way to skip this limitation of his powers. The Inquisition had carte blanche, complete freedom for its Dominican masters. The Black Monks could despise the Laws of the countries where they were working. The feared religious prosecutors could do and undo whatever they wanted.

            What was the interest of the King in giving so much license to the Inquisition? We have heard about the tortures, the torments, "Autos de Fe", burning people alive and when not found their puppets replicas, of persecutions against any suspected of Calvinism, Protestantism, Witchery, hiddenJudaism, Humanism, Atheism, Homosexuality…. When the accused was found guilty (relapse) in most of the cases, apart from being burnt or sent to the galleys, that imply the Seizing of Properties. And to whom went these assets? To the King. We thus perfectly understand why the King gave this SupraConstitutional Powers to the Court of the Inquisition.

            It is known the plea of the Barcelona Council to the King Ferdinand II. - Under this and that and that other Law and Privilege of the City and Land, the Inquisition have no place here - the Councillors said. Apart, its proceedings would have a profound negative effect on the Economy and the Social Wellbeing. King’s answer: - First God and then the Land.

The Third historical slip of the Catalan Nation leading to get trapped  into the future Spain came in the times of the hypertrophy of the Hispanic Empire. The reigns of the Emperor Charles V and King Philip II along the 16^th Century saw a remarkable expansion of the lands under their authority. Central and South-America, some Duchies and reigns in Europe (like Milan and the Netherlands), the Philippines…. It was the Empire in which the Sun never set; Masters of the World, an extensive Hispanic Empire in which Catalonia was just one of the many pieces to get profit of, to play with.

            Catalonia had no relevant role in this Empire, unlike the faithful Castile, the rich Netherland or the Republic of Genoa with its bankers. But the Principality was skilful enough to politically survive, avoiding to be swallowed by an increasingly centralised Monarchy. Apart, Catalonia could restore its economy, opening up new maritime routes, putting their manufactures like glass or produces like wine in markets like Medina del Campo or Ports like Sevilla and Lisbon, while vertebrating a well connected system in between the country and its capital, Barcelona.   

            But the irresistible Will of the Monarchy was to rule subjects; not to handle and deal with Kingdoms and Principalities. Thus Mallorca, Aragon and Valencia (partners of Catalonia in the Crown of Aragon) saw the interference and undermining of its Constitutional Rights under Charles V and Philip II. The time for Catalonia came with Philip IV and the “Conde-Duque de Olivares”. Again a War, again a King against its Catalan subjects. The Game ended up with a relative defeat. Catalonia was able to keep its Powers, Parliament, Government, Rights, … but lost a part of its territory, Northern Catalonia (Rousillon and Cerdanya) which was given to France.

            The conflict started when the “valido” of the king (a kind of First Minister with full powers) Conde-Duque de Olivares putted in action its secret plan. That was the so-called “Union of Arms”. Let us hear the very same man who designed the plan that leaded to war in between the Monarchy and Catalonia:

Tenga Vuestra Majestad por el negocio más importante de su monarquía el hacerse rey

de España;

quiero decir, Señor, que no se contente Vuestra Majestad con ser rey de Portugal, de Aragón, de Valencia, conde de Barcelona,

sino que trabaje y piense con

consejo maduro y secreto por reducir estos reinos de que se compone España al estilo y

las leyes de Castilla

            That was written in 1624. With the exquisite tone of the Spanish Golden Age the dispatch says that the different Kingdoms should be unifyed under the "style and laws" of Castile. With the pretext of a war against France the bid was pursuit with the outmost determination. The Hispanic Troops were stationed in the Catalan countryside (remember that Catalonia is bordering with France at the north). The fearful military machinery of the Hispanic Kingdom, the soldiers integrated in “los Tercios” were maintained for a long time in the humble farms of the Catalan Peasants. The burden of  feeding and housing all these soldiers that behaved as bad as possible leaded to an uprising of reapers or “segadors”.

            Like a peasants' army they all went to the capital, Barcelona, killed the Viceroy (the representative of the King in the Principality of Catalonia) and demanded the help of the Catalan Government, “la Generalitat”. Thus started the War of Secession, the Catalan Revolt, known by the Catalans as “La Guerra dels Segadors”.

            As the Catalans had their own king against them, they decided different ways out. It was essayed the Declaration of Catalonia as a Republic. But the weak Catalan Army needed the protection of a great Monarch with strong enough military resources to defend Catalonia from the Hispanic King. Thus, the Catalan Government gave the title of Count of Barcelona to Louis XIV, the Sun King. Doing that, the sovereignty over the Catalan Principality was taken out from the Hispanic King Philip IV.

            But things were not that easy. The Catalan Revolt took place in the convulsive times of the Thirty Years War which was devastating the whole of Europe. Finally the Hispanic King and the French one got an understanding. Louis XIV won’t meddle into the Hispanic Affairs an in return he was given the North of Catalonia. Seeing the difficulties to put an end to the Statehood of the Principality of Catalonia, the Hispanic King decided to leave the things as they were before. Catalonia preserved thus its Independence, its Institutions, but paid the high price of loosing part of its territory, Northern Catalonia also known as Rosselló.   

The Fourth slip of lasting political and historical consequences for the Catalan Nation occurred when the Throne to the Hispanic kingdoms became vacant. That happened in 1700, when Carlos II died without an heir. That king it is known as the “hechizado” or the enchanted. For political convenience, to keep the patrimony, the royal families used to practice endogamy: marriages in-between a set of royalties that were all close or distant relatives. No wonder that that king was both physical and mentally ill. Therefore he was infertile or impotent, consequently unable to give an heir.

            The Throne of the Hispanic kingdoms was a desired price for any royal family. Beyond the territories known nowadays as Spain it was a large overseas booty, territories in Southamerica, southern Northamerica, Philipines, …..). All this vast empire was obviously wished by the two big powers of the moment in the continent. These were the French Monarchy of the Bourbons and the Austrian Habsburg Dinasty who were in charge of the German Holy Roman Empire. Both royal families presented their candidates.

            But the Succession to the Hispanic Throne not only concerned the Hispanic subjects and those two aforementioned royal families. The matter had a broader continental impact. If the French got the Throne of the Hispanic territories, then the French-Hispanic block could be strong enough to bring unbalance to the System of Power in Europe. Especially aware of this matter were the Netherlands and England. They  did not want that unbalance of Powers in Europe to happen. So two parties in Europe took shape and the war commenced.

            That split within Europe also happened in the Iberian territories: while Castile opted for the French candidate, the Aragonese block (with Catalonia, Valencia, Aragon and Mallorca) opted for the Austrian one.

            The war developed into a Chess mate, so transaction found its way in between artillery, bayonets and sieges. The French handed to the English the Strategical Gibraltar and Minorca which were essential for the control of the Atlantic and Mediterranean trade; together with the exclusive right to bring slaves to the American Hispanic Colonies. Apart, the French gave to the English Terranova, the Hudson Bay and Nova Scotia. The Austrians got Milan, Neaples, Sardinia together with Flandes. The House of Savoia was awarded with Sicily.

So the Allies finally accepted the French candidate (the nephew of Louis XIV) to seat on the Throne of the Hispanic kingdoms.

But what happened with the territories of the Crown of Aragon? The Kingdoms of Valencia and Aragon had already been conquered by the Castilian-French troops. So Philip the V was already ruling over them, punishing the habitants of these territories for their insolence of opposing to His Majesty.

            So the Principality of Catalonia was left alone defending a cause that was already abandoned by the rest; even by his very same promoter, the Archduke Charles III who already had been crowned as Emperor Charles VI of the German Holy Roman Empire. But Catalonia and its people could not accept the French candidate. They knew about his centralised ways. In Aragon and Valencia the new King had already wiped out the Statehood of those kingdoms. Catalonia did not want to renounce to its Freedom, Rights, Independence. Apart, after such a long fighting against that King, they only could expect from him a severe reprimand.                    

            Barcelona, the fortified capital of the Principality of Catalonia was able to resist a long siege. But after an agonic defence, the invaders broke into the City. As a royal punishment to such disobedient and ungrateful subjects, all Rights, Freedoms and Privileges of Catalonia were swept away. Thus the Principality ceased to exist as an independent State and political entity. Besides, it occurred a dramatic repression. The population suffered not only from a grievous military occupation but from a heavy burden of taxes. 

            In normal circumstances the defeat of 11 September 1714 would have lead to a total oblivion, to the disappearance of the nation. But the people kept their own language (Catalan). And also determinant was that in a few decades Catalonia jumped into the industrial revolution. Both facts were key to this conquered and defeated Nation to survive despite having lost its Political Rights.

Once in Spain, an important blow to avoid the Catalans to revive took place in 1923. By then the Catalan Society already had achieved its own system of Political Parties that made possible a Self-Rule called the “Mancomunitat”. That limited Self-government operating since 1914 meant the union of the four Catalan Provincial administrations and took as the See for the President the Old Palace of the Catalan Government, the Generalitat in Pl. St. Jaume in the old-town of Barcelona.

But the atmosphere was of social turmoil. The Clash of Classes was leading to an unavoidable explosion. The Strong Anarchist Trade Union Movement and the Employers Association were too far away from each other in their respective positions to reach peaceful agreements concerning wages, labour conditions, shifts…. The social unrest meant not only big demonstrations and weeks-long strikes which paralysed trade and manufacturing, but plain violence. Terrorist Free riders supposedly representing the workers and gunners (paid by some employers) who killed leftist politicians and trade union leaders made of Barcelona a dangerous city with frequent bombs and shots.

            Part of that latent Social War was the rage against the Church. That clearly happened in 1908 when many churches were put on fire in the so-called “Tragic Week”. For the Leftist Movement, the Church was targeted as an enemy due to its opposition to the secular and free education as well as other social improvements to which the masses aspired.

            By the year 1923, to put an end to this atmosphere of conflict as well as improvement of the social conditions and rights of the workers (seen as a thread by the Rightwing), some employers decided to cut it short taking a radical option. They said: - What the country needs is a strong man like in Italy, a Spanish Mussolini. Some Catalan Industrialist, together with the Spanish Landlords and some Basque Capitalists backed the military coup of "Primo de Rivera" who was to rule as a dictator. But that military was not only to develop a Rightwing policy to please the Employers. He was also going to show all his anticatalan feelings. The Catalan president had to resign and the short Selfgovernment was again turned into a provintial Office. The Catalan flag was banned and even the Barça Stadium was closed down because the Audience booed at the Spanish Anthem.

            Summing up, the High Bourgeoisie could be happy that the new Military Regime cut short any claim and action of the Working Class. Strikes were forbidden and the powerfull anarchist Trade Union CNT was declared illegal, being its members persecuted. Along the era of the Liberal Revolutions was growing in consistency the Leviathan of a Spanish Central Government ruled by and for the Rightwinger Privileged Classes. That was to smash an interclassist democratic Catalan Nationalism, firmly anchored in the Petit Bourgeoisie but giving answer aswell to the needs of the Working Class.

The High Bourgeoisie after the dilemma of defending their sole Class interest or the interest of the whole Country, opted for the egoist position. Soon they were to see how the teaching of the Catalan in the schools, any association or the normal expression of the culture were prohibited. And for the economy: it is true that the employer saw a decrease of the labour cost, but as a whole the country was squezzed to the bone as never before in taxes with no investment by the central government in return.

            Therefore, soon after backing the "Coup d’Etat", the Catalan Industrialists who promoted the Dictator saw the inconvenience of the political investment they had done. Nevertheless it was too late to get rid of the man they had promoted.

The sixth slip of the Catalan Nation which many saw as a betrayal but others as an opportunity came with the end of that repressive dictatorship of the 20s. Namely, Catalonia renounced to an already declared Independent Republic to accept a regained autonomy.

Under the repressive conditions of the Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera along the 20s, the insurrection leaded by the romantic figure of Macià found its way. That ex-colonel that had been touring the world in support for the cause of the Independence, together with some volunteers, tried an invasion of the country to free the Land. But the Liberation Army was discovered before starting the military action and were judged in France. He and his pro-Independence Political Party also tried a terrorist attack to the King. Despite being ilegalised, in an underground level the Anarchist Treade Union CNT was becoming again stronger. Associations of Civil Society were again reaching the surface. The disastrous economic direction of the Military Cabinet of the Dicatorship even made the upper classes to detach their support from the regime. All led to the fall of the Dictator.

Thus, in an atmosphere of joy and hope, at the tunes of La Marsellaise, seeing that finally freedom and progress was finding its way, the II Republic was proclaimed. Macià, with his aura of hero had led his party ERC to the strongest position in the municipal elections in Catalonia. Feeling that a whole People was at his side, he declared:

“After hearing the feelings and wishes of the Catalan People that just gave us its votes, I do proclaim the Catalan Republic, as a State integrated in the Iberian Federation. (…) Ending with: - For Catalonia, for the other brother People of Spain, for the fraternity of all Humanity and People of the World, Catalans, be worthy of Catalonia”. (Said at the Balcony of the Palace of the Catalan Government).

The statement was quite clear: Catalonia was to be an independent State under the form of a Republic. To calm down the Spanish Government and its Public Opinion, Catalonia was willing to build up some confederative bounds with the rest of Spain.

But the Spanish State could not be cheated so easily. They plainly opposed to the declaration of independence and threatened with a military action if the President Macià and its party did not reconsider the matter. After some negotiation with a Spanish delegation which came to Barcelona, and despite the deep grief to renounce to an already declared Independence, the president Macià accepted a watered down solution: just autonomy.

But despite the disillusion and the feeling of another lost opportunity… the Catalan Political Forces were clever enough to re-establish the Self-Government under the name of the secular Catalan Government, “la Generalitat”.

This institution dates back from the Middle Ages and it is one of the oldest well established governments in any land in the world. It was formally organised during the reign of Peter III in 1359. In this Institution were represented the so-called Three Arms of the Power, namely Noblemen or military, clergy and High Burgessy, this last one representing the cities. Its attributions were: to propose laws to the king and to authorise or deny the laws that the king presented. Overall it was a tax collector for its own needs and for donations to the king. That fiscal power enabled the Generalitat to go on with its inner and foreign policy and specially the military costs. Obviously that Government, "La Generalitat", was not democratic (as the peasantry, farmers and craftsmen were not represented). But the importance of it laid in that it had jurisdiction over all the Land. 

So in 1932 Catalonia recovered an own government that despite not being sovereign counted with an Autonomous Administration, an Executive and a Parliament with legislative powers in some given Concerns (the ones which were not reserved to the central Spanish Government). 

Another strike of the Spanish Nationalism to the Catalan Nation happened just two years after that hopeful moment of 1932. Let us remember that in that year, with the beginning of the Spanish II Republic the Catalans recovered a Government that despite limited it was theirs.

The new autonomous government started to work on progressive laws to bring social justice while promoting and defending the Catalan culture and its economy. But this young democracy had fierce opponents in Spain. The Catalan “Generalitat” was seen as intolerable for the Spanish Nationalism. But overall, and beyond any nationalistic-heart matter, the Spanish far-righwingers and ultracatholics also saw the rule of the leftist and secular Catalan ERC as a threat to all their privileges.

These Reactionary forces won the Spanish elections in 1934. They revoked an important Land Reform done in Catalonia and fiercely repressed a mine upheaval in the northern Spanish province of Asturias. That pushed the Catalan President Lluís Companys to a desperate move in order to safeguard the Freedoms and Rights achieved since then. He proclaimed the Catalan State from the Balcony of “la Generalitat”.

Second Declaration of Independence in just two years, and second failure. This time the consequences were to be grave. The whole Executive of Catalonia (President and Ministers) went to jail and again Catalonia was ruled from Madrid like a mere Province.

What many thought as the final death blow to a millenary Nation came with the Spanish Civil War. The aforementioned suspension of the Autonomy and imprisonment of the Catalan Government was just an aperitif to what followed.

In 1936 were again general elections and both in Catalonia as in Spain the leftist republican forces won a clear majority. President Companys and his Cabinet were freed from jail and came back to Catalonia like heroes to resume work. But not even a few months later the fascist "antijewish-leftist-separatist-masonic" crusade of the Far-righwingers and ultracatholics lead by the General Franco broke the democratic game.

During these three years of war (1936-1939) Catalonia forgot any Independence claim and fought arm to arm with the loyal forces, a compound of militia men and the Popular Army of Spain. From Barcelona trains were organised to aid Madrid, besieged by the Fascisct. The citizens of Madrid, under the lemma “No Pasarán” showed a brave resistance. The people did not want to renounce to all the welfare and democracy achieved since then.

During the first stages of the Civil War, the Catalan Government acted as a full empowered State. Thanks to the productive fabric of the land, an incipient industry of war was taking shape. But what the Catalan Government was unable to stop were the bombing of the Franco allies, Hitler and Mussolini. The “martillamento” (the hammering) of the Italian Aviazione Legionaria was undermining the temper of the civilians. The Generalitat was also unable to stop the increasing interference of the Communist Party who cut short the real revolutionary dreams of the Anarchist Trade Union. (The George Orwell autobiographical “Homage to Catalonia” digs in the matter of the disunion within the Republican ranks).

Finally, when escaping from the besieged Madrid the Spanish Central Government established in Barcelona, the Catalan Government was reduced to a role of mere spectator. And the war was being lost. It is true that the aid of Hitler and Mussolini together with the fulfilment of the Appeasement Treaty by UK and France was key to the defeat of the Democratic Republican Forces in the Civil War. But it is also true that the fratricide enmity of the different parties within the Republican side, the disloyalty of the Central Government towards the Catalan one, the Soviet interference and Stalinist persecutions, all lead to the lost of enthusiasm and faith in the victory in the Republican Side.

In February 1939, Companys, the Catalan President crossed the Pyrenees border together witht the Basque President; two defeated men, two defeated nations. Ahead, 40 years of crude dictatorship, absolute denial of any language and identity different from the Spanish one, and a return to the atmosphere of the Inquisition of the times of Philip II. It started rashly cold, and went from dark to grey.

The process towards national recovery took place along 40 years of the outmost repression and denial of the Catalan Identity.

During the 40 years of Franco dictatorship there were constant movements both in Catalonia as in the Exile to free the land and recover democracy. In an early stage of the Dictatorship, in the Pyrenees Mountain Chain were "resistance" spots of maquis (guerrilla squads). The movie “El laberinto del fauno” shows in a fantastic way the struggle of these guerrilla freedom fighters. But by the end of the II World War it was clear for the Catalan Resistance that the Allies won’t continue their military efforts to also free Spain.

Franco was keen enough to turn into an ally of USA. Besides, the Governments of UK and France found more convenient to have an isolated Dictatorship in Spain than a Red Spain that could be an example to other European Countries. So from early 50s the freeing of Spain and Catalonia was left in the hands of their own people, both outside and inside the country. During the four decades of the Militarist-National-Catholic Regime in Spain, the flame of the Catalan identity was kept alive in the exile by some relevant figures of the culture like the cello master Pau Casals and specially the very same Government in the exile. That was almost reduced to the figure of its president, Josep Tarradelles, who lived in Saint-Martin-le-Beau (Switzerland).

The times of dictatorship were especially hard not only from the national-cultural point of view (the Catalan language being forbiden; the Catalan flag banned…), but also from a Democratic-Human Rights point of view. The land was simply ruled by the conquerors and winners of the Civil War, namely Church, Military, fascist, and big corporations and capitalists. The Dictator ruled developing a Police State, in an atmosphere of fear. Any non obedient expression by the Civilians was harshly repressed. To start with Franco shut in the Castle of Montjuïch the President Companys, who escaped to the exile in France. There he was arrested by the Gestapo and was handed over to the Spanish authorities. Almost 40 years later, in the same Castle-Prision was the last execution of the bloody Franco Regime (signed by the very same dictator), the young anarchist activist Salvador Puig Antich. He died in the “garrotte vil” (the film "Salvador" by Manuel Huerga staring Daniel Brühl depicts the story of the arrest, summary trial and horrific execution.

But the winds of change were reaching Spain despite the tough State control. The developing of tourism in the coast brought girls dressed in bikini in an ultra-catholic Spain for the enjoyment of men and emulation of woman. The spread of the TV in the Spanish homes brought foreign films and serials that helped the Spanish people to realise that in the Western Countries the things were much better. Everything prepared the ground for a newly recovered democracy. So when the dictator died, a transition period finally brought a new Parliamentary System.

The pressure of the illegalised Catalan parties working in an underground level, the work of the Civil Society, the silenced population who found their ways to express themselves, even the monks from the Monastery of Montserrat who welcomed secret meetings of the Opposition to the Regime, all these and other streams of freedom lead to the reestablishment of “la Generalitat”. When the President of Catalonia came back from the exile in 1977 he pronounced a magic speech. From the balcony of the Palace of the Generalitat he said: “Ciutadans de Catalunya, ja sóc aquí!” (Citizens of Catalonia, finally I am here!) - up to three times. To share with you the sad moments, the hardships, your joys for Catalonia”.

The process to rebuilt the Nation both culturally and socially continued along the Autonomic period restarted just then after 40 years of the outmost centralisation.

The political arrangement with the Central Spanish Government was that of an Autonomy. In an early stage, only the Historical Nationalities (Catalonia, The Basque Country and Galicia) achieved that Self-Government Status, in a kind of asymmetric federalism. We say in a “kind of” because contrary to a Federation, in a “State of Autonomies” does not exist a Chamber of Territories (LandesTag). Spain put in practice a political system more flexible, more arbitrary than the Federal one. The later is more static, for the good and for the bad. In a system of Autonomies the State can tolerate the enhancement of the powers of a given Region when the support of some Regional Party is needed by the ruling Party in the Central Government, namely when they don’t have overall majority in the Parliament of the whole Federation. But when the ruling party in the State does have an overall majority they can stop the de-centralisation or even rescue some Concerns which before were transferred to the Regions. Beyond, the State has in his hands the tool of the Constitutional Court (Court de Cassation) to deal with disputes about Concerns in between the Central Government and the Regional ones. Obviously, that Constitutional Court, an organism of the State, as a bias in favour of his  master, the Central Government.

The thing that dynamited the arrangement of the Transition with which Catalonia regained its Self-Government was the so-called “coffee for all”. While the Basque from Navarra and the Catalans from Mallorca and Valencia also demanded their own Self-Governement, the Spanish Government found great to give autonomy to other regions without national identity. In that way up to 17 Autonomous Communities were created up of nothing. That was a great operation to water down the distinctiveness of Catalonia.

The second operation to deactivate the Catalan Nationalism was the so-called Frame Laws. When Spain accepted the Catalan Charter (Estatut), in there were put very clearly which Concerns were exclusive responsibility of the Catalan Government. These were the so-called Exclusive Concerns, while the Spanish ones were called Reserved Concerns. A third category of Concerns were the Shared ones, aimed to provoke cooperation in between the two levels of Administration, the Central and the Autonomous one. But along the 80s Spain passed a set of laws allowing the Central Government to establish Frame Laws to harmonise legislation and execution of it by the different autonomous governments of Spain. That enabled the Central Government to intrude in the fields which were reserved to the Stateless and Regional Governments, thus cutting short the process of de-centralisation.  

Nevertheless, along the 80s and 90s the Catalan Autonomy, under the presidence of Jordi Pujol, was growing stronger. It had a favourable context. Catalonia was leading the path to other Regions who were claiming the same level of Self-Government as Catalonia. The key Catalan Members of Parliament in the  Spanish Assembly (Cortes) were giving support to the Spanish Social-Liberal (PSOE) or the Conservatives (PP) in exchange of new Concerns like an own TV Channel or a Catalan Police Force. The general de-centralisation of Spain was also helping to build an image of modernity to Spain, proudly showed to the World, especially since 1986 when it became a State Member of the EU. The so-called "State of the Autonomies" had international glamour and was put as an example of how to solve territorial problems to other still-not democratic countries.

Those were years of loyal “Autonomism” that allowed Catalonia in a gradualist way to regain lost powers. The greatest achievement of that period by the Catalan Society has been the so-called Linguistic Normalisation. The backbone of the Catalan identity it is its own language. That comes from the Latin and got its own distinctiveness by the 10^th Century.

In the 13^th Century it expanded towards the Valencia Country, Balearic Islands and even to the Sardinian city of Alguer.. Nowadays, with 9 million speakers is the 9^th largest language in Europe (despite it is not officially recognised by the European Institutions). In 1960s and the 70s Catalonia was blessed with a large immigration of Spaniards (mainly from impoverished Andalusia). That meant that their language, Castilian, was landing in Catalonia. In these times, with the native language being banned by the Dictatorship, it was a difficult business to linguistically integrate these newcomers. So with the recovered democracy and Self-Government it was the major work of the Catalan Government to restore the health of the Catalan language.

 That has been called Normalisation and the main tool to achieve that goal has been the Primary School with its “linguistic immersion”. Nowadays, both ex-newcomers from 60s and 70s, more recent newcomers from South-America, Morocco, China… all they learn Catalan (together with Castilian). When the children are 9 years old all of them can perfectly handle both languages. If they are from a Catalan speaking family then the pupils will learn in School Castilian, and the other way round for pupils from Castilian speaking families.

Probably, this operative for linguistic-social integration of Newcomers (together with the Navigation Laws of the Middle Ages, the Catalan Vault and  the works of Gaudí) is one of the greatest contributions of Catalonia to the progress of Humanity.

Connected with the aforementioned linguistic normalisation, during all these years were achieved other milestones of National Building, as the TV Channel (TV3) or the own police force (Mossos d’Esquadra),

But the favourable context to enlarge the Self-Government to the point of reaching quotas of Semi-Statehood, beyond many Federal States, came to a halt. The main parties (specially the rightwinger PP) have never accepted the real Self of the Iberian lands, namely a plurinational assembly of countries or cultural areas: Castilian Lands, Catalan Lands, Basque People and Galitians. For them Spain has to be united under the cast of the Castilian culture. Abroad they have been successful as the people calls the Castilian Language as Spanish

That vision which rules the political action of the main Spanish Parties (except for the Leftist IU) at least dates back from the XVII Century. For that matter is crystal clear the letter of the Count- Duke Olivares to his King Philip IV which can be read in a former chapter. But unfortunately the bad relation in between Catalonia and Spain goes beyond what kings, wars, political parties and governments have done and undone.

In the Political Culture of the Spaniards there is a sap of Catalanophobia. That fact is easily observable in the opinions of some Spaniards and things said in the Media about the Catalan people. It is true that Castile tends to unify and expand its culture to the other Iberian People while the Catalans obviously tend to defend their ground. If these antithetic stances makes almost imposible the exit of the Hispanic Laberint (El laberinto de la hispanidad - Xavier Ruvert de Ventós) the Catalanophobia expressed by some Spaniards bring more poison into the relationship.    

Along the 80s the Spanish parliamentarism established a the facto Bi-partidism, with alternative overall majorities in between the Social-liberal PSOE and the Rightwinger PP. That has had the dreadful consequence of developing a race towards Spanish Nationalism. Those two big parties had to show to each other and the Spanish Public Opinion that they were more “Spanishist” than the other, and that they were able to stop the Catalan and Basque claims. In the other hand, the people of Catalonia were determined to continue carrying his own businesses by themselves. The will for more and more Self-government or even Independence was growing during all these years of Autonomism. At that point it was when the Catalan Government leaded by the beloved President Maragall launched the Operation to endow the Catalans with a new Charter (el Nou Estatut).

This fundamental piece of Legislation meant a review of the basic Country legislation after 25 years of social transformation. The achievement of Fiscal Independence, empowering the High Court, some presence in the International Community were some of the improvements. After a long negotiation with the Spanish Government and a substantial watering down of the Catalan demands, the Spanish Parliament approved the New Catalan Charter.

The turning point for the Catalan Society to realise that the path of Autonomism was exhausted came with a humiliation by the Spanish Constitutional Court.

The New Catalan Charter, despite having a double legitimacy of both the Catalan and Spanish Parliament and the ultimate legitimacy of a direct Referendum in Catalonia voted positively it was contested by the Spanish conservative Party (PP) and some Spanish Regions. The paradox came when the Constitutional Court accepted the suit, thus breaking the Democratic functioning. When twelve magistrates surpass the will of Parliaments and a 7,5 million population (that of Catalonia) something breaks down in the Democratic System. To make the things worse the Constitutional Court took 4 years to sentence over the matter.

The fate of a millenary Nation in the hands of twelve men! It was an unconstitutional misfunctioning in that Court, accepting pressures by Spanish Parties and Media, not renovating the Judges that died or expired their term and ousting a Catalan Magistrate. Irregularities over irregularities… And at the end of the four years came an astonishing political sentence which rewrote the Catalan Charter to leave it in a miserable state close to nullity. All in all, an humiliation to a whole People. Catalonia, birthplace in Europe (together with England) of Parliamentarism and Constitutionalism, unruled by a gang of post-francoist judges!

But paradoxically, that action of the Spanish State denying the democratic will of the Catalans (which perfectly fitted with the Spanish Constitution and the Autonomic Arrangements) more than a defeat turned out into a reinforcement for the Catalans. Many Catalans thought: - Okey, last opportunity. If they don’t want us as we are, we go alone.

The Transition towards the building of an Independent State within the European Union.

Now, in these days, as the author writes these lines it is not known how it is going to take shape the Referendum for Independence set by the 9th of November 2014(25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall). Different ways are open and different steps can be taken. To gather acceptance in the International Community all has to be done scruples democratic. First, permission to make the Referendum is going to be asked to the Central Government, the keeper of the National Sovereignty (curiosly not Popular Sovereignty). And as they answer over and over that Spain is “indivisible” and that the Sovereignty belongs to the whole of Spain they will not allow the Catalans to ask themselves about their future.

So next door to open will be to invoke to an own legitimation (derived from the very same Catalan Parliament) or to an upper Legitimation, that of the UN or the Hague International Tribunal, the first accepting the Right of Self-Determination of the People and the second likewise in a more blurred way. To skip the gap that as Catalonia is not a State can not make a Referendum (under Spanish Law, unless the Central Government transfers the right to do it as UK has done with Scotland) the voting will be named Consultation. It is feasible that the Consultation will take place together with some elections in order to avoid banning from the Spanish Government.

Alea jacta est. The Catalans utterly want to vote to redefine their Home, Catalonia. The polls by now (Autumn  2013 show a clear majority for the independence (SI-SI in the Consultation), much more than unionists (NO in the Consultation) or people whising to continue being an Autonomy or something of the kind (SI-No in the Consultation).

Only a violent undemocratic step by the Spanish State would avoid the long wished National Will of the Catalans. That obviously would have very negative effects not only for Catalonia but for the whole of Spain. In a civilised political frame that should not take place. But anything can happen. The “España Negra” has never ceased to exist. Both the Central and some Regional Governments do not want to renounce to the Tax-booty secularly taken out from Catalonia.

The Fiscal deficit

One of the most determining things that have convinced the Catalan Society to the current claim for independence is the use of the taxes they pay. Any visitor travelling throughout Catalonia can easily see that it is a wealthy-industrialised area- crossways in one of the most dynamic axes of the European Economy (the Mediterranean Corridor); and with a capital in a state of Grace, rising to a position of World City, the New York of the Mediterranean. As it was in the early stages of industrialisation Catalonia still is the locomotive of Spain, leader in manufacturing and exportation, apart from tourism. No wonder that many taxes are collected in Catalonia.

            But were do these taxes go, all the revenue generated in Catalonia? The cash is in Madrid. The central Government have the discretion to give back more or less of this revenue collected in Catalonia for its basic services and infrastructure. But for decades the Spanish Government have been taking too much of a share. Most of the Catalan Economist and the very same records of the Spanish Ministry of Economy reckon in a 10% the fiscal deficit of Catalonia.

            That means that Catalonia pays much more to Madrid that  it gets back from it. And when one compares the case of Catalonia with other wealthy regions like L’Ille de France, Greater London, Bayern or Waden Wuttenberg, likewise net contributors to their States, that fiscal deficit is in between 2% or 5%. For ages the Spanish Government said that the rich Spanish Regions had to give more to receive less under the argument that it was necessary to work out “inter-territorial solidarity”. With the efforts of the Catalans one was helping the poorer Spanish Regions. But truly, most of that fiscal Catalan Effort has been addressed to built the Grand Madrid. With the taxes of the Catalans and the European Funds Spain has been building a phantastic network of transports making of Madrid an hiperconnected city.  Since Philip II Madrid always considered itself the Km0, the centre of the Hispanic World.

            But the worse of all is that even with the Crisis, Spain does not want to recognise that they have been wasting an awfully amount of money in useless public works; instead of investing in the productive economy in productive areas.

            By late 90s some economist and politicians started to spread the matter of the unfaithful fiscal treatment of Catalonia. Due to the pressure of the Catalan Government to solve that matter of the Fiscal Deficit some arrangements were put in practice. But at the end of the day the things remained the same. So finally by 2007 a majority of Catalans were aware that this Fiscal Deficit should end. The goal was Fiscal Independence. That means that the Taxes were to be collected by the Catalan Adminsitration and then every 5 years would be negociated how much to hand over to the Central Government to contribute to the Interterritorial Solidarity.

            That bid of the Catalan Government to put an end to what many Catalans considered a robbery (10% fiscal deficit) by the Spanish Government was utterly refused by the later.

                        For many political analyst, that refusal of the Spanish Government to agree to a more reasonable Fiscal treatment to Catalonia, awakened many Catalans. That was the last bid, lost. Since then many Catalans believe that there is nothing to do with Spain. – If that Fiscal drainage continued Catalonia was going to be impoverish. Therefore the way out was clear: Independence.

The positive influence of the European Union

The aforementioned Fiscal Deficit is an example of a negative matter that pushed many Catalans to opt for independence. Annoying things that create unfair situations turns into a powerful inner force that can awake collective awareness. But also there is a positive thinking, good things to achieve that make a whole people mobilize in order to get a collective goal. The presence of some State Members in the EU is a clear example of a positive influence in the Catalan Independence awakening.

As in the 50s the core of Western Europe took the first steps towards Confederation (Carbon and Coal Union and European Economic Community); already then, apart from Germany, France and Italy, the rest of the Member States were of small and medium size. These were Belgium, Holland and Luxemburg. In the following Enlargements of what ended up being the EU, new small and medium size States entered in the club. Nowadays, approximately 10 to 15 States Membres out of the 28 of the whole EU membership, are same size or smaller than Catalonia (whether in Km2 or in population).

Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Croatia, Slovenia, Denmark, Findland, Malta, Cyprus, and some others States participate in the European Construction while defending their interest in the EU. If they can do that being smaller or same size as Catalonia, why then the Catalans can not do the same? Catalonia as an Independent State would have more seats in the European Parliament than nowadays, would see its language recognised, and its interest would be better defended. Under the umbrella of Spain, Catalonia have seen how its “Protector and Defendor” utterly opposed to the recognisition of the Catalan Language, asked funds to ruin a Delta in Catalonia, and opposed that the Mediterranean Corridor (which passes by Catalonia) could get enought funds to become part of the the basic European Transport Network.

Beyond these considerations of dishonest behaviour of the Spanish Representatives in the EU operating against Catalonia, there is the matter of the very same course of the History. Now the Europeans have come to the point of maturity to fully express their particularities while working together in a common project. Let us see the historical cycle of Europe. By the Middle Ages many People in Europe gave shape to a form of State. These were the Kingdoms, Principalities, Duchies, Republics…. By late 15^th and 16^th Century the Monarchies tended to proceed uniting crowns but maintaining the independence of the different territories. But along the 17^th and 18^th Century, Absolutism drove those monarchs towards a steady unification of all their kingdoms and territories under the same laws, government, language, currency, and so on. After the political earthquake of the Napoleon Times those Unified Kingdoms turned into Liberal States thanks to some concessions of the Kings and parliamentary democracy seemed to suppress the different identities and languages within the State to have only one. By the End of the I World War and the breaking out of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Irish Independence, the pantomime of the National-State was revealed as a mere ideologic trick which truly was the mere domination of some Hegemonic Nation within a given State over the other Nations.

By then it started again a process towards fragmentation of Europe in which People-Culture-Identity were to match with an own sovereign political independent entity. The thing is that when we compare the long historical cycle we are not coming back to the isolation of many political Units of the Middle Ages in a kind of NeoFeudalism. Now, as we have the European Union, the fragmentation of States like Spain, UK, France and Italy would lead to some European Confederation, or United States of Europe. In a few years to come instead of the current 28 State Membres we would have 35, 40… And as the Units would be smaller, the Whole would be stronger. “Divide et impera” said Julius Caesar. The European Parliament would probably unfold into two chambers, one of the citizens for Parties, and a second BundesRat in which all territories (including Stateless Nations and even Regions) would be represented. That territorial chamber would thus substitute the present European Council (meeting of the Premiers of the EU Member States).

All in all, some Nations of Europe that before were hidden by Political superstructures have found their way out and will find their way into the EU. As some Member States blocked the way of some of their own territories for a better representation into the EU, those territories (so-called Regions) are pushing their way into the EU. The reorganisation of Europe, with an increasing number of Member States and the forthcoming Inner Enlargement (Catalonia, Scotland, Flanders, Basque Country, etc…) obeys to two causes. In the one hand we have the inoperative, disloyal Autonomism or Federalism of some Hegemonic Nations, as Spain that blocks the participation of Catalonia and the Basque Country in the operative of the EU. In the other hand, the very same EU has been unable to make the due reforms for the Regionalisation of Europe. The Committee of the Regions could have play a greater role to ease the claims and promote the participative will of some Stateless Nations and European Regions. But that Chamber never was allowed to go beyond a consultative body. The exclusivist thinking of the Members States in which they are the only actor have made impossible the Regionalisation of Europe. But never is too late. The opening up of the EU to a direct representation and decision of the Regions could avoid further processes of Inner Enlargement of German, French, British and Italian Stateless Nations and Regions.

The Catalan Lands

The term “Països Catalans” or Catalan Lands embraces what for the philologist it is known as “Catalan Lingüistic community”. This surface of 70.500 km2 and approximately 13,5 million people stretches out in between different States, Autonomous Communities, regions, departments and cities. In the one hand we have the Principality-Autonomous Community of Catalonia in Spain. But crossing the border into France we find North-Catalonia, the so-called Roussillon with its capital Perpinyà. The micro-State of Andorra in the heart of the Pyrenees is also part of the Catalan Lands. Belonging also to this cultural-historial and overall linguistic brotherhood there are the Balearic Islands, with its capital in the sunny city of Palma de Mallorca. Likewise happens with the Autonommous Community of the “Pais Valencià”, a western strip of land in the Autonommous Community of Aragon, a little subcounty in Murcia and the city of Alguer in the Italian island of Sardinia.

            In all those territories the native language is Catalan. Unfortunately in places like Roussillon or in some parts of the Valencia Country the native language have been cornered and now is a minority in front of French or Castilian. Out of those 13,5 million inhabitants of the Catalan Lands, approximately 10 million uses the Catalan Language, thus turning into the 9^th European Language.

            The reason why Catalan Language is spoken in all these territories dates back from the Middle Ages. By late 8^th and early 9^th Century the Catalan language was already at the verge of breaking out the shell. That language spoken both at the north as at the south of the Pyrenees found new lands to expand as the counts of Barcelona (later Kings of Aragon) went conquering new territory. In case of warfare and when the enemy was defeated it was necessary to bring settlers, colonisers into the new conquered lands to make the economy run and assure the selfprotection against possible trials of reconquering. Thus, because some lords, peasants, farmers, merchants, craftsmen or clergymen abandoned the Old Catalonia to enjoy new lands in the Kingdoms of Valencia, Mallorca and further, we have the Catalan Lands.

            As happened with Catalonia since the defeat of 1714, the rest of the territories (expect for Andorra that is an independent state) have also endured attacks against their own language. Namely, the cultural colonialism of Castilian and French Cultures mainly carried by their Languages. In Northern Catalonia the Culturecide started after the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1640 when Philip IV handed over these territories to the French Crown. In 1700 the French issued an Edict prohibiting the Catalan Language. Further Educative Reforms in mid 19^th Century swept away Catalan language from the Schools. Nowadays, despite the city of Perpinya calls itself “la catalane” the use of the native language is pretty scarce and have no backing from the French Administration.

The Country of Valencia, like Catalonia and Mallorca also saw the imposition of the Castilian language by the new rulers after the annexation of 1707 (Battle of Almansa and Decret de Nova Planta). The total obliteration of the Catalan language in the Administration was intensified along the 40 years of fascist dictatorship (1939-1975). In that context of prohibition, the Spanish immigrations (Castilian speakers) of the 60s to cities like Valencia or Mallorca made many people fear that Catalan language would desapear in these lands.

But when democracy was regained the countries of Valencia and Mallorca saw the possibility to normalise again their native languages, teaching their native language in the school as well as building a Catalan Media environment. Nevertheless the main Parties in Valencia opted for a system that progressively marginalized the teaching of Catalan both in primary and secondary school. Consequence: Catalan is not the language of common use in the streets of big cities like Valencia or Alacant.

The situation in Mallorca is far better than the Valencia Country but some overall majorities of the pro-Spanish Righ-Wing Party PP threatens to undermine the will of the society of the Balearic Islands to express and develop their lifes in their own language.

Finally, the Catalan speakers in the Strip of Aragon continue speaking Catalan as they have done for centuries; despite there is no recognition (and even animosity) by the autonomous government of Aragon. These counties of Aragon bordering with Catalonia have almost not seen immigration from Spain. That has helped that the family and communal life in these villages continues developing in Catalan. Contrarywise, in the Sardinian city of Alguer, an island where Sardinian and Italian speakers are majority, the pressure of those languages leaves the condition of the Catalan Language in a position of Specie in Extition.

All in all, despite the difficulties and struggles of the Catalan speakers in the different territories, the existence of the Catalan Lands works positively in two ways. For Catalonia, that other surrounding countries that share the same language is helpful as it provides a bigger market for the cultural products (from books to tv programms) reaching a wider audience. In the other hand, for some of the Catalan Lands that see their own language under attack, having the Principality of Catalonia as a flagship of the Catalan identity is usefull as they see a decided defendor of the Catalan Language, a lighthouse to reach.

Unfortunately, pro-Spanish parties in Valencia and Mallorca accuse and intimidate Catalan speakers in these lands of allowing a pancatalanist strategy. Never has been by the Catalan Parties any idea of building a Greater Catalonia. Catalan political culture is soundly founded in the Constitutional mentality of the Middle Ages, when those lands were given fully political personality (with their own Parliament and Governments) and coordinated with the other territories of the King under the umbrella of a Confederation, the so-called Crown of Aragon. As then, nowadays a person from Catalonia only wishes for its Valencian, Northcatalan or Mallorquian brother, that they all have access to TV in Catalan, may register their children in a school where Catalan it is thaught, and that they may address the Post-office in their own language. 

  

    

THE DISTINCTIVE SYMBOLS OF A CULTURE

PA AMB TOMÀQUET

Bread with spread ripped small tomato is the simplest way for a Catalan meal. Take a nice crusty baguette, open it in two halves. Cut the ripe tomato and spread it all over the crumb; throw a generous jet of virgin olive oil. Then fill the baguette with some fried loins of pork with cheese on it; or with some slices of the Spanish “jamon Serrano”; or “chorizo”; or potato omelette. It is simply a very juicy easy meal.

                        There is also the garlic version. In that case take better a farmer’s round bread, “pa de pages”. Cut it in big slices and toast it. Take a garlic clove and start spreading it all over the toasted slices until the garlic eventually disappears. Then throw some olive oil on it and again the filling at your taste; for example a few anchovies. 

A DANCE TO ASSEMBLE, THE SOUND OF A NATION.

In an anthological essay entitled “Les formes de la vida catalana” (The ways of the Catalan Life) the author Ferrater Mora takes the dance called Sardana as a metaphor of the main characteristic of the Catalan Culture. This dance is a collective one, alternatively binding a girl with a boy, a woman with a man… in a ring. That was originally danced in the summer festivities in the villages, with the traditional gala dresses of peasants and farmers, geared in the feet with the flexible and fresh Catalan sandal-shoe “espardenya”.

Essential for this dance is the band that  orders the dance, inducing the collective switches of the ring. This orchestra is called Cobla and they have achieved a distinctive sound not to hear anywhere else in the world. That is due because the presence of a set of special instruments: tenora (long wooden-metal trumpet); flabiol (small fute); tamborí (little drum). We do invite the reader to search and check out this sound with the keyword “cobla”.

Before the first tunes break through, the dancers are already holding hands building a ring. As the orchestra starts, the group raises hands and start with some slight tiptoeing. The dance develops with a temperate movement rightwards, leftwards, inwards, outwards… The movement of the steps is gentle and repetitive, until all of a sudden, corresponding to a special sharp tune of the orchestra, the dancers operate a jump all together.

As that aforementioned philosopher put it, that succession of long temperate ring-collective movements, together with some moments of bewilderment, expresses the character of the Catalan people. The culture developed here for centuries balances in between “seny and rauxa”. These two untranslatable concept-words would be something like Moderation and Bewilderment. As long as it gets, the Catalans keep calm avoiding conflict and confrontation, but when it is needed they explode in a rush of temper.

The other aspect Ferreter Mora extracted from this dance is the fact that the ring is open for any new dancer who wants to join in the ring. Hands are unbound to welcome the new person who wants to join in the collective dancing work. The rules of the Sardana are therefore the same as the ones of the open Catalan society, up for integration of any Newcomer who wants to participate in the common work.

BUILDING HUMAN TOWERS

One of the most spectacular features of the Catalan folk is the “Castellers”, castle makers literally translated. This spectacle takes place in the festivity day of different villages and towns in Catalonia. It is made by groups of people called “colles”. Each of them bears a distinctive shirt colour and the most famous are the ones of Valls, Vilafranca, Tarragona and Terrassa building towers up to 9 or even 10 “floors”.

            At first sight these Human Towers might seem as some kind of circus melee, people climbing on others to make some kind of human construction. But a more attentive look makes evident the thorough system with a series of human bodies for foundations, bases, pillars, buttresses, beams, upper roof and crowning. Depending on the members per level, we have different types of Human Towers like "2 de 7", "2 de 8", "5 de 8", "4 de 9" and so on; meaning, two people for each level up to 7 floors, or 2 people per level up to 8 floors, five people per each level up to 8 floors, etc…

            The sign for the different “castellers” (tower makers) to start climbing and built the tower are the first tunes of a special song played by a special accompanying band. They are dressed like the “castellers” and play the traditional wood rough flutes called "gralles" and drums. This song adapts to the evolution of the castle and helps the “castellers” to reckon at what point of construction the tower is. Finally a child provided with a helmet climbs up to the top of the castle and rising his arm crowns up the tower. At that point it is said that the tower is “loaded” (carregat). When the tower is dismantled without collapsing, then they say that the tower has been “unloaded” (descarregar).

            And essential part of the gear to make possible the climbing for this Human Towers is the “faixa”, a black peasants sash allowing the “castellers” to fix the foot on others “castellers” thus taking an upper position.

            The festivities’ calendar of Catalonia has dates like St. Felix in Vilafranca del Penedès, St. Ursula in Valls or the Tarragona Contest. In this dates some of this impressive human constructions can be seen.

            An again, like the aforementioned Sardana dance, we can extract some cultural traits out of this peculiar tradition. Catalan people is up for team work, reaching out some collective challenges. There is place for anybody wishing to contribute to that goal. Because yet when in the raised part of the tower there is a given number of selected people, the base and the “accompanying band” can be as big as possible. Actually, in order to have the proper Human Tower foundations to hold properly the upper Tower, the bigger and compressed the pinya (base) is, the better. Another aspect we reckon in this tradition is the will by the Catalan People to make something attractive, outstanding, to admire locals and visitors, like the architecture of Gaudi, or the sensual sparkling bubbles of the Cava sparkling wine which later we will explain.

PICASSO, DALI, MIRÓ.

Catalonia has been the birth place and artistic nest for some of the key figures of 20^th Century Art. Gaudi’s genius apart (that will be treated in the entry for Modernisme) we have the three world renown artists, Picasso, Miró and Dalí.

            Nowadays these artists are very present in this country, in the shape of souvenirs or in the museums that treasures their works. When asking a visitor or people from abroad to say some names related with Barcelona-Catalonia, they may say some of these artist. And certainly, despite all the cultural changes in the last decades, the work of these artist remains very appealing, expressing something essential of the Catalan Way. A new idea of colour in some cases, going to the essential root of the things in others, rare imaginative forms or attractiveness through an effective design, could be some of the values behind the creations of Picasso, Miró and Dalí.

            It is true that the work of these artists obeys to the very same evolution of the History of Painting. And it was Paris and not Barcelona the epicentre of the Arts when took place the contribution of these artists to the Vanguards. But the fact that they spend most or part of their lives (specially young times) in Catalonia had an absolute minting effect in their artistic revolution they carried out.

            For the emergence of brilliant artists it is required given social and cultural conditions. So what happened in Catalonia that along the end of the 19^th C. and early 20^th C. appeared those conditions? Catalonia, until the beginning of the Industrialisation was not specially shinning in the universe of Arts. But from then on it did much, and with an own particular light.                                        As by the end of the 18^th Century Barcelona started its eclosion becoming a big town, it increasingly developed a growing bourgeoisie. That new Ruling Class was demanding artistic goods for their own enjoyment and the decoration of their homes. For them, Art was a mean to show off about their wealth and good taste.

The industry also needed designers for their manufactured goods. The textile is a paradigmatic case of this association Artist-Industry. Let us see.

            In the pre-industrial times the Traders’ Board, “Junta de Comerç” was playing an essential role to address the economy towards the capitalist ways. This Traders’ Board (which was the follower of the Medieval “Consulat de Mar” occupying the same great gothic Hall, with a sober neoclassical new outer shell) made sure that the young people of the land would learn the necessary things to keep apace with the industrial and commerce demands.

The “Junta the Comerç” established in the outstanding building of “La Llotja” (by the old Barcelona Port) and gave some Studies about navigation, trade, as well as Arts. And what would be the interest in Art of those very pragmatic industrialists and traders? Well, they needed designs for their products, specially for the Calico, which was the key manufacture of the proto-industrialism of late 18^th Century Catalonia.

            Out of this base of proficiency in Arts developed the conditions for an Art blooming. And that, thanks to a special association in between the artist and the craftsman, and the later introducing some industrial ways to produce pieces in series. By the turn of a Century, when some areas in Europe were touched by a new aesthetic, the Art Noveau, Barcelona took it with the best of the creative energies.

In the entry for the “Modernisme” will be explained more in detail, but the point is that then, by 1880s some brave guys, taking a radical stance, breaking with their expected family fate to become inheritors of their parents business, they enrol into the Artistic career. Together they built a Golden Age in the Catalan Arts. Their achievements were great and apart from Gaudí, the visitor now in Barcelona, contemplating some buildings’ facades, some of their interiors or visiting some museums, can appreciate the value of their works. These times, when the New Town was taking shape, in an atmosphere of co-working in between artists, artisans and their mecenas was also the nest, the platform for the next generation of universal artist.

A SAINT, A MADONNA, ST. JORDI AND MONTSERRAT

            The myth of St. George, Jordi in Catalan, has its roots in the early times of Christianity. Then, many people began to switch from Paganism to Monotheism. Serious Hagiography states that George was a Roman soldier of the Legions. The story took place by very early 4^th Century, times of persecutions against Christians. Despite the prohibition George already had converted himself into a Christian, so he refused to lead the persecution against his brothers in faith. That caused him martyrdom.

            The thing is that through the centuries to come that story was rewritten to give shape to the more famous story of that brave knight defeating the dragon to save the princess. By the Middle Ages St. George, as St. James, turned into this type of Saint incarnating the values of Knighthood. As these values were appealing in the Middle Ages, many countries like England, Georgia, Portugal, Russia and also Catalonia adopted St. George as their Patron Saint.

            Out of the patronage of St. Jordi in Catalonia we have the St. George Cross, a red cross over a white field. That sign is present as a label in many facades in the city of Barcelona as well as in all along the country. In the capital can be seen at least 40 public representations of St. Jordi in the shape of sculptures, low-relief, painting… George, as any saint has a day in the Christian calendar. That is the 23^rd of April. And that day turns into one of the most beautiful in Catalonia, while expressing the civic Culture of the Catalans.

            The 23^rd of April, early in the morning, in the nicest and most ample avenues (like the Rambles in Barcelona) and squares of all the villages and towns in Catalonia the book sellers prepare their stands and boards full of books of all kinds. All is dressed with the flag of Catalonia (four red strips over a yellow field; d’Or four Pals de Gules) and along the day these book shops out in the street are very busy selling the last best-sellers while some of the most famous local and foreign writers keep making autographs to their fan-readers,… The perfect complement to this feast of books is the Rose.

In between the book stands, in every corner there are also Rose sellers. Because let us remember that when St. George defeated the dragon who wanted to devour the princess, from the blood of the beast was growing a rosebush. So this day it is not only the day of culture and reading but also the day of love. The lovers, the relatives, son to mother, grandson to grandma, give each other books and roses.

The reason why here in Catalonia has appeared that tradition is hard to say. Probably was a great commercial idea by the Book-sellers making the most of the jubilee of both Shakespeare and Cervantes, which died in Georgemas. Also we have to remember how Stateless Nations must find special ways to express themselves, rather than the usual ones practiced by recognised independent States.

That the festivity of St. Jordi takes place in a labour day is not a coincidence. It tells a lot about the working mentality of the Catalans. During the Dictatorship of Franco things like the festivity of St. Jordi or the passion for Barça were playing a subliminal role. Surreptitious the Catalans made a self-afirmation act, expressing their love for their forbidden Nation.

Jordi the brave boy… But what about the girl, the Madonna….

The Abbey of Montserrat is the shrine of the Catalan Spirituality. Montserrat means Jagged Mountain, mont-serrated. No wonder. Just having a quick look to a picture or when visiting that place, one is astonished by the peculiar shape of that massif. It is a very rare geological formation, a huge vertical conglomerate that is the dried and emerged remain due to plaque compression of a delta from the end of the Tertiary Era. Out of this look of sudden compact rocky Hills, probably from a very remote time, the people found a kind of magic in this place. It was like an Axe of the World (Axis Mundi), Stairs to Heaven, a place of connection in between the creator who seats on his throne above the heaven dome and his creation at him bellow.

            By the 9^th, 10^th Century, the land where Montserrat is located was a no-man's-land in between the northern Christian County of Barcelona and the southern Muslim Emirate and lately Caliphate of Cordoba. As the first donations of the Counts of Barcelona took place there appeared up in the Hills of Montserrat the firsts churches. Likewise Montserrat was the chosen place for some solitary eremites, called by the spirituality and wilderness of the place. They went to inhabit the caves around.

Then, by the 11^th Century, when Southern Catalonia was secured for the Count of Barcelona, the religious life of Montserrat took a more sound and communal way in the form of a priory, which depended from the Abbey of Ripoll (on the feet of the Pyrenees). In a later stage Montserrat got independent from the Ripoll Priory establishing itself as an Abbey. It was the Benedictian order who made the foundation and since now (with some interruptions) that community has been running the religious and cultural life of the Abbey.

            It is true that the sole contemplation of the land from that emerging conglomerate massif at a height of 1000 metres above see level is breathtaking enough to have the believe that one is closer to god. Due to its panoramic virtues the Hills of Montserrat treasures all this spiruality. But apart from that, why Montserrat turned into a place of pilgrimage?    

            In an uncertain moment of the High Middle Age it started to spread the believe that the Holly Madonna of Montserrat, a carved policromated wood representation of the Virgin Mary with her son, was able to work miracles. That belief was like a magnet for people of all conditions that wanted to reach the place where the Madonna of Montserrat was and pray to her. Devotion overcame the difficulty and dangers of the travel.  With the decades and centuries the belief in Montserrat was getting bigger and bigger, beyond borders. And with any pilgrim reaching the Abbey, the Madonna got some present, thus the abbey was becoming richer and powerful.

            Now it would be too long to narrate the whole history of Montserrat Abbey. Just some brushstrokes: princes, kings and popes have paid visit to Montserrat; St. Ignatius de Loyola got here his inspiration to found the Order of the Jesuits; it went through occupation and ruin during the French occupation of Napoleon; it was a place for inspiration in the Romantic period and even it was said that here was hidden the Holy Grail.

            Along the second half of the 19^th Century Montserrat was also adopting a new complementary role to the religious one, that of being a national symbol for Catalonia. The cultural movement of “La Renaixenxa” (the rebirth) made of Montserrat the Madonna of Catalonia. She was to guide and help the Catalans to achieve their collective goals and recover their pride.  Since then, the Abbey of Montserrat has been a place of pilgrimage for many Catalans, getting there with the family, couples, with associations... The people gets there in excursions, pay their visit and pray to the Moreneta (the tanned girl), which is the nickname of Montserrat. The skin of the Virgin is really black and that is perhaps the reason why along the centuries it has been so misterious. The groups that reach the Abbey make dances, listen the choir of boys (escolanets) that sing the anthem of Montserrat, give presents like ornamented lamps, paintings…

            In the Dictatorship, the Benedictian  Community was also contributing to the recovery of the political freedoms. The Abbey turned into a safe haven for the persecuted illegalised Catalan parties, for their members to hold assemblies.

            The lyrics of the Anthem of the Virgin Mary, “el virolai” expresses the meaning of Montserrat for the Catalans:

Rosa d’abril, Morena de la serra, de Montserrat estel, il.lumineu la catalana terra, guieu-nos cap al cel.

Amb serra d’or els angelets serraren eixos turons per fer-vos un palau; Reina del Cel que els serafins baixaren, deu-nos abric dins vostre mantel blau. Dels Catalans sempre sereu princesa.

(Rose of April, tanned girl from the Hills, star of Montserrat, light the Catalan land, guide us to heaven.

With a golden saw the angels serrated these mountains to build you a palace; Queen of heavens that the serafins brought to the earth, give us shelter under your blue cloak. You will always be the princess of the Catalans.) 

EL GÒTIC CATALÀ

Along the Low Middle Ages, Catalonia, in confederation with Aragon was able to build an extensive trading area. Backed with an effective military effort that incorporated the kingdoms of Valencia, Mallorca, Sicily, Sardinia, Athens and Morea and the kingdom of Neaples, it was said then than no fish would dare to jump out of the water without showing in its tail the Catalan flag. That Confederation of lands known as the Crown of Aragon had as its highest sovereign the Count of Barcelona, which also had the prestigious title of King of Aragon. And as this king used to live in Barcelona, in that city was the Royal Court and Chancellery. Barcelona turned into the leading epicentre of a Maritime Empire. Besides, because the importance of its port, Barcelona was the most important trading and craftsmen city in the Confederation.

In the heyday of the Catalan power in the Mediterranean, Barcelona had to give room to new needs. In order to make itself mightier through the stone Barcelona went on with a construction program that still nowadays can be admired. We are talking about both religious and civil works: the Cathedral; a handful of churches and cloisters; a good section of the Walls; the royal shipyards; the Hospital of the Holy Cross; the Royal Palace (Plaça del Rei); palaces of merchants; some public fountains… Most of the building were raised along the 14^th Century, when the gothic was the construction system in Europe.

The gothic style is based in the pointed arch which is used for the external windows and to separate the bays. To cover the room it is used the rip-crossing vault. A different system is when parallel diaphragmatic arches are covered with timber work. Clustered pillars, chapels in between the buttresses (with tempera on board altarpieces inside), keystones closing in the centre the nerves of the rip-crossing vaulting and low-reliefs representations in the capitels complete the scene in the aisles, church naves, couryards, and octagonal belfries. These elements and building system with some variations were common in all Medieval Europe. But these variations made of the Catalan Gothic something different and worthy of attention.

From an outside look the Catalan gothic is pretty massive, plain and lacking decoration like tracery and sculptures (except for the abundant fantastic gargoyle fauna). But then the inner room counterbalances this outside look of sound austerity. That inner room, nave and aisles are of a remarkable amplitude, single unitary spaces with the minimum obstacles, clear broad hall saloon spaces where the width almost equals the remarkable height. That is the greatest achievement of the so-called Catalan Gothic. Apart from the many examples to be seen in Barcelona like St. Maria del Mar, it can be also appreciated in towns like Lleida, Cervera, Manresa or Girona. Beyond the Principality of Catalonia the Catalan Gothic was also “exported” to Valencia, Mallorca, Neaples and other territories. 

CAVA

Pearl wine, sparkling wine, wine with bubbles, are some of the names to descry the most surprising characteristic of the wine that goes through a double fermentation. That obviously takes place after the first fermentation, when grape juice is turned into wine thanks to the action of the yeast from the grapes’ skin (modernly synthetically added). Basically yeast turns the sugar from the grape juice into alcohol and CO2. That gas byproduct escapes from the stainless steel containers where the liquid is kept. But the thing is that this process of yeast turning sugar into alcohol and CO2 (which Pascal understood for the first time) can be repeated a second time.

            But for this double fermentation, as the new liquid (wine) is not sweet anymore, sugar must be added, and again yeast, the actor in this biochemical process. When the yeast finishes its duty, in the liquid that was plain wine we have got a bit more of alcohol as well as CO2. But this time, with the locked crystal bottles there is no chance for the CO2 to escape. Therefore the winemaker ends up with a sparkling wine.

            The important point is “where” this process of double fermentation takes place. When that is done in big stainless steel recipients we get a arsh and latter artificially sweetened sparkling wine. When the double fermentation is carried on individually in small units, inside bottles, we get a finer and organoleptical richer drink, Cava or Champaign. The former is made in the Catalan Region of El Penedès while the later is produced in the beautiful region of La Champagne in France. That region, under the legendary figure of the monk Don Perignon was the discoverer of this special sparkling festive wine. The varieties used there are basically Pinot Noir, Pinot menuir, and Chardonnay.

            By mid 19^th Century some winemakers of Catalonia learned about this double fermentation and introduced it in their Cellars. In the region of El Penedès and specially in the village of St. Sadurní d’Anoia was a domino effect that built a strong Cava industry in that region. By then these Catalan producers called their sparkling wine as the French one, Champaign.

But it happened that when Spain entered into the European Union the French producers suited the Catalan ones for illegally using the name Champagne. The argument of “if it is not made in the region of La Champagne the sparkling wine can not be called "Champagne” won the suit. Thus, the Catalan producers had to find a new name for their sparkling wine. They end up with the name “Cava”, which is pretty appropriate as the bottles lie in caves when the double fermentation goes on. The underground conditions are needed for the right rest, silence, temperature and humidity.

For the Spanish consumer no other product is more closely identified with Catalonia than Cava. That is the reason why Cava has been chosen as a token for boicot to Catalan products by some nasty Spanish Nationalists. The threat is clear: “if you get independent we Spanish won’t buy anymore Catalan products and then you will realise how much you need to be part of Spain as this country is your main market”.

But the menace doesn’t work. In those months of boicot some years ago, paradoxically the Catalan Cava producers quickly substituted the Spanish market with new foreign markets. The Catalan economy is highly internationalised and its production mainly addresses the exportation. For some companies the Spanish Market is pretty residual. 

MODERNISME

One of the most distinctive and attractive features of the Catalan capital is the architecture examples of a style called “Modernisme”. That was the form in which the pan-european Art Nouveau trend from the turn of the Century (19^th to the 20^th) developed in Catalonia. But in comparison with other cities like Paris, Brussels or Wien, the offspring of that style in Barcelona was not only rich in quantity but also in diversity. Barcelona embellished itself in a seductive daring way while refreshing its identity with a colourful passionate look.   

            The reason why a century ago Barcelona experienced such artistic creative blooming are to be found in the special moment the Nation lived by the end of the 19^th Century. By then the social fabric was aware that things were dramatically changing. In times of accelerated  growth and capital accumulation towns like Barcelona were becoming metropolis and villages turned into industrial cities. A new ruling Class, the Burgess, was thirsty to show its power and status. And they wanted to do it with something different that the identifying aesthetic of the aristocracy, the Classicism and its variations.

           

            It was like a rebirth of a Nation that took on with enthusiasm the prospect to adhere to the Modernity, which also was blooming in the most advanced countries of Europe.

            That modernity was built upon new sources of inspiration to make creations in all scales, from the smallest earring to the biggest building. They drink from different sources, from forgotten styles like the medieval Romanesque and Gothic; but overall their main inspiration was the very sheer nature. So naturalism, specific revivals of periods linked with the birth of the Nation, some trendy far-eastern influence that gave birth to the whip-lash line, and the explosion of a concert of crafts, all together ended up in a delta of Artistic good taste, creations openly decorative, the “Modernisme”.

            In comparison to other manifestations of Art Nouveau in places like Paris, Brussels, Wien, Glasgow or Nancy, the great feature of the Catalan Art Nouveau is its diversity. In cities like Barcelona, Reus or Terrassa we can find from the most twisted proposal ruled by the whiplash line to the more moderate conservative options with more straight lines and trouvadour decoration. We could mention an early “Modernisme” still ruled by some historicism and a mix of styles known as “Eclecticism” like the “Arc de Triomf” by Josep Vilaseca. That triumphal Arch was the Gate to the premises of the Universal Exhibition of 1888, that somehow became the starting shot of the Golden Age of the Catalan Arts. 

It is also pretty coherent the organic style of the mature Gaudí. That can be admired in the Casa Batlló or La Pedrera. Another trend within those common parameters of the Modernisme was the Troubadour style, the Medieval Phantasies of Puig i Cadafalch  that gave us the outstanding example of “la Casa de les Punxes”. Another variant in the Catalan Modernism was the floral style of Domenech i Montaner with its characteristic concert of crafts like mosaic and stained glass and a non archaeologist combination of elements from the gothic, the Tudor style, plateresc, baroque… with a grand example in “el Palau de la Música Catalana”.

Less known but also worthy of much attention are the works of Jeroni Granell, with its façade ondulations and its extensive use of the “sgrafiatto”. Another trend then highly demanded by the Bourgeoisie to build their homes was the academic haughty style developed by Enric Sagnier. And to end with this outline list of the manifold expressions of the “Modernisme” we could not miss one of the precursors of this movement, Domenech i Estapà, with an elegant aesthetic that remains us the machines and mechanics of the time, while wrapping its surfaces with artistic mosaic, like the Water Tower of Gas Natural.

            Beyond that most reachable and major artistic works like building facades, in those times the Modernisme was also spreading in all fields of the private and public life. Shops decorated in that style, jewlery, an Art Nouveau typography, furniture, sculpture, painting, wrought iron balconies and doors… a long list. The abundant well of beauty produced then can be nowadays admired inside some of these buildings and in some Museums. In this concern the must is the MNAC (National Museum of Catalan Art) and the MMCAT (Museu del Modernisme Català),

                        Summing up, thanks to the economic, political and social conditions of the times, the genius and competitiveness in between the different artists and craftmen who worked hand by hand renovating their artisany, the money invested by the people who commissioned those works, the preservation of many of these works... thanks to all these reasons Barcelona has a clear, distinctive and shinning identity trait. 

BARRETINA, ESPARDENYES I PORRÓ

When I was a kid I used to go to Reus to visit my grandfather. Together with his black and white hound, always seated at his feet waiting for something to eat, on the table, mastering all the setting, was a special glass container. The attraction of this strange bottle comes from its curious shape, likewise an oil cruet, but with the dropping end much more sharp, conewise. It is used to keep the wine and has for name “porró”.

            That rustic decanter helps to oxygenate the wine. It used to be present in all Catalan homes and is made of transparent glass thus helping to evaluate the quality of the wine inside. The drinker proceed to grasp the device by its wide open neck and prepares to receive the precious jet of liquid out of the stiff elephant trunk. Due to the unavoidable meanness of the jet the “porró” promotes temperance in homes. Drinking with a "porró" it would get too long to get drunk. Besides, it is a container which can be shared by many people in a hygienic way as the mouth does not meet directly the end of the glass trunk. Thus, the “porró” also is a tool for companionship and strengthening of community bonds.

It also has been said that the shape and parts of the porró have a sexual symbolism.  The slightly slant hyperboloid opening used to pour in the wine, where also can breath, would mean the feminine. The erected oblique sharp conic part from where to drink would represent the masculine attribute. In the Castle of Perelada, with its beautiful vineyards around, and where it is celebrated every year a music festival, can be seen an excellent collection of "porrons". While enjoying the artistic virtues of the exhibited pieces one also can state the level achieved since the XV Century by the Catalan glassmakers. The glass, together with the passementerie where the  key manufactures that started to create the foundations of the capitalist Catalan Economy. This elaborated products where complemented with an increasing exportation of hazelnuts, almonds, olive oil, wine and spirits.

But coming back to my grandfather, what else he had that would help a foreigner to complete the picture of a traditional Catalan type. O let’s say, how did it look a peasant-farmer from just 80 years ago. He would live and work in a Masia (farmhouse) and he would dress with some special shoes and a hat. The former is called “espardenya” and the later “barretina”. 

The “espardenyes” are basically a soil made of hemp and rubber and tightly bond to it there is a combined set of black and white ribbons which covers the foot and fix the shoe to the lower part of the leg.

The flexibility and freshness of the "espardenya" shoe made of it the right foot gear for the hardships of the farm and agriculture work. That shoe is perfect both to step on earth as to the hard ground of a village. The materials of which are manufactured also made it cheap and even easy to manufacture it in the very same “masia” or village workshop.  

The other element any peasant used to wear was the soft hat called "barretina". It folds into the front of the carrier like those soft watches of Dali and it is made of whool or cotton. It has some similarity with the Frigian hat of the French Revolution. It is pretty showy as its colour is red, for the whole upper part. The lower part, the flexible opening in which the head gets in shows a broad black band.

While the espardenya can be easily seen in the street in its traditional design or in more modern fashionable variations, the barretina has almost disappeared from the view except from folk dance meetings. 

EL BURRO CATALÀ

The Catalan donkey is an endemic specie from the Catalan Lands. In the old times it was the unavoidable animal to help and work hard in the farms, for carrying stuff aswell as for transport of people. The great working capacity of the Catalan donkey breed was even exported to the US where crossing it up with other donkeys came up the Catalan-American donkey breed also know as American Mammoth Jack.

            But the reason why we include the Catalan donkey in this book goes beyond being a specific breed from these lands. In recent times, the Catalan donkey became a symbol of Catalonia. A sticker of the silhouette of the donkey in black was put by the car drivers in the boot of their cars. The symbolic power of the donkey came from the values it incarnates.

Donkeys are suffered workers, like Catalans. Donkeys are stubborn, like Catalans. Fed up with the image and values behind the Spanish bull (Toro de Osborne) some people in Catalonia started to promote the Catalan donkey in a way to counter fight the Spanish symbol of the toro.

Putting a sticker of a Catalan donkey in the boot of the car was also a way to skip possible fines of the Spanish police against drivers who in a previous campaign put next to the traffic plate the CAT (for Catalonia) next to the European flag. As many people in Catalonia felt unhappy showing the ES (for Spain) they over stuck on it an unofficial CAT sticker. And as they were fined by the Spanish police for doing that they found the way to continue expressing their Catalanity but instead with a CAT sticker this time with a simple representation of an animal. 
     

EL CAGANER I EL CAGA TIÓ

During the Christmas holidays, the families gathered at home still follow some of the traditions that has remained untouched despite the modernisation of society and recent globalisation. Some of these distinctive traditions from Catalonia have the children has centre of attention.  By Christmas, from whom do the children get the presents? Well, they know Father Christmas, and the 6^th of January the children also welcome the Three Wise Men from Orient. But the secular Catalan spreader of presents is a curious piece of wood.

            The 24^th in the afternoon, after lunch, the Catalan Homes have a special guest, the “Caga Tió”, which is a trunk with short thin wood legs and a face in one of the flat ends of the cylinder, with a “barretina” for hat. In order not to get cold it is covered with a wool blanket. On the floor, at his mouth it is placed a little dish with some hazelnuts and almonds so the “Caga Tió” can be fed.  Then the parents announce to the children that the “Caga Tió” needs some rest for digestion. He is left alone for a while as the children leave the room. Then the small ones, equipped with some wood sticks, start to beat the piece of wood while singing a song: “El dia de Nadal
posarem el porc en sal
la gallina a la pastera,
el pollí a dalt del pi,
toca, toca el violí;
ara passen bous i vaques,
les gallines amb sabates,
gallinons amb sabatons;
el vicari fa torrons,
la guineu els ha tastat,
diu que són un poc salats;
Marieta posa-hi sucre
que seran un poc millors;
torrons d'avellana,
torrons de pinyó,
caga tió,
si no et donaré
un cop de bastó.”   

            When the children finish the song and unveil the blanket, by some kind of magic the generosity of the piece of wood produces many presents. That operation is repeated two, three, four times… Until the parents convince the kids that the Caga Tió is totally exhausted and has to return to the forest.

                        In our nowadays urbanised world, the Caga Tió remains us the arcane bond of humans to the forest, ultimate source of wealth and magic. 

LES NEULES

It is a simple dessert that together with the “turró” from the Valencian town of Xixona is the sweet snak of the Christmas days. The "neula" is a extremely long backed tube of flour, as a wrapped thin wafer. This snack is used as an appetiser while drinking some cava or as a dessert. It has something playfull as every mouth decide the way to bite each of the delicate neules. 

EL BARÇA

Barça is the nickname for F.C. Barcelona. By the end of the 19^th Century the sport called football invented in England was landing in other European countries. Barcelona was a city of foreign entrepreneurs, traders, importers or beer brewer like August Damm who founded Estrella Damm or Louis Moritz that made the beer of the same name. Out of these foreign community, a gang of English, Catalan fans and the Swiss Johannes Gamper decided to found the F.C. Barcelona.  

            The first president of the Entity, the Swiss Gamper, had the bright idea to choose for the team’s shirt the blue and pomegranate colours of the Swiss Canton of Ticino. The club was growing in support and in a few years of its foundation became a token for Catalanity (in a time when the expression of that feeling was persecuted by the Spanish Authorities).

As time passed by, the football match of the Spanish League confronting Barça against Real Madrid became as an expression of Catalonia fighting against Spain. Two presidents of the entity paid with their life that enmity of Spain towards the Catalanity that Barça carried. In the 20s, in the Barça Stadion the Spanish Anthem was booed. The military closed down the Stadion and Gamper, the president, was invited to leave the country. Falled in depression, the man ended up shooting himself. Then, in the context of the Civil War, the president Sunyer was caught by the Fascist nearby Madrid and was summarily shot.

            Along the Dictatorship (1939-1978) Barça was building stronger in Catalanity. As anything that was Catalan was forbidden, even the four red stripped flag of the Country, to show the blue and pomegranate flag of F.C.Barcelona was like a substitute for the Catalan Flag.

            For many years Barça was not so successful in sportive trophies, but along the 90s, with Johan Cruyff as coach and its Dream Team and latter with the coaches Rickjard and Guardiola, Barça was able to build a playing system admired in all the world.

            At first sight football can be seen as just a game. But through that game many values can be spread out. And Barça has been able to produce positive values as: attractiveness, integration, team work, universality….

Overall Barça is associated by the locals with the Land it comes from, Catalonia, a persecuted, invisible Nation. Out of that People’s Passion (read the book of the same name by Jimmy Burns) there is the motto “Més que un Club” (more than a club). Indeed, Barça is more than a Football Club. It is the love and pride of the people of Catalonia. The way Barça plays and the players it has from all around the world expresses the character of the Catalan Nation, deeply enrooted in the land but likewise universal and open to newcomers. For a big city like Barcelona, with much inmigration, Barça is a great tool for integration, bringing together the people. Maybe a Newcomer has no clue about the language of the country, or has no attachment to the culture now he is living in. But everybody loves Barça. Thus, at least there is something, one thing that unites the people.

As the anthem says, it does not matter if you come from the north, from the south, the west or the east; what matters is that you feel in your heart the blue and pomegranate colours! 

BOLETS AND DECONSTRUCTIONS

As any Mediterranean land casted in antiquity by the refined culinary culture of Greeks and Romans, Catalonia always had a rich cuisine. It is famous the “llibre del Coch”, one of the oldest Cook receipt books. Together with the Latin background based in the Mediterranean triada of wheat, olive oil and wine Catalonia builds its rich cuisine out of its manifold climate, different soils, diverse geography…

            Typical dishes prepared at home or served in restaurants are for example Rabbit with allioli, spinach with pine seeds, “escalivada” (backed vegetables), “calçots” (a special type of shallot cooked barbeque style to dip in a sauce called “romesco”; seasonal dish by February), or the simplest dish which is a sandwich in the Catalan way (also done in the area of Neaples). This basic dish is called “pa amb tomaquet” and consist in a crusty fresh baguette opened in halves and on the crumb ripe tomato spreaded all over, to then add a jet of virgin olive oil; and the filling… we do recommend “jamon Serrano” (the Spanish proscciotto), potato omelette, or some fried thin pork loins with some Roquefort on it.

            As we said before, part of the diversity and tastefulness of the Catalan cuisine obeys to the generosity of the sunshine in these lands. Normally the more sun the fruits and vegetables get, the more plenty they grow. But also we have to be thankful to the rain, specially for the many mushroom dishes that the Catalan cuisine offers.  Except for the strip along the coast and a region in the interior, the rest of the country is pretty hilly and with a dense masse of forest. This conditions help to treasure a rich and diverse world of mushrooms. And that wealth of mushrooms has its best expression in the inmense mushroom vocabulary of the Catalan language.

            “Rovelló” (lactarius deliciosus); rossinyol (Cantharellus Cibarius) or “cep” (boletus edulis) are some of the names of the popular mushrooms that one can enjoy in a solo dish or  combining different especies cooked or presented with ingredients like garlic, potato, deer, wild boar, sprouts… The best time for degustation of mushroom dishes is Autumn. The best option is to go to a restaurant in villages and towns from counties with a dense forest like the area of Prades o el Berguedà. But obviously beyond local distribution this fresh special food also reaches bigger markets. The rich mushroom world can also be enjoyed in the top restaurants which recently have been carrying a very creative Culinary Revolution.

            The man and the restaurant that leaded that revolution that now is spreading along the world is Ferran Adrià, and El Bulli the restaurant. New concepts like deconstruction, molecular cuisine, sferifications, have help to create a new world of sensations. Beyond the lattest twist in taste’s mixes and fusion, the new Catalan cuisine has contributed to go to the essence of the tastes and elements, bringing new formats and textures of given ingredients, and further developing the plate as an exquisite piece of art; the eating as a captivating experience for the senses.

            The origin of this new trend in cuisine was a restaurant called El Bulli, recognised for many years as the best restaurant in the World; while his Chef Ferran Adrià was considered the best Cook in the World. Many comy-chefs working there openned afterwards their own restaurants or landed in others, helping thus to spread the New-Cook concepts. In the year 2013, the Catalan restaurant in Girona “Celler de can Roca” was awarded as the best restaurant in the world.

                        In years to come, no doubt, the New Catalan Cuisine will be mentioned as one of the greatest contributions of the Catalan Culture to the world. 

A WORLD OF WINES

The different civilization layers that casted

that land together with the last aenologic developments of the winemakers has raised the Catalan wines to a level of excellence.

Even before the Focean greeks, the ones who settled in the Costa Brava founding the colony of Empuries, the native people, the Iberians, already were enjoying the nectar of the Gods.  Probably out of the wild vine the Iberians learned about fermentation and made wine as they also made beer. (In Gavà has been found the remains of the oldest European Brewery).

But no doubt that were those Greeks from Empuries who taught the locals how to improve the quality and production of wine. The Greeks from Empuries made vine a regular crop as they made with the olive tree. Like in Greece and in general all the Mediterranean lands, most of the area of Catalonia enjoys the right conditions for the cultivation of the vine thanks to the many hours of sunshine along the year.

Later , as the Romans conquered these lands and imposed their culture and life-style, the vineyards saw a general spreading. Especially in the coastal strip around Barcelona, Girona and Tarragona the vine became abundant. For that wine made in the farming units called Villas, the main market was the big Metropolis, Rome. When Christianity was legalised in the times of the Emperor Constantine, wine also took a special role due its liturgical importance for communion as it represents the blood of Christ.

Together with its importance as basic nourishment, the religious function of the wine helped that drink and the vineyards to survive in the dark ages of the High Middle Ages, when the Visigoths were ruling these lands. Nevertheless, in an increasingly ruralised population, risky ways for the trade, and reduced markets, the production of wine experienced a decrease and happened a progressive abandonment of vineyards.

This decay of the winemaking culture continued after the Muslim conquering of the Iberian Peninsula by 714. As it is known, that religion forbids the drinking of alcohol. Besides, the conquering-reconquering of land by Muslim and Christians, the displacement of populations, abandonment of lands… all these factors contributed to make the 8^th and 9^th Centuries a time of difficulties in the cultivation of the vine and the commercialisation of wine.

The Frankish conquering of the Pyrenees area until Barcelona made possible the progressive reestablishment of the wine culture in the Old Catalonia. Later on, along the 11^th and 12^th Century, when the Counts of Barcelona conquered the southern lands, the vineyards experienced a rebirth in the New Catalonia.

Out of a secular background of experience in cultivation and wine-making, with the first seeds of the Greeks and specially the long Roman period, the wine making tradition was experiencing a new life. The work of monks like the ones of the Order of the Cister, or the Benedictians was key in the introduction of new varieties coming from the French area. Nowadays we still can enjoy the beautiful landscape of the surrounding vineyards of Cloisters like Poblet and Santes Creus, which also are worth a visit to see the Royal Pantheons of the House of Barcelona.

The production of wine in these lands with the right soil and weather conditions saw a great increase by the 17^th Century, as the Catalan Wine was reaching northern European and American markets. In many Catalan counties the landscape was carved to please the necessities of the vine, facing the sun and making the most of the hillside opening up dry stone terraces.

At the gates of the Industrialisation the making of wine was a key exporting produce that helped the country to create a surplus, a Capital that was due invested in the Industry and trade overseas. By the 19^th Century so much wine was produced that part of it was burnt for distillation to make spirits, burning water or "Aiguardent" in Catalan, a value added product which also reached the Dutch and English markets.

By the last third of the 19^th Century the winemaking region of Penedès found out how to emulate the French Champaign, creating the distinctive Cava, which is made with different varieties than the Champaign. That wine fever came to a sudden halt with the “filoxera” plague which ravished most of the vineyards.

By the 60s and 70s the Cava was conquering many world markets. But the plain wine of the different wine-making regions was generally sold as bulk product to Italian and French producers. This not very profitable stance of the winemakers started to change by the late 80s, when the figure of the aenologist took the reins of the production. Fashionable varieties from France were introduced and the focus was switched from quantity to quality, the “terroir” philosophy, and innovative ways to create new “coupages”.

A good example of this last development is the case of the little winemaking region of El Priorat. There, still in early 90s one could refill a big bottle with a powerful high alcoholic wine for a few "pessetes". Now, the bottles from El Priorat are one of the most expensive in the world and the region has achieved the Q for Quality after the regular D.O (Denominació d’Origen). In Spain, only Rioja region and Ribera de Duero share the prestige of being a D.O.Q wine making regions.

Summing up, Catalonia offers a rich world of wines, out of its 12 D.O (winemaking regions) without counting the ones in Northern Catalonia (Rousillon, in the French State). Different soils, different microclimates, a river here, a mountain there, the influence of the marine breeze, centuries of tradition, innovation, new marketing ways, family sagas, love for tradition, health at the end of the day…

A LANGUAGE, A WAY OF THINKING

The backbone of the Catalan Culture, the sap, the distinctive element that gives national character to Catalonia, lies in its language. That is called Catalan and was one of the many languages that came out of the common Latin stem in the territories once bounded by the Roman central power. During the times of the Republic and Roman Empire, the Latin language was the single and official common language. Latin was the tool and likewise the consequence of a shared area that was together bonded in the keystone that was Rome, where lied the central Government. The fantastic network of roads (vias)made posible the trade along the Roman Empire. The produces of the Provinces could thus reach the main market that was the one million populated city of Rome. And not to forget, the foundamental role played by the legions. The soldiers of that war machinery, once cleared from their military service, used to settled in the place where they had been serving for years. Thus, legionares became spreaders of the Latin language. But those bonds uniting the different territories under the rule of Rome became more and more loose as the power of Rome was fainting away. With the fall of the Roman Empire they eventually disapeared. But what happened then?

Why the Latin language spoken in the different territories of the Old Roman Empire became increasingly different after the fall of the Roman Empire? In the one hand in the different territories once part of the Roman Empire was a previous layer: different accents, toponymy and words depending on the linguistic background before the Roman Conquering. To this, and most important, we should add the later Barbarian conquering bringing new words, a new accent, a given fusion. The process of differentiation ended up by 9^th,10^th Century. The different “over-evolved” Latin languages had already turned into new Languages. One of them was Catalan.

            In the case of the Catalan language, that background, that thin layer that could give its character to the Latin language spoken here, was the Iberian Language (still nowadays unscripted). We should also add two table spoons of Basque from the Pyrenees area, a hint of Greek language from the colonies founded in 5th Century B.C(Empuries und Roda) in the Costa Brava; and even a touch of phoenician from some trade contacts.

            The Iberian Language dissapeared. But likewise a wall that has been dismantled to raise a bigger new wall, some stones from the old wall were recycled, reused to built the new wall. But that new sound Latin wall, though never demolished, was also going to suffer some ravage.

            The People that took on the Romans as new rulers in these lands were the Visigoths (of Germanic language). As they were few in number these new rulers ended up adopting the language of the land they conquered. But they also left their sediment to further transform that Latin language that progressively (due to the isolation of the times) was increasingly different from the Latin spoken in other countries. Another linguistic slight contribution was that of the Muslims that occupied these lands in early 8^th Century.

In toponymy there are many names of places with Muslim root; more in the south as their rule there was longer (as the abandoned village of La Mussara or the Costa Daurada beautiful town of Altafulla). The matter of the words borrowed from the Arab is one of the main differences in between Castilian (Spanish) and Catalan languages. The former was deeply transformed by the adoption of Arab words; while the later has almost no presence of Arab borrowings (as they were for a shorter time) except for some place-names.

The last influence in a “post-very-evolved and transformed Latin” was that of the Frankish Language. Let us remember that the Franks, leaded by Charles the Great and his son Louis the Pious conquered the Pyrenees and southern Pre-Pyrenees area until Barcelona. That happened along the second half of the 8^th Century. This military task-force that also implied a re-Christianisation of these lands was carried out by the Franks and did not imply any immigration of Franks. Therefore they did not transform the language beyond adding some new legal terms as these Franks were the new rulers.

From that point, by the 10^th Century we can already talk about a different Language, in respect to its Latin matrix as well as from other neighbouring languages from Latin root. To continue with the Wall metaphor, the sound Latin wall was never distroyed to be rebuilt, but it was newly plastered, widened and brought higher with the contributions of Visigoths, Muslim and Franks.

Catalan Language, along the 11^th and 12^th Century shared a good deal of familiarity with the Occitan Language, that of the troubadours. That literature also helped to raise the standards of the written Catalan. The increasing complexity of the country and its institutions like City Councils, Chancillery, Catalan Government, Bishopries, etc… also gave rich fruits to the written Language in the form of Chronicles. It was important to narrate the epic stories of the Counts and Kings, to have contracts, letters, treaties… And most important to the strength of the language, the Catalan tongue spreaded to the kingdoms of Mallorca and Valencia when these lands were conquered and colonised with Catalan Settlers. In a few decades since the conquering of these new lands the language was to produce there plenty fruits in literature. To mention just a few names, let us remember the philosopher Ramon Llull, the moralist Francesc Eiximenis or the poets Ausias March or Joanot Martorell.

With the Union of Crowns with Castile (Catholic Kings) the Castilian language (wrongly named as Spanish) entered into the government and High Clergy spheres in the Catalan Lands. The lost of Independence in 1714 (change of dynasty from Habsburgh to Bourbouns), the making of the Liberal Constitutional Spanish State (1814), the Dictatorships of Primo de Rivera (1923) and the victory of the fascist uprising in 1939, all were steps towards prohibition of the Catalan language and an almost disappearance of its written and cultivated forms. Nevertheless, except from the Administration, bureaucracy and elites related with the Spanish political and economical rule, common people continued speaking Catalan.

No doubt that since the Union of Crowns in late 15^th Century many words and linguistic ways of the Castilian language penetrated into the Catalan Language. It is what we call barbarisms or “castellanismes”.

But the real social landing of the Castilian Language in Catalonia came with the 20^th Century 60s and 70s massive immigration from the south of Spain. The combined effect of the arrival of these newcomers in high numbers (doubling the native population) and the Anti-catalanist political frame of the Franco Regime created the present Bilingual Society.

In the one hand it happened that most of the immigrants did not interacted much with the locals as most of the immigrants went to live in new satellite towns were everybody was also newcomer. In the other hand, there were times of obliteration, persecution of the Catalan, no teaching of the native language in the schools, no books published in Catalan, fines, jail or even shooting for talking Catalan. Therefore the newcomers had it not easy, even willing to learn Catalan, the thing was not the easiest. These times saw also the building of the Mass Media. And of course, as the ruler had prohibited the Catalan language, TV, Radio, every Press was only broadcasted and published in Castilian language. The newcomers couldn’t easily learn the language of their new Land of Adoption. Concerning the Catalan speaking natives, slowly slowly were forgetting their Language and the specific words of it while adopting the Castilian through the Mass Media.

Happily in the family sphere the people continued talking Catalan; unknown heroes of the Civil Society pushed forward illegal press, radio and books in Catalan; and most of the newcomers understood that the way for integration and social promotion was to love the country fully embracing the language of their new Country, Catalan. The newcomers never let themselves be tools of the Cultural Colonialism programmed by the Spanish Dictatorship.

With the recovery of the Democracy and the Self-Government of Catalonia the own language was again legalised and declared co-official together with Castilian Language. Thus, through a process of Linguistic Normalisation the Catalan is understood nowadays by everybody and spoken regularly by two thirds of the population.

The parental proximity of Catalan with Castilian (both coming out from the Latin Stem) has also helped in this process of learning the native language by the newcomers.

We do know that any language bears with it a whole cosmovision, a way to understand the things; the relation in between people and nature, a philosophy of life... That is the reason why normally any People is very keen to preserve and promote its Language. Besides, for a Stateless Nation like Catalonia, with no tools for cultural self-defence, to play freely and with sovereignty in between other neighbouring Nations, it is essential to preserve that distinctive cultural element.

So let us comment and compare with other languages a few words and expressions in Catalan to understand how is that Catalan Cosmovision expressed by its Language.     

-         The most basic thing which is very telling about how a person or a people face a given act would be the very same verb “to do”. Happens that most of the actions carried by the Catalans are said as: - I am going "to do" this; let’s do that; let’s us do a beer? (fem una cervesa?); shall we do a bite of food? (fem un mos?). That way to express an act implies a will or an assumption of work, effort, labour, industriousness. Other languages use forms like the verb “to have”, or “tomar” (take) in Castilian, which carries a mentality of possession.

-         Taming - When in Catalonia one decides to have a pet as companion, specially a dog when is a cub (something that lately has become very popular: with French Bulldogs as the most popular lately), one says that he is going to “insinistrar” that animal. That word comes from the Latin “sinistra” which means left. Thus, the taming of an animal in that way expresses the will to “educate” with the left hand, which carries values of tolerance, patience, persuasion, negociation… The German Language uses the form Zähmen (to calm down). Castilian language uses “adiestrar”, which comes from the Latin “destra”, right. Doing the thing with the right hand implies a much more unilateral, straight and hierarchic approach towards the animal.

-         The red wine here is “negre” (black) while in French is like in English red (rouge) as in German (rot). Climatic and grape varieties apart, the most appropriate form has it the Castilian with its “vino tinto” which comes from “tintar”, to ink. Indeed the colour in wine comes from the skin of the grape, so with the maceration (resting and bathing of grape juice in process of fermentation with the skin) the white-greenish liquid turns red, dark blue, black….

-         And what about arguing? How the Catalan People face a discussion, talking with someone to solve some dispute? Here we like to “enraonar” which comes from “raó”, namely to “to reason-reasoning”. Of course we also have dialogues with a heavier load of conflict. Then is when we “discutir”, as in Castlian or the German “bestreiten” though they also make it in a softer way when they “argumentieren”. But that way of “enraonar”, as few other languages have, expresses the will of the Catalan People to come to an agreement and most important, to hear the other’s points of view.

-         And to end up with this brief summary of the Catalan way to look at the things, how do they attain time? By quarters, concerned they are running out of time; because these quarters, halves or three quarters belong to the forthcoming hour. Half past twelve is “dos quarts d’una” (two quarters of one) or 16:45 is “tres quarts de cinc” (three quarters of five). This way to mention the time of the day seems fitting to an industrious people, a conception of the time that acts like a pressure to complete the labours of the day. Contrariwise, the more common way in other languages to descry the time implies a satisfaction because some minutes or quarters are gone, and night rest is just awaiting.

But Catalans won't wait. Our rest, our joy will be the day when we freely start building without impediments a new wealthier society. Relieved from our threat and despoiler, our forces will be released for a greater progress and dynamism of the country and its people. Independence; after a long historical way we see the light, our oportunity is now. Time has come to this Nation to decide.