If you follow this blog or have been paying attention to the news, you will know that the Spanish military police tried to stop the Catalan independence referendum by using violence against the voters, including throwing elder people down the stairs and jumping over them, shooting rubber bullets (which are illegal in Catalonia btw) at voters and even at nurses trying to help wounded people reach an ambulance, getting clothes off girls and throwing them to the floor naked while laughing, graing women by their hair and dragging them out f the voting center while kicking them, etc. Over 800 Catalan people were hurt for trying to vote.
Today, to protest police brutality carried out and defended by the Spanish government, there has been an “aturada de país” which means we stopped the country. Practically all businesses have closed, and about 60 highways have been cut (including the border with France) by citizens playing chess or cards in the middle of the road. The economy is stopped and thousands of people are protesting on the streets. Many people also used the day to go bring flowers to the schools that were violently assaulted by the Spanish police.
I admit I don’t know much about this situation, but don’t anyone fucking try to compare it to the southern states ceceding during the Civil War. I’ve already seen that sentiment crop up on this site.
The difference, if you’re so asinine to not see them, is that the southern states forcefully ceceded, while Spain put it up for a vote to ‘allow’ Catalan to cecede, apparently they thought the majority vote would be not to.
Spain didn’t put it up for a vote, and they didn’t because they knew that yes to independence would win.
Catalans were so fed up with Spain treating us like second class citizens that we organised the biggest peaceful demonstrations in Europe’s history for 4 years in a row and independentist parties won the absolute majority of seats in the Catalan parliament. And Catalonia organised the referendum, trying to pact it with Spain but Spain didn’t want to at all, so we had to go forward alone.
The reason why this doesn’t have anything to do with the southern states is because Catalonia was already a country for centuries, until we got invaded, and have been discriminated against since. Catalonia is trying to decolonise itself, but Spain is forcing us to stay in order to keep their privileges over us.
I think it’s important for foreigners to understand that Catalonia is not “a piece of Spain trying to separate”, Catalonia is an entirely different nation that just happens to be occupied by Spain. Different language, different traditions, different history, different mindset, different needs. Different country.
There’s a reason why people who want the southern states to be separate are usually the conservatives, and the ones who want Catalan independence are the leftists and liberals.
This also applies to the Valencian Country, but sadly there are too many fascists here now, and we can’t do the same they’re doing in Catalonia, at least not yet. There was a demonstration today in València, and a woman told us that: that we were not Catalonia, that we were never going to do anything, that she was tired of us, that we should go to Catalonia, that Spain is a democracy… And we know that is not true, and now the world knows it too.
Social housing complex in Canovelles: three different housing modules in three different phases — plan and pictures of second phase; Canovelles, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain; 1977-83
José Antonio Martínez Lapeña, Luis Cantallops Valeri, Elías Torres Tur
Albert Ràfols-Casamada was a Spanish painter, poet and art teacher involved in the vanguard movements of his time. He is considered one of the most important, multifaceted Catalan artists of his time.
This illustration was inspired by my travels in Spain and the pro-Catalonian demonstrations I saw in Barcelona, but also by my brother Theo, who likes tigers. I’ve never done a multi-layer block print before! The process of making this was a roller coaster but I’m pretty happy with the result.
I’ve listed these prints on etsy here for your perusal!
Taula central del Retaule del Centenar de la Ploma del pintor alemay Andreu Marçal de Sax; representa a Jaume I d'Aragó i a Sant Jordi lluitant a la Batalla del Puig de Santa Maria (1237)
In 1918, Josep Pla was studying law at the University of Barcelona when the disease known as Spanish Influenza broke out. The university closed in the middle of the semester and Pla returned to his family home in Palafrugell, the small city in the Mediterranean Costa Brava where he had been born. At this point, Pla began keeping the diary that would become The Gray Notebook(translated by Peter Bush for NYRB). The very first entry mentions the influenza, his return to Costa Brava, and his innocent first days back home:
8 March. There is so much influenza about that they’ve had to shut the university. My brother and I have been at home in Palafrugell ever since. We are a couple of idle students. I only see my brother at mealtimes; he is a very keen football player—despite breaking an arm and a leg on the pitch. He leads his life. I do what I can. I don’t miss Barcelona, let alone the university. I like small-town life here with my friends.
Later entries about the flu are much less carefree. Over the course of the outbreak, an estimated 250k+ people died in Spain alone, and by the following fall, Pla and his family were attending funeral after funeral. His description of taking the train home after one such funeral, written on October 18, 1918, is particularly haunting:
The small train takes us home in the evening, in the dim, murky carriage light. The engine sputters despairingly and sparks fly up from the chimney. The train is full. People sit in subdued silence. Those coming from market imitate those who’ve been to the funeral. If one imagines a train full of thinkers, this would be it. The brims of our hats cast shadows over our faces. What are we thinking? Nothing at all, I expect. The drama derives from the fact that there is so much here we cannot understand—so much that it renders the mechanics of our minds quite useless.
In an entry February 21, 1919, after Pla has returned to Barcelona, he remarks on the eerie quiet that has fallen over the city:
Barcelona is remarkable tonight. Everything has been plunged into darkness. It is so astonishing it is literally beyond words. The silence is what’s most striking—the deep, deep silence. You can hear neither the distant wail of vessels setting sail nor distant trains. Nothing at all. It’s like living under the heaviest slab of lead.
Pla was ill at this time himself, but thankfully he recovered, much to his father’s surprise, as recorded in an entry from February 25, 1919:
My father, who has just arrived from Palafrugell, thinking he will find me on my sickbed, is shocked to see me reading when he walks into my bedroom. We talk at length.
11th May is Sant Ponç (Saint Pontius). Since the Middle Ages, on this day, many towns and cities in Catalonia celebrate markets dedicated to medicinal herbs. May is the maximum point of blooming for most medicinal herbs, and Saint Pontius is the patron saint of herbalists and bee-keepers.
These markets were already celebrated before around these dates, but it was in the 16th century that the date was fixed on Saint Pontius’ Day. In Barcelona (Catalonia), there’s a legend that explains the relation. According to the tradition, Saint Pontius lived in the 3rd century AD, when he was persecuted by the Romans for being Christian. He escaped and arrived to Barcelona, where he saw that there were many poor and ill people. For this reason, he immediately started preparing potions with the medicinal herbs that he knew so well. This way, he quickly became very respected and admired by the Barcelonian people, who started celebrating an annual festivity of medicinal herbs in his honour.
Nowadays, in most of these markets you can also find honey, candied fruit, jam, artisanal cheese, and other products related to health besides the medicinal herbs.
[The photos above are from the fair in Barcelona and Mataró, respectively.]
