Castells: Human Towers from Catalonia

Recently, the goverment of Catalonia registered the 'Castells' in the candidate's list of the Unesco's Intangible Cultural Heritage. A 'Castell' is a human tower built traditionally in festivals at many locations within Catalonia. At these festivals, several 'colles castelleres' or teams often succeed in building and sustain a tower's structure for a certain length of time.

The tradition of building human towers originated in Valls, near the city of Tarragona, in the southern part of Catalonia towards the end of the 18th century. Later it developed a following in other regions of Catalonia even Majorca and, after prohibition under Franco, currently has become very popular in parts of Spain. However, the best and most skilled castellersare still found near Tarragona.

In Catalan the word 'castell' means castle. A 'castell' is considered a success when stages of its assembling and disassembling, can be done in complete succession. The assembly is complete once all castellers have climbed into their designated places, and the enxaneta climbs into place at the top and raises one hand with four fingers erect, in a gesture said to symbolize the stripes of the Catalan flag. Theexaneta then climbs down the other side of the castell, after which the remaining levels of castellers descend in highest-to-lowest order until all have reached safety.

Aside from the people who climb to form the upper parts of the tower, others are needed to form the pinya, or bottom base of the castell, to sustain its weight. Members of the pinya (most often men) [2] also act as a 'safety net' if the tower structure collapses, cushioning the fall of people from the upper levels.

The castell is built in two phases. First, the pinya the base of the tower is formed. People forming higher levels of the tower move to a position from which they can easily get to their place in the tower. This is done slowly and carefully,[3] and as subsequent base levels are completed the castellers in the pinya determine if their base is solid enough for construction to continue. Then, when the signal to proceed is given, bands begin to play traditional music as a hush comes over spectators of the event. The upper layers of the tower are built as quickly as possible in order to put minimal strain on the lowercastellers, who bear most of the weight of the castell. The disassembly of the castell, done amidst the cheering of the crowd, is often the most treacherous stage of the event.

There is a form of the Castell, generally referred to as 'rising', in which each successive layer is added from the bottom by lifting the castell into the air, stage by stage. It is held that this form takes even more skill and strength and a great deal of practice. Four levels complete have been observed and five attempted, but it is said that the record is six or perhaps seven.

Typically castellers wear white trousers, a black sash, a bandana and a coloured shirt often bearing the team's emblem. A differently coloured shirt indicates which team a participant is in. Team Castellers de Barcelona wear red shirts whileCastellers de Vilafranca wear green shirts.

The sash (faixa) is the most important part of their outfit, since it supports the lower back and is used by other castellers in the team as a foothold or handhold when climbing up the tower. This tasselled piece of cloth varies in length and width and depends on the casteller's position inside the tower and also on choice. The length of the sash ranges from 1.5 to 12 m, and usually is shorter for those higher up in the castell. Performing castellers usually go barefoot as to minimise injures upon each other as they climb to their position and also for sensitivity when balancing and to have better feel and hold each other.

Europe and the catalan language

by Prof. Joan Solà
European Parliament

Dear Members of the European Parliament:

We have come here before you as speakers of a European language that at several moments in its history has dispalyed first rate production and quality. It is a language that between the XIIth and XVth Centuries, cultivated prose and poetry of great richness and subtlety in all areas of public and private life: in the Administration, science, history, philosophy, religion and literature, with figures of international projection such as Raymund Lully (Ramon Llull), Ausiàs March, Jaume I or Saint Vicent Ferrer. This diverse and rich cultural tradition is still edited, translated and commented on today by experts from all over Europe.

After the medieval period this language suffered a retreat in the public and written sphere which lasted several centuries. But as of the mid-19th Century, until the present day, it has almost fully recovered. It once again offers the international community creative works of a very high standard and has translated the most important literary works of other languages. This recovery may be almost exclusively put down to the will of different Catalan-speaking communities to conserve their language and culture and to the popular effort exerted to achieve this. Today the speakers of this language have even managed to obtain a particular language internet domain: ".cat". Only on very rare occasions have the Catalans had a political structure capable of serving this strong will to save our culture; on the contrary, the administration has generally gone against us, even strongly against us in particular periods.

The political workings of the space taken up in the past by what is today the European Union, and the very European Union itself today, have led to a situation in which this language, and the culture that it is associated with, lack the basic support that is needed to survive in the conditions dictated by today's world, in which globalization, mobility, migrations, large economic trusts and all-powerful media predominate, and in which demographically or politically strong languages push weaker ones off the board, especially those that lack suitable political backing.

Our language is spoken in four European states (France, Spain, Italy and Andorra) and has an effective quota of speakers around the eight million mark, which is greater than that of several fully acknowledged EU working languages for the simple reason that they enjoy the backing of a state, a factor that gives these languages an even more disproportionately large stability and expansive power than other languages.

The European Union has given signs of wanting to preserve the cultural and distinguishing values of the different people that make it up. But until now the Catalan-speaking communities have not been able to benefit from this will because of the strictly political circumstances I referred to above. We therefore demand the same acknowledgement and support that other languages are receieving; that is, the political and legal acknowledgement and the moral and economic backing that are vital to enable us to overcome the disadvantages we have suffered for centuries and to be able to develop our culture unhampered in the complex present-day world.

Many thanks for your attention and the good will you are without doubt going to apply to our case.

Christopher Columbus was a Catalan

by Medieval News


The debate over the nationality of Christopher Columbus has kept investigators occupied ever since the man credited with the discovery of the New World died in 1506. Thought by many to be the son of a Genovese artisan, a new study by Estelle Irizarry, based on the official documents and letters of the explorer, suggests that Columbus' native tongue was Catalan and that he came from the Kingdom of Aragon.

Furthermore, Irizarrt belives that Christopher Columbus' origins are not obscure by chance, but rather the result of the famed explorer's having purposely hid the fact he was a Jew or "converso" (convert to Christianity).

Estelle Irizarry, a linguistics professor at Georgetown University, reached that conclusion after examining Columbus' writings in detail and discovering a simple but important clue that had escaped other researchers: a slash symbol - similar to the ones used in Internet addresses - that Columbus employed to indicate pauses in sentences.

That symbol, also known as a virgule, did not appear in texts of that era written in Castilian nor in writings from any other country, but only in records and letters from the Catalan-speaking areas of the Iberian peninsula, namely present-day Catalonia and the Balearic Islands.

Irizarry explains, "The virgules are sort of like Columbus' DNA. They were a habit of his. Columbus was a punctuator and was one of the few of that era."

Irizarry uses that metaphor as the title of her latest book, Christopher Columbus: The DNA of his Writings, in which she pored over the language and syntax the navigator used in more than 100 letters, diaries and documents. She also found in her research of documents from that era written on the Balearic island of Ibiza that 75 percent contained virgules similar to Columbus'.

At the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th, authors normally left punctuation for publishers and even Cervantes' "Don Quixote" was only filled in once and for all with periods and commas in the 19th century, making Columbus' virgules all the more noteworthy, Irizarry said.

Her book confirms some of the conclusions drawn by scholar Nito Verdera, who identified many words of Catalan origin in the writing. Irizarry thinks the future explorer grew up in a Catalan-speaking region and that explains why he did not express himself correctly in Spanish, which would have been his second language.

Proof of that is the inconsistency of his spelling, she said, noting for example that he would write "trujeron" and "trajeron" - incorrect and correct spellings, respectively, of the Spanish word for "brought" - sometimes in the same sentence. In addition, these peculiarities of his writing and other linguistic aspects associated with Ladino, a Jewish ethnolect in late medieval Spain, suggest that Columbus was Jewish, Irizarry said.

"Columbus even punctuated marginal notes and he included copious notes around his pages. In that sense, he followed the punctuation style of the Ladino-speaking scribes," the professor said.

Irizarry says her research clears up the big mystery surrounding Columbus' place of birth, which he never revealed but which different historians have claimed was Genoa, Italy; the French Mediterranean island of Corsica; Portugal; and Greece, as well as Spain. "The people who hid (their origins) more and had reason to do so were the Jews," Irizarry said, referring to the forced conversions and mass expulsions of Jews in late medieval Spain.

A scientific project launched three years ago to discover his true origins using DNA comparisons between his family and possible descendants has so far failed to provide conclusive results.

A team of scientists took samples from the tomb of Columbus in Seville and from bones belonging to his brother and son and compared them to the genetic make-up of hundreds of people living across Europe with surnames believed to be modern day variants of Columbus.

Swabs were taken from the cheeks of Colom's in Catalonia, Colombo's in Italy and even members of the deposed Portuguese royal family, who argue that Columbus was the product of an extramarital affair involving a Portuguese prince. Scientists had hoped to establish a common ancestor using standard Y-chromosome tests but they have yet to find a link.

They study may be in vain, however, as there is evidence to suggest that Columbus, who first crossed the Atlantic in 1492, may have adopted his surname later in life to disguise his true origins.

Another theory claims that he once worked for a pirate called Vincenzo Columbus, and adopted that name in order not to embarrass his relations with his new profession.
Columbus himself, when asked about his origins, used to shrug off the questions. "Vine de nada" – "I came from nothing", he said.

Click here to read an earlier article by Estelle Irizarry entitled: Three Sources of Textual Evidence of Columbus, Crypto Jew

Hotbeds of separatism in modern Europe

By RIA Novosti

Today, Europe is the venue of both integration and separatist processes. Experts have calculated that in the 21st century more than 10 new states may emerge in Europe.

Basque Country is the most traditional example of European separatism. In Spain, about two million Basques live in three provinces of what is called Basque Country. It has broader powers than other Spanish regions; the living standards are above the average; and Basque is recognized as an official language. But despite this devolution deal, the advocates of secession from Spain (to be merged with the Basque-populated part of France) are not going to stop at that.

Francisco Franco was responsible for the growth of separatism - the Basques were not allowed to publish books and newspapers; conduct instruction in Basque (native name - euskara); give children Basque names or put out their national flag. Euskadi Ta Askatasuna or ETA (Basque for "Basque Homeland and Freedom") was set up in 1959 as an anti-Franco party. Franco has long been dead and the Basque country has received the autonomous status, but this does not prevent the Basque terrorists from fighting. More than 900 people have fallen victim to the struggle for "independence."

Catalonia, an autonomous province in the north-east of Spain is also a headache for Madrid. Having their own language and culture, the Catalans have always stressed their separate identity in Spain. Their province enjoys extensive autonomy in Spain, a constitutional monarchy. Relations with the central government in Madrid are being regulated by a separate charter. In 2005, the new version of the charter said that the Catalans are a separate nation. However, there are dozens of parties and public organizations in the region, mostly left-wing, which are advocating cessation from Spain. Their goal is to hold a referendum on independence until 2014.

Another Spanish province, Valencia, received a new autonomous status in July 2007.

France has a long-standing experience of resisting separatism and extremism on its territory, above all in the Mediterranean island of Corsica. The Corsican national groups clashed with the French army in the middle 1970s. The Corsican Nationalist Union and the Movement for Self-Determination are the biggest and most influential among these groups. Both have combat units. In the last 25 years, the island's status was upgraded twice - in 1982 and 1990 the local authorities were given increasingly broad powers in the economy, agriculture, energy industry, transportation, education, and culture. Several years ago, French parliament recognized the existence of the Corsican nation. This decision was later cancelled as contradicting the Constitution of the French Republic.

The Breton Revolutionary Army (BRA) has operated in Bretagne, a north-western French province, since the early 1970s. The descendants of the Celts, who once came from the British Isles, do not identify themselves fully with the French, or consider themselves special among other French citizens. During censuses, many of them call themselves Bretons although put French as their native tongue. The BRA (apparently named by analogy with the Irish Republican Army - IRA) belongs to the extremist wing of the nationalist movement Emgann, which is fighting against the "French oppressors."

In Italy, the separatist attitudes are strong in the industrially advanced northern regions. The influential League of the North has so far given up its demand of secession and insists on Italy becoming a federation. There are also people wishing to see South Tirol, which Italy received after WWI, reunited with Austria.

Belgium may separate into northern Flanders (whose residents speak Dutch and are leaning towards the Netherlands) and southern French-speaking Wallonia. This confrontation between Belgium's two linguistic communities is rooted in the beginning of Belgium's independent history when the Walloons and the Flemish formed a union against the Netherlands. Having once united in the name of freedom, they have been trying to break apart for almost two centuries. Appeals for independence are growing stronger and stronger - the economically advanced Flanders does not want to "feed" the Walloon Region. The polls show that more than 60% of the Flemish and over 40% of the Walloons believe that Belgium may disintegrate.

In Britain, the separatist attitudes have moved from Ulster to Scotland. The recent Scottish parliamentary elections were won by the supporters of the formation of a new independent state from the Scottish National Party (SNP). The head of the Scottish government Alex Salmond declared that Scotland may become independent within a decade. So far, only 23% of Scots support the idea of their independence (as compared with 30% a year ago). However, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown (the current British Prime Minister) warned in the press that Britain would be threatened with "Balkanization" if the 300 year-long union between England and Scotland continued weakening.

Denmark's Faeroe Islands are a semi-autonomous territory, living on the government's subsidies of almost $170 million a year. This fact is a restraint for the local separatists, although seven years ago they tried to conduct a referendum on independence.

Quiet Switzerland also has its own separatists. The Front for the Liberation of Yura has been demanding this canton's independence from the confederation for over 30 years. At one time, Yura inhabited by French-speaking Catholics was transferred to the canton of Bern with its predominantly German-speaking Protestant population. The Front's leaders admit that their chances of success are minimal.

Vojvodina is a Serbian autonomous region located some 35 km (22 miles) away from Belgrade. The Alliance of Vojvodina's Magyars, whose representatives control almost 70% of the region's territory, demand a republican status for the region, a referendum on secession from Serbia and a confederation with Hungary. Late last March, the Association asked the European Union to send a mission to study the situation. Hungarians now account for more than 40% of the region's population.

A similar scenario is developing in Romanian Transylvania (in 1940-1945 it belonged to Hungary; in 1919-1939 to Romania; and before that to Austria-Hungary). The percentage of Hungarians there already exceeds 45%. The Union for the Revival of Hungarian Transylvania, set up under Ceausescu, has already held referendums on territorial autonomy in three Transylvanian districts late last March. The local Hungarians expressed themselves for the maximal autonomy from Bucharest and independent relations with Budapest.

The "anti-colonial" raids have become more frequent in Italian Sardinia, and in the Austrian provinces of Stiria and particularly Carinthia, mostly populated by the Croatians and Slovenians. The South Albanian Greeks and the residents of the Portuguese Azores have also become increasingly active in demanding autonomy.

Kosovo, with a 90% ethnic-Albanian majority, has been formally recognized as a sovereign state by over 55 countries including the U.S. and most EU members since it proclaimed its independence from Serbia on February 17, 2008.

 

The president of FC Barcelona calls people to rise against those who mistreat Catalonia

by Liz Castro /
NewsCatalonia


The president of F.C. Barcelona, Joan Laporta, has made a call to "rise up and face those who treat Catalonia with intransigence every day of the year." (audio) Laporta made the statement in a speech that he gave this morning at Montjuïc Castle, after participating in the torch march organized by Esquerra to give homage to Lluís Companys on the anniversary of his execution by firing squad. Also today, the Generalitat will ask the Spanish Supreme Court to revise Companys' sentence, so that it be nullified.

"The memory of that assassination must make us speak clearly and stop making us afraid, and it should help us act accordingly all the rest of the year," declared Laporta, who asked himself what Companys would think if he could judge what Catalonia is doing currently. And, accompanied by the president of Esquerra, Joan Puigcercós, he remarked, "They often try to silence politicans by appealing to your wish for the common good. They've tried to silence me as well, many times." (audio) Laporta also remembered the former president of Barça, Josep Sunyol, who was also executed by the Franquist regime.

Catalonia, 'political colony'

For his part, Joan Puigcercós praised Companys and defended political discourse as the tool that permits going forward in a difficult moment. Puigcercós added that "social justice" and the liberty of Catalonia is "the same thing".

Puigcercós added that "it's all downhill from here", since "the most difficult part has passed". "That resurgent Spain that seemed like it was going to be a new power in Europe," he said, "is a model that is entering a situation of economic and political crisis, like the Spain that lost its colonies in Cuba and the Phillipines." According to Puigcercós, "there remain other colonies, like Catalonia, a political colony that hopes to emancipate itself."

Petition to nullify the sentence against Companys

The government of Catalonia will meet today in an extraordinary plenary to demand from the Spanish Supreme Court the revision of the sentence against Companys. "This has been a pending matter for the Catalan government, and it comes a bit late," said Josep Cruanyes, the spokesperson for the Commission for Dignity. It required the petition of a whole range of entities to pressure the government to ask for the nullification of the sentence.

Cruanyes has asked the Catalan Executive to, if the Spanish Supreme Court does not revise the sentence, continue to demand its nullification until it succeeds. For now, the Catalan government must approve an agreement that invites the Catalan attorney general to ask the Spanish Supreme Court to revise the sentence. This is because, with respect to revising sentences, the only ones who can intervene are the defendents, their relatives, or the attorney general. In accordance with the law of criminal justice, the body with the power to settle a suit for revision, and to declare, if that were the outcome, the nullification of the given sentence, is the Spanish Supreme Court.

"The Spanish government has not done its job"

"The Spanish Executive should get involved and work toward the revision of Companys' sentence," according to Cruanyes, who thinks that the Spanish government has not done its job. He also believes that, if the Spanish Supreme Court denies the revision of the sentence, it will be the responsibility of the Spanish Executive.

The Spanish government has not made any progress toward stopping the process against Companys, despite promises made by the Vice-president, María Teresa Fernández de la Vega, five years ago at Montjuïc. When she heard about the initiative by the Catalan government, De la Vega only said that she "respected" it, but that it was the courts who have the "word on this decision, and not the Spanish government". Similarly, the previous Spanish Minister of Justice, Mariano Fernández Bermejo, when he was asked a year ago, how the Spanish Supreme Court would act in case of a suit of nullification of the sentence, answered that he couldn't know and noted that the decree of the development of the law of Historical Memory was still in the State Council.

The act of moral reparation of Companys

For now, Zapatero's government has limited itself to acts of moral reparation for Companys, as the president's granddaughter, Maria Lluïsa Gally and the Interior minister, Joan Saura, asked Bermejo for a year ago. In effect, Gally finally received, yesterday in Mexico, the document of moral reparation from the current Spanish Minister of Justice, Francisco Camaño. But the ex-president's granddaughter said that the document only has meaning if it serves to achieve the nullification of the summary judgment against Companys. The Minister of the Interior, Joan Saura, sees it similarly, and said, "The reparation of Company's memory is the first step in the nullification of the sentence that condemned him."

Lluís Companys is the only European president to be elected democratically and then executed by a fascist regime. His execution by firing squad was sentenced by the War Council of General Officials, held in Barcelona on October 14, 1940, which accused him of rebellion. A sentence which has never been annulled and that the government is now asking be revoked.

The first steps, a year ago

A year ago, Saura and Companys' granddaughter met with Bermejo to ask for an act of moral reparation for the president. Among the documents they gave him were a letter from Companys' granddaughter that says her grandfather was executed because he was "the maximum institutional representation of the Generalitat de Catalonia." This was the first step so that the Spanish Supreme Court could begin the paperwork necessary for the nulllification of the military sentence that was handed down without due process.

Catalonia Influences in the Caribbean

By IPS / Havana Times


Even without meaning to highlight it, the opening of the cultural program "Catalonian Influences in the Caribbean" evoked the various periods in which Catalonia too was a country of emigrants.

For reasons of an economic, political or other nature, the richly endowed American possessions of the Spanish crown - or the newly independent republics, depending on the historical moment - once represented the dream of a better life for many catalans.  Refugees of wars and dictatorships hoped they would find their second homeland in this new world.

With the aim of recovering and strengthening the cultural and emotional bonds between Catalonia and Spanish-speaking Caribbean nations, the program "Catalonian Influences in the Caribbean" was organized by the Casa América Cataluña, considered to be the first institution of its type in the world.

The very origin of that institution was based in nostalgia, because it was started by emigrants who returned to the peninsula after the loss of the former colonies - particularly the last two, Cuba and Puerto Rico.  In Barcelona they first founded the Club Americano, in 1911, the predecessor of the Casa América Cataluña.

According to Marta Nin, the deputy director of the Casa América Cataluña (CAC), this was a meeting place for "those who felt nostalgia for life on the new continent - for the coffee, the soil, the music and the conversations they would never again enjoy." It was a place where they could stave off these yearnings.

CAC is now a non-profit organization that works to spread Latin American culture in Catalonia, as well as that of Catalonia throughout Latin America.  The program "began its tour in the Dominican Republic with an exhibit of the work of Catalonian-born photographer Wifredo García Doménech."

The program then traveled to Puerto Rico, where renowned catalan cellist, director and composer Pau Casals resided in 1956, and where the annual Casals Festivals have been organized ever since 1957.  Organized with the collaboration of the Pablo Casals Foundation and the University of San Juan, the exhibit "Pau Casals and Life in Exile" was dedicated to his memory.

Cuba was the last stop on this journey to the Americans, though the closing of the event will be held in Catalonia in 2010.  At that time, many of the peninsula's traditions and customs that continue to flourish in the Caribbean will be presented.

Upon arriving on Cuban soil, "Influences" had the cities of Havana and Matanzas as its backdrop. In Matanzas, large religious celebrations were held dedicated to the Virgin of Montserrat, the patron of Catalonia, on which is based certain lasting traditions such as the "Colla of Montserrat," the theme of a film that was also presented.

The "Colla" comes from an ancient pagan ritual related to agriculture, although this time it involved a large choir of men carrying enormous kitchen utensils (ladles, forks, knives, skillets and pans) as they sang entertaining songs.  In 1895, the last procession under catalan rule was organized in Matanzas (though the festivities were reintroduced in 1902, until their permanent ending in 1925).

The attendance of these events in Cuba by Josep Lluís Carod-Rovira, the vice-president of the Generalitat de Catalunya; Marta Nin and Joseph Baragalló, director of the Ramón Llul Institute, one of the driving forces behind the program, confirmed the importance that has been placed on this cultural exchange.

In his introductory remarks, Carod-Rovira referred to "Catalonian Influences in the Caribbean" as a true success, as he went to retrace the saga of his compatriots on the island.

Inaugurated for the occasion was the exhibit "Barcelona-Havana: The Modernist Mirror." Featuring the artistry of Catalonian photographer Pilar Aymerich, this was described as a valuable work in which the artist's lens brought to light the influence of Catalonian modernism on Cuban architecture as well as decorative art, as reflected in furniture design and funerary sculpture.

It was not a random choice, because - according to specialists - the greatest developments associated with cemeteries coincided with the expansion of Modernism in Catalonia.  In relation to Cuba, it was even disclosed that some of the sculptures that adorn the vaults of both Havana's Colon Cemetery and the Montjuïc Cemetery, in Barcelona, bear the signatures of the same sculptors.

Recognized Cuban architect Daniel Taboada also referred to this theme in his presentation "Catalonian Architecture in Cuba," delivered at the Casa de las Américas.  The lecturer referred particularly to construction elements that Catalonian workers brought with them and that were used in reflecting the nouveau art style, another heir of Catalonian modernism.

Also presented was the book "La saga de los catalanes en Cuba" (The saga of Catalans in Cuba), by Joan María Ferrán.  With a foreword by Catalonian architect Isabel Segura, the book contains information spanning from the arrival of that group in Cuba prior to 1780 to the revival of Catalan migration at the beginning of the 20th century.

In addition to deepening the understanding of the participation of Catalans in Cuban industrial, commercial and agricultural development, Ferrán documents the regional publications and associations that were created during that period.  These efforts contributed to the development of the community from a cultural and intellectual point of view, and helped to provide the historical record of one of the groups from which the Cuban nationality was forged.

In accordance with the information provided by Ferrán, less than a hundred native-born Catalans live in Cuba today, with an average age of more than 75.  However, 19th century Cuba was - for very diverse reasons - the "golden age" of Catalan emigration.

This same researcher asserts that between 1780 and 1830 some 50,000 people emigrated from that region to Cuba, with many others coming to the island at the beginning of the 20th century in search of fortune or to evade military service and the war.

The Catalans came late, but they took very good advantage of their arrival. Around 1830, "Catalan emigration to Cuba began to convert into an economic, social and even political force of clear importance in national life," contends writer and journalist Leonardo Padura in his article "La aventura americana" (The American adventure), originally published in the Cuban newspaper "Juventud Rebelde."

"All economic strata seemed interested in those Spaniards who, from trade with the colony, provided the lungs for the air needed for Catalonia to make the leap to industrialization; at the same time they revived the mercantile life of the island," noted the journalist.

In this way, Catalans practically directed trade from Cuba around 1850.  Not only did they hand down into history famous names - such as Partagás (perhaps the best known Catalan connected to the tobacco industry), Facundo Bacardí (the father of Bacardí rum, whose legend endures even today), and Martí Torrens (whose fortune had a great deal to do with the profitable African slave trade) - but they also left us the legacy of today's García Lorca Theater.

There were also Catalans recognized for their connection with other important areas of life - individuals like Mariano Cubí Soler, founder of the "Revista Bimestre de Cuba" magazine; and teacher Juan Olivella Salas, co-founder along with Cubí of the Buenavista school.

According to the article by Padura, "The economic surge of this emigration allowed them, by 1840, to even found what would become the first association of catalans in Cuba: La Sociedad de Beneficencia de Naturales de Cataluña.  Its presidency would be passed along to the most noted individuals of this nationality, and the association would physically construct new institutions - first a hospital, where one could die in peace, and later a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Moreneta, where one could cry from their nostalgia."

In fact, authorization to create La Sociedad de Beneficencia de Naturales was not granted until April 10, 1841.  Its first or general meeting was held on August 1 that same year at #2 Lamparilla Street, almost at the corner of Mercaderes Street.

Catalans also settled in Santiago de Cuba, where they created social organizations such as that city's affiliate to the Sociedad de Beneficencia de Naturales de Cataluña, the Association of Catalonian Youth and its choir.

A good part of those Catalans who emigrated -the most successful- returned back home with their fortunes and contributed to the development of their native country. In this process, "throughout the 19th century, Cuba was becoming filled with Catalonian traces and Catalonia was becoming transformed by Cuban money and customs."

Perhaps among the saddest memories retained by Cubans of Catalans is that of the figure José Gener y Batet. This wealthy coffee plantation owner, as the head of the court organized by the colonial administration, was one of those responsible for the execution of the eight Cuban medical students in 1871.

Notwithstanding, there were also others who fought for the independence of the island.  Among them was José Miró Argenter, possibly the most recognized of all, who reached the rank of general and was head of the general staff under Antonio Maceo.

The head and tail of the same coin - the need to emigrate in search of a better life - the presence of Catalans was unavoidably felt in Cuban society and culture, an influence that lasts as one of the diverse components of that thick and rich "ajiaco" (stew) that forms its nationality.

The origins of Catalan national identity

During the first centuries of the Reconquista, the Franks drove the
Muslims south of the Pyrenees. To prevent future incursions, Holy
Roman Emperor Charlemagne created the Marca Hispanica in 790 CE, which
consisted of a series of petty kingdoms serving as buffer states
between the Frankish kingdom and Al-Andalus.

Between 878 and 988 CE, the area became a hotbed of Frankish-Muslim
conflict. However, as the Frankish monarchy and the Caliphate of
Córdoba weakened during the 11th century, the resulting impasse
allowed for a process of consolidation throughout the region's many
earldoms, resulting in their combination into the County of Barcelona,
which became the embryo of today's Catalonia. By 1070, Ramon Berenguer
I, Count of Barcelona, had subordinated other Catalan Counts and
intransigent nobles as vassals. His action brought peace to a
turbulent feudal system and sowed the seeds of Catalan identity.

According to several scholars, the term "Catalan" and "Catalonia"
emerged near the end of the 11th century and appeared in the Usatges
of 1150. Two factors fostered this identity: stable institutions and
cultural prosperity. While the temporary lack of foreign invasions
contributed to Catalonia's stability, it was not a main cause. Rather,
it provided a site for sociopolitical development. For example, after
the County of Barcelona merged with the Kingdom of Aragón, to create
the Crown of Aragon in 1137 through a dynastic union, the system was
designed to mutually check both the king's and nobility's powers,
while the small but growing numbers of free citizens and bourgeoisie
would tactically take sides with the king in order to diminish
typically feudal institutions.

By 1150, the king approved a series of pacts, called the Usatges,
which "explicitly acknowledged legal equality between burghers…and
nobility" (Woolard 17). In addition, the Catalan-Aragonese gentry
established the Corts, a representative body, comprised of nobles,
bishops and abbots that counterbalanced the King's authority. By the
end of the 13th century, "the monarch needed the consent of the Corts
to approve laws or collect revenue" (McRoberts 10). Soon after, the
Corts elected a standing body called the Diputació del General or the
Generalitat, which included the rising high bourgeoisie. The first
Catalan constitutions were promulgated by the Corts of Barcelona in
1283, following the Roman tradition of the Codex.

In the 13th century, King James I of Aragon conquered Valencia and the
Balearic Islands. Subsequent conquests expanded into the
Mediterranean, reaching Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, Naples and Greece,
so by 1350 the Crown of Aragon "presided over the one of the most
extensive and powerful mercantile empires of the Mediterranean during
this period" (Woolard 16). Catalonia's economic success formed a
powerful merchant class, which wielded the Corts as its political
weapon. It also produced a smaller middle class, or menestralia, that
was "composed of artisans, shopkeepers and workshop owners" (McRoberts
11).

Over the 13th and 14th centuries, these merchants accrued so much
wealth and political sway that placed a significant check on the
Aragonese crown. By the 15th century the Aragonese monarch "was not
considered legitimate until he had sworn to respect the basic law of
the land in the presence of the Corts" (Balcells 9). This balance of
power is a classic example of pactisme, or contractualism, which seems
to be a defining feature of the Catalan political culture.

Along with political and economic success, Catalan culture flourished
in the 13th and 14th centuries. During this period, the Catalan
vernacular gradually replaced Latin as the language of culture and
government. Scholars rewrote everything from ancient Visigothic law to
religious sermons in Catalan (Woolard 14). Wealthy citizens bolstered
Catalan's literary appeal through poetry contests and history pageants
dubbed the Jocs Florals, or "Floral Games." As the kingdom expanded
southeast into Valencia and the Mediterranean, Catalan followed.

The medieval heyday of Catalan culture would not last, however. After
a bout of famine and plague hit Catalonia in the mid-14th century, the
population dropped from 50,000 to 20,000 (McRoberts 13). This
exacerbated feudal tensions, sparking serf revolts in rural areas and
political impasses in Barcelona. Financial issues and the burden of
multiple dependencies abroad further strained the region.

In 1410, the Aragonese king died without leaving an heir to the
throne. Finding no legitimate alternative, leaders of the realms
composing the Crown of Aragon agreed by means of the Compromise of
Caspe that the vacant throne should go to the Castilian Ferdinand I,
as he was among the nearest relatives of the recently extinguished
House of Barcelona through a maternal line. The new dynasty began to
assert the authority of the Crown, leading to a perception among the
nobility that their traditional privileges associated with their
position in society where at risk. From 1458 to 1479, civil wars
between King John II and local chieftains engulfed Catalonia.

During the conflict, John II, on the face of French aggression in the
Pyrenees[10] "had his heir Ferdinand married to Isabella of Castile,
the heiress to the Castilian throne, in a bid to find outside allies"
(Balcells 11). Their dynastic union, which came to be known as the
Catholic Monarchs, marked the de facto unification of the Kingdom of
Spain. At that point, however, de jure both the Castile and the Crown
of Aragon remained distinct territories, each keeping its own
traditional institutions, Parliaments and laws. This was a common
practice at this time in Western Europe as the concept of sovereignty
laid in the monarch.

With the dawn of the Age of Discoveries, led by the Crown of Castile,
the importance of the Aragonese possessions in the Mediterranean
became drastically reduced and, along the rise of barbary pirates
predating commerce in the Mediterranean, the theater of European power
shifted from the Mediterranean basin to the Atlantic Ocean. These
political and economic restrictions impacted all segments of society.
Also, because of the locally bred social conflicts, Catalonia
squandered in one century most of what it had gained in political
rights between 1070 and 1410.

Nevertheless, early political, economic and cultural advances gave
Catalonia "a mode of organization and an awareness of its own identity
which might in some ways be described as national, though the idea of
popular or national sovereignty did not yet exist" (Balcells 9). Other
scholars like Kenneth McRoberts and Katheryn Woolard hold similar
views. Both support Pierre Vilar, who contends that in 13th and 14th
centuries "the Catalan principality was perhaps the European country
to which it would be the least inexact or risky to use such seemingly
anachronistic terms as political and economic imperialism or
'nation-state'" (McRoberts 13). In other words, an array of political
and cultural forces laid the foundations of Catalan "national"
identity.

Llobera agrees with this opinion, saying, "By the mid-thirteenth
century, the first solid manifestations of national consciousness can
be observed." Indeed, 13th and 14th century Catalonia did exhibit
features of a nation-state. The role of Catalan Counts, the Corts,
Mediterranean rule and economic prosperity support this thesis. But as
Vilar points out, these analogies are only true if we acknowledge that
a 14th century nation-state is anachronistic. In other words, those
living in Catalonia before latter day nationalism possessed something
like a collective identity on which this was to be based, but this
does not automatically equate to the modern concept of nation, neither
in Catalonia nor elsewhere in similar circumstances during the Middle
Age.

The Corts and the rest of the autochthonous legal and politic
organization was finally terminated in 1716 as a result of the Spanish
War of Succession. The local population mostly took side and provided
troops and resources for Archduke Charles, the pretender who was
arguably to maintain the legal status quo. His utter defeat meant the
legal and politic termination of the autonomous parliaments in the
Crown of Aragon, as the Nueva Planta Decrees were passed and the King
Philip V of Spain of the new House of Bourbon sealed the
transformation of Spain from a de facto unified realm into a de jure
centralized state.

The development of modern Catalanism

The 'Renaixença' (Renaissance) was a cultural, historical and literary movement that pursued in the wake of European Romanticism the recovery of the own language and literature. As time went by, and particularly immediately after the fiasco of the Revolution of 1868 (led by the Catalan general Juan Prim), the movement acquired a clear political character, directed to the attainment of self-government for Catalonia within the framework of the Spanish liberal state.

Like most Romantic currents, the Renaixença gave historical analysis a central role. History, in fact, was an integral part of Catalonia's "rebirth." Texts on Catalonia's history—inspired by the Romantic philosophy of history—laid the foundations of a Catalanist movement. Works like Valentí Almirall's Lo Catalanisme, Victor Balaguer's Historia de Cataluña y de la Corona de Aragón and Prat de la Riba's La nacionalitat catalana used history as evidence for Catalonia's nationhood. According to Elie Kedourie, such claims were common in 19th century nationalist discourse because "the 'past' is used to explain the 'present,' to give it meaning and legitimacy. The 'past' reveals one's identity, and history determines one's role in the drama of human development and progress" (36). Publications of histories thus "explained" why the Catalans constituted a nation instead of a Spanish region or coastal province.

At the heart of many of works of the Renaixença lay a powerful idea: the Volk. Indeed, the concept of Volk (pl. Völker) played a vital role in mainstream Catalan Romantic nationalism. It has its origins in the writings of German Romantics like Friedrich Carl von Savigny, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and, most notably, Johann Gottfried Herder. Herder was one of the first intellectuals to reject Enlightenment thought by proposing an alternative philosophy of history. An integral part of his thought was particularlism—that is—the belief that a person "cannot define himself except in terms of a particular religion, a specific language, a communal pattern of feeling" (xix). Any group sharing these cultural particularities constituted a Volk. Beyond this, argued Herder, each Volk has a spirit (geist), one that could not mix with others because it was unnatural and unauthentic. In his introduction to Herderian thought, Frank. E. Manuel describes the Volk as follows: "[w]hen Herder analyzed the creation of a genius he considered it as an expression of the Volk spirit [Volksgeist]: a man could not think freely in all possible forms and languages—he was born to one only. If a man tried to assimilate what was not his natural Volk spirit, he would never be able to give utterance to a harmonious song, for its bastard quality would obtrude", (xx).

Put another way, Herder viewed every Volk as an organism manifested in a "national character," which was determined by its physical surroundings, historical environment and ordained by God. This last point is crucial in understanding the Volk as an organism. Like many Christians, Herder believed that each individual had a soul, that is, a divine essence. But Herder took this idea a step further by applying it to Völker. To him, each Volk had a "soul—an individuality or personality of its own—and suggested that this was expressed through what might be called culture" (Penrose and May 170). Clearly, this line of thought would appeal to an oppressed people with a strong collective consciousness. What made it more potent was its resonance amongst nationalist groups in regions that held autonomy in the Middle Ages, such as the diverse peoples living in the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires. The Herderian or Romantic stress on group particularity, historical analysis and the incompatibility of different Völker did not bode well for large multi-ethnic states. The idea that a particular Volk cannot "mix" with another undergirded many of the philosophies that developed into full-fledged nationalist movements. Catalonia was no exception.

The concept of Volk entered Catalan intellectual circles in the 1830s, stemming from the emphasis on the region's medieval history and philology. It first appeared in the writings of Joan Cortada, Marti d'Eixalà and his discipline, Francesc-Xavier Llorens i Barba, intellectuals who reinvigorated the literature on the Catalan national character. Inspired by the ideas of Herder, Savigny and the entire Scottish School of Common Sense, they asked why the Catalans were different from other Spaniards—especially the Castilians (Conversi 1997: 15) For example, Cortada wanted to determine why, despite its poor natural environment, Catalonia was so much more successful than other parts of Spain. In a series of generalizations, he concluded that the "Catalans have succeeded in developing a strong sense of resolution and constancy over the centuries. Another feature of their character was the fact that they were hardworking people" (Llobera 1983: 342). D'Eixalà and Llorens held a similar understanding of the Catalan national character. They held that that two characteristics particular to Catalans were common sense (seny) and industriousness. To them, "the traditional Catalan seny was a manifestation of the Volksgeist," one which made Catalans essentially different from Castilians (Llobera 2004: 75).

The early works on the Catalan Volk would remain on paper long before they entered politics. This is because the Catalan bourgeoisie had not yet abandoned the hope of spearheading the Spanish state (Conversi 1997: 14). Indeed, in the 1830s, the Renaixença was still embryonic and the industrial class still thought that it could at least control the Spanish economy. Notions of Catalonia's uniqueness mattered little to a group that believed it could integrate and lead the entire country. But this all changed around 1880. After decades of discrimination from Spanish elites, Catalan industrialists buried their dream of leading Spain. As Vilar observes: "It is only because, in its acquisition of the Spanish market, the Catalan industrial bourgeoisie did not succeed either in securing the state apparatus or identifying its interests with those of the whole of Spain, in influential opinion, that Catalonia, this little "fatherland," finally became the 'national' focal point", (1980: 551)

This switch of allegiance was particularly easy because the idea of a Catalan nation had already matured into a corpus of texts about the region's "uniqueness" and Volksgeist. Inspired by these works of Romantic nationalism, the Catalan economic elite became conscious of "the growing dissimilitude between the Catalonia's social structure and that of the rest of the nation" (Vilar 1963: 101). Consequently, Romantic nationalism (and the Volk) expanded beyond its philosophical bounds into the political arena.

In the last third of the 19th century, Catalanism was formulating its own doctrinal foundations, not only among the progressive ranks but also in the conservative, and at the same time it started to establish the first political programmes (e.g. Bases de Manresa, 1892), and to generate a wide cultural and association movement of a clearly vindicatory character.

In 1898, Spain lost its last colonial possessions in Cuba and the Philippines, a fact that not only involved an important crisis of confidence, but also gave an impulse to political Catalanism. The first modern political party in Catalonia and Spain was the Lliga Regionalista. Founded in 1901, it formed a coalition in 1907 with other Catalanist forces (from Carlism to Federalists), grouped in the so-called Solidaritat Catalana, and won the elections with the regionalist programme that Enric Prat de la Riba had formulated in his manifesto La nacionalitat catalana (1906).

Barça, the reflection of political abnormality

by Victor Alexandre


Catalonia is the land of repeated questions. Our inability to solve our problems over the course of centuries has caused us to continuously debate questions that normalized communities have long overcome. We ask ourselves, day after day, about our identity, our language, our rights, our symbols... This alone, the simple need to break free from this vicious circle, could already justify the reclaiming of our political independence. Barça, of course, is not beyond this issue; rather, as the years go by, the debate about its extra (more than just athletic) dimension has not changed. And it doesn’t matter that Barça has been shown to be more than a simple club, with evidence expounded by different thinkers in articles, books, or doctoral theses. It doesn’t matter because our collective immaturity leads us to endlessly ruminate on the same themes, so that we seem to be reflecting when in reality we are only buying time so that we can avoid making any decisions.

And so, let’s say it again: Barça is more than just a football club because it represents a nation without a state, a people who lack legal recognition and an international presence. This is how it was during Franco’s reign and this is how it continues in the supposed Spanish State of autonomies. It is logical, then, that Barça continues to be vessel into which we channel all of our frustrations. Their victories are our victories, and their defeats our defeats. This explains why a million people took to the streets to thank the team for attaining the League of Champions, but it also demonstrates our extreme degree of infantilization; we don’t realize that this joyous outburst is caused by the very same element that we experienced under Franco: Catalonian subordination to Spain.

More than a clubIt’s true that there has been a “re-Catalanization” of Barça since the arrival of president Joan Laporta. Without him, Joel Joan would never have been able to cry out “Long live free Catalonia!” from the center of the stadium, nor would there have been a Correllengua such as the one held last year. But Catalonians have failed to move on to adult subjects, and this same lack of maturity and social recognition, as paradoxical as it seems, has helped construct the base of Barça’s extra-dimensional relevance. That is to say, the greatness of the club, and the importance that we attribute to it, are inseparable from our political abnormality. Barça is more than a club because we are less than a nation. If we could realize that independence is not a privilege but a right, and that we don’t need to ask, but to exercise, we would also realize that the team’s victories are a poisoned apple that distances us from our national responsibilities. And it is these—not a sports club—that we must rally to internationally display the Catalan nation.

Until this happens, Barça will be submissive to all kinds of pressure. Remember, for example, the presence of the King of Spain and of Spanish prime minister Rodriguez Zapatero sitting in the box of the stadium in Saint-Denis in Paris, as the president of Catalonia—who had not even been invited—was left behind; or the suppression of the players’ speeches on the day of the celebration in Camp Nou. It goes without saying that it wasn’t the game that really interested the King of Spain or Zapatero, but the message that their presence sent to the world: that Barça is a Spanish club and that their triumphs and trophies are Spanish as well. As for the celebratory speeches, the company in charge of sound has explained that there were five microphones available and their equipment was in perfect condition. This claim, naturally, shed clear light on the political pressures—internal and external—that the club received to avoid the danger that someone might say “no” to the fraud of the Statute or make some reference, direct or indirect, to the Catalan Contries. All of this leads us to note that the “re-Catalanization” of FC Barcelona, as vibrant as it seems, can hardly turn the club something that it isn’t: an authentic national selection.

What's Catalonia?

Catalonia is an old european nation. Today, Catalonia is nation whitin Spain. But in the past, Catalonia has been one of the greatest nations in the world. Catalonia has had the first parliament, much before England, and had the first United Nations when all the authorities of Catalonia, in the Eleventh Century, met in a city of France, at that time Catalonia, to speak about peace.

Today, Catalonia is an autonomous community of the spanish state, but there is significant catalan nationalist sentiment present in a part of the population of Catalonia, the Kingdom of Valencia and the Balearic Islands, which ranges from the desire for independence from Spain expressed by Catalan independentists, to a more generic demand of further autonomy. However, the social catalan independentism is growing in the last times, iniciating a long political process.

'Catalonia, new state' try to inform abouth this independence process began with the return of the democracy.

What's Catalonia? 

The Catalan culture started to develop in the Middle Ages stemming from a number of these petty kingdoms organised as small counties throughout the northernmost part of Catalonia. The counts of Barcelona were Frankish vassals nominated by the emperor then the king of France, to whom they were feudatories (801–987).

In 987 the count of Barcelona did not recognize the frankish king Hugh Capet and his new dynasty which put it effectively out of the Frankish rule. Two years later, in 989, Catalonia declared its independence. Then, in 1137, Ramon Berenguer IV, Count of Barcelona married Queen Petronila of Aragon establishing the dynastic union of the County of Barcelona with the Kingdom of Aragon which was to create the Crown of Aragon.

It was not until 1258, by means of the Treaty of Corbeil, that the king of frankish formally relinquished his feudal lordship over the counties of the Principality of Catalonia to the king of Aragon James I, descendant of Ramon Berenguer IV. This Treaty transformed the region's de facto independence into a de jure direct transition from French to Aragonese rule. It also solved a historic incongruence. As part of the Crown of Aragon, Catalonia became a maritime power, helping expand the Crown by trade and conquest into the Kingdom of Valencia, the Balearic Islands, and even Sardinia, Sicily, Corsica, Naples and Athens.

More later, the catalan king Ferdinand II of Aragon, married Queen Isabella I of Castile in 1469; retrospectively, this is seen as the dawn of the Kingdom of Spain. At that point both Castile and Aragon remained distinct territories, each keeping its own traditional institutions, Parliaments and laws. Political power began to shift away from Aragon toward Castile and, subsequently, from Castile to the Spanish Empire.

For an extended period, Catalonia, as part of the former Crown of Aragon, continued to retain its own usages and laws, but these gradually eroded in the course of the transition from feudalism to a modern state, fueled by the kings' struggle to have more centralized territories. Over the next few centuries, Catalonia was generally on the losing side of a series of local conflicts that led steadily to more centralization of power in Spain, like the Reapers' War (1640–1652).

In 1714, Catalonia lost his independence in the War of the Spanish Succession, which began when Charles II of Spain (the last Spanish Habsburg) died without a successor in 1700. Catalonia, as the other territories which used to form the Crown of Aragon in the Middle Ages, mostly rose up in support of the Habsburg pretender Charles of Austria, while the rest of Spain mostly adhered to the French Bourbon claimant, Philip V. Following the fall of Barcelona on 11 September 1714, the 'special status' of the territories belonging to the former Crown of Aragon and its institutions were abolished by the Nueva Planta decrees, under which all its lands were incorporated to Crown of Castile, as provinces, into a united Spanish administration, as Spain moved towards a centralised government under the new Bourbon dynasty.

In the latter half of the 19th century, Catalonia became an industrial center; to this day it remains one of the most industrialised parts of Spain. In the first third of the 20th century, Catalonia gained and lost varying degrees of autonomy several times, receiving its first statute of autonomy during the Second Spanish Republic (1931). This period was marked by political unrest and the preeminence of the Anarchists during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939).

They were also active throughout the early 20th century, achieving the first eight-hour workday in the world in 1919. After the defeat of the Republic in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) which brought General Francisco Franco to power, his regime suppressed any kind of public activities associated with Catalan nationalism, Anarchism, Socialism, Democracy or Communism, such as publishing books on the matter or simply discussing them in open meetings. As part of this suppression the use of Catalan in government-run institutions and in public events was banned. During later stages of the Francoist régime, certain folkoric or religious celebrations in Catalan were resumed and tolerated. Use of Catalan in the mass media was forbidden, but was permitted from the early 1950s[12] in the theatre. Publishing in Catalan continued throughout the dictatorship.[13]

After Franco's death (1975) and with the adoption of a democratic Spanish constitution (1978), Catalonia recovered political and cultural autonomy. Today, Catalonia is one of the most economically dynamic nations of Spain. The Catalan capital and largest city, Barcelona, is a major international cultural centre and a major tourist destination.

This historical nation has gradually achieved a greater degree of autonomy since 1979. The Generalitat holds exclusive jurisdiction in various matters including culture, environment, communications, transportation, commerce, public safety and local governments while it shares jurisdiction with the Spanish government in education, health and justice.