5000 castellers in Europe: "We want to vote; help us knit the kernel"

71 human tower groups built castles in 7 European capitals and 41 Catalan towns on Sunday with the slogan “Catalans want to vote”.

Almost 5000 castellers belonging to 71 groups raised human towers on Sunday in seven European capitals, Paris, London, Brussels, Geneva, Lisbon, Rome and Barcelona and in forty Catalan towns to support the right to self-determination.

The president of Omniun Cultural, Ms Muriel Casals, read a manifesto in Barcelona in front of the Sagrada Familia, to explain that this action is “a call to all European citizens” to “let them know who we are, what we want and how we intend to share the future, building the Europe of the XXIst century”. “We want to vote, we want to decide our future in a referendum”, she said, ”that is why we make this call to all the European citizens, the Europe we want to assemble with you, like a big castle, please help us join forces”

The castles were raised in Geneva by the Xiquets de Reus; in Brussels by the Castellers de Vilafranca; and in Paris in front of the Eiffel Tower, by the Colla Vella dels Xiquets de Valls; and in many other cities and towns where the protest took place.

“When we started to plan this action we thought it was important to bring the best we have, the most spectacular. And human towers are the best. An Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the UNESCO, spectacular and of great value, as Jordi Bosch, Secretary of Omnium stated at midday in London, trusting the eyes of the world will focus on Catalan demands. “It is the best way to explain to the world who we are and to vindicate our demand for the referendum, to say we want to vote peacefully, joyfully”, he declared.

The whole Casteller world “has given this protest its support”, according to Mr Bosch. “It is the people who demand the vote. We demonstrate it by bringing up to 200 castellers to London, each of them has paid out their own pocket to come here” said Josep Fernández, the president of the Colla Jove Xiquets de Valls.


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Congratulations Conchita Salchicha, congratulations Europe

More than one of the Chinese newcomers to the Eurovision Song contest must have asked themselves “what’s up in Europe?” when they watched the latest edition:

A tiny woman with Bambi eyes and Arafat beard interpreting an extraordinary song, colourfully dressed women doing laundry in the middle of the stage with suggestive cleavages, the myth of Jesus’ last supper being break-danced or an Asiatic appearance tickled by mixing South Korean with Chinese. Some better informed Asian spectators may have also wondered why the Danish finalists had everything but the ‘typical’ Nordic look and pointed out that most of the performers sang in English. Some might have even asked themselves which country was represented by the red and yellow stripped flags with a star, fluttering in the festive atmosphere, side by side with the other 37 European flags in the audience.

One thing is for sure, the so often ridiculed song contest worked out to be much more than the usual compilation of more or less well performed copies of platinum records and rather obtrusive scene arrangements.

On a continent where supra-national powers still hope to govern over others and where a country still forces their singer to include words in the national tongue in an English song to mark difference rather than union, most of the 170 million European spectators turned the Eurovision-stage into theirs, bearing witness to their democratic maturity. Culture builds bridges, and so a musical get-together became a claim to social progress and tolerance, personal freedom and mutual support. Austrian winner Conchita Wurst (Salchicha or Sausage) put it very clearly: "We are a unity. Together we are unbeatable."

Now we, the European citizens, have to develop our potential further and take our claims to a broader stage, to make sure they come true at all levels of European society, so that one day all its citizens can progress in mutual tolerance and freedom.

Krystyna Schreiber

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Catalan El Celler de Can Roca is ranked the world’s second best restaurant after topping the list in 2013

Girona-based El Celler de Can Roca, the family restaurant run by the 3 Roca Brothers, continues to be considered among the world’s very best places to eat by ‘Restaurant’ magazine. This publication gives the sector’s main international awards each year at a gala in London and announces the list of the world’s best 50 restaurants; this year’s gala took place on Monday evening. However, this year the Catalan establishment has not topped the ranking as it did in 2013 but has been considered the second best in this sort of cuisine Oscars, a recognition it had already obtained in 2012 and 2011. First place was for the Danish Noma - run by René Redzepi – which had already topped the ranking in 2012, 2011 and 2010. In addition, at the same gala the youngest Roca brother, Jordi, who is in charge of El Celler de Can Roca’s desserts, has been awarded the world’s best pastry chef, a title given for the first time this year. Since 2002, Catalan cuisine is has been sitting in cuisine’s Olympus thanks to the work of the Roca brothers and, originally, the genius of Ferran Adrià, who revolutionised gastronomy and whose restaurant El Bulli was considered the world’s best restaurant for 5 years. In fact, in the last 13 years, El Bulli or El Celler de Can Roca – both of them located in the Province of Girona – have topped the ranking on 6 occasions and the years they have not topped the list, one of them has been second or, once, third. The achievement is remarkable, since it means that in the last 9 years, a Catalan restaurant has topped the world’s ranking 5 times and the other 4 years it was in second place.

As in the 2012 ranking, René Redzepi’s Noma has been named the world’s best restaurant and the Roca brothers’ El Celler de Can Roca, the world’s second best. Last year, it was the other way round, but in 2014 the old positions are coming back. The Catalan establishment lost the top position, but it continues to be amongst the planet’s two best for the 4th year in a row, which is a great achievement.

Starting as a humble family restaurant run by their parents, Joan – the main Chef, Josep – the Sommelier, and Jordi – the pastry Chef revamped the place and managed to put their kitchen among the international cuisine stars. Year after year, this three- Michelin-star establishment was going up in the world ranking and in 2011 it was already considered the second best restaurant on the planet. Finally, in 2013 the Girona kitchen overtook Copenhagen’s Noma and El Celler de Can Roca reached the ranking’s top position.

“It’s like the Oscars”

Now, the positions have been switched again. A few days ago, in an interview with CNA, Joan Roca said that even if they did not win this year, they would always have their 2013 victory. “It’s like the Oscars […] you cannot win each year, but once you get one, you have it forever”, he said. However, Joan Roca was proud “to have done the homework” in the last 12 months in order “to be ready” to prove worthy of the top position again. In fact, the Roca brothers are hard workers who, despite having topped the ranking, have continued to run their family restaurant like a Swiss clock.

The 2013 recognition was a stimulus for them to foster creativity, since they have developed 62 new dishes in the last year. In addition, between the three of them they managed to combine the extremely demanding job of leading their restaurant with the task of offering 150 conferences in 19 different countries. In a press conference given on Monday morning, a few hours before the gala, the Roca brothers said they were proud of the job done and how they manage to combine this additional activity with the regular activity of El Celler de Can Roca without affecting the quality. For this they were taking advantage of closing days to travel, and sharing the extra tasks among the three of them. However, they were sorry they could not make room for all the 121,800 requests to book a table in their restaurant that they received in the last 365 days due to the limited space available. In the last year, El Celler de Can Roca hosted 22,680 clients and served some 340,000 dishes.

Jordi Roca becomes the world’s best pastry chef

The youngest of the 3 Roca brothers, Jordi, who is in charge of the family restaurant’s desserts, was recognised at Monday’s gala as the world’s best pastry chef. Jordi Roca’s creations are extremely original, combining textures, shapes, flavours, temperatures and even states of matter, including fluids, smoke and crunchy solids. Two years ago, he opened his own ice cream shop in downtown Girona, an establishment called Rocambolesc, where clients can taste extremely original frozen creations.

René Redzepi was trained in Catalonia by Ferran Adrià

Noma, based in an old warehouse at Copenhagen Port, has been awarded the world’s best restaurant for the fourth year since 2010. In that year it took the title of the best restaurant in the world from ‘El Bulli’, located in Catalonia’s Costa Brava and run by the Catalan chef Ferran Adrià. 

In fact, René Redzepi was one of Adrià’s pupils in the Catalan chef’s restaurant in the Costa Brava town of Roses. For four years in a row, from 2006 to 2009, and also in 2002, El Bulli topped Restaurant Magazine’s ranking; and in 2010 it held second position. In 2011, El Bulli was no longer included in the ranking of the 50 best restaurants of the world because it announced it was closing its doors in July, after Ferran Adrià had been recognised as “the chef of the decade”. In fact, Adrià decided to close El Bulli to reopen it again transformed into the ‘El Bulli Foundation’, which will no longer be a regular restaurant but a research centre, exploring the links between food, arts and design.

ACN

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The legacy of Salvador Dalí

Guillaume Apollinaire coined the term “Surrealism” in 1917. Thereafter, it became a word used often by great artists such as André Breton, Paul Éluard, and other contributors to the Surrealist magazine “Littérature”.

The authors of “Littérature” paid close attention to the outlandish genres and avant-garde experiments of the time, focusing their interest on magic, dreams, and the absurd. They claimed that one product of human thought was “pure psychic automatism”: the idea that in a state where dreams and sleep have complete supremacy, free associations and the arbitrary interplay of ideas will weave themselves together into a higher reality.

Before long, they had discovered a new poetics, a profound, romantic reflection on the imagination. The greatest advocates of abstract surrealism and figurative realism were the Catalans Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí, respectively.

Salvador Dalí was an excellent and technically precise draftsman, and used brilliant and luminous color to represent objects, landscapes, and people with a near-photographic realism. He represented all of his obsessions in his work, such as his predilection for repetition as well as mixing human and monstrous elements together. He reflected upon his obsessions in vast, expansive spaces.

Dalí defined the so-called “paranoiac-critical method” as a spontaneous system based on irrational thought and delirium. Much like the intellectual Narcís Monturiol, the poet Fages de Climent, and the pharmacist Alexandre Deulofeu, Dalí did not fit into the most orthodox of molds. But the brilliant Dalí took his extravagance to the extreme and converted it into a substantial part of the “attrezzo” with which he earned his living.

This eclectic Catalan artist, simply put, was a daring, imaginative, and eccentric megalomaniac, who could take in all of his surroundings and turn them into something beastly.

This great artist left us with an extensive legacy: his personal symbolic universe. They include: Melting clocks that re-interpret the theory of relativity; Bernini-inspired elephants that take phantasmagorical and phallic forms; Eggs that recall intrauterine life and become symbols of hope and love; Ants that symbolize death, corruption, and sexual fervor associated with carnal egotism; and Lobsters that symbolize decadence and Dalí’s own fears.

Without a doubt, Dalí, thought to be the greatest and most universal Catalan painter of all time, was also a Catalan who (like the poet Josep Pla) never denied his Spanish side: He was pro-monarchic and even left his bequest to the Spanish state. In Dalí’s case, no one can forget that he was an anarchist during a part of his life yet also had ties to the Franco regime. At the same time, he never stopped showing a great displeasure toward the same regime that murdered his great friend, the poet Federico García Lorca. 

These opposing actions show how Dalí had reservations about living out his own way of life, and how he saw this so-called opposition as two sides of the same coin. It is as if the evocations coming from his own world were powered by the haphazardness of the wind.

Even so, Dalí always felt very Catalan, and loved the land, its gastronomy, its people, and especially the fishermen of the Empordà region. We can find that his work is full of references to the land where he grew up, such as Cap de Creus and the beaches of Roses. The Empordà is reflected in works such as “The Madonna of Port Lligat”, “The Basket of Bread”, “The Great Masturbator”, “Rhinocerotic Figure of Phidias’ ‘Illisos’”, “The Persistence of Memory”, and “The Festival at the Hermitage”.

Dalí’s anarchism and Catalan roots show in his work, which reached universal significance. In looking closely at his work, we see that it breathes Catalan-ness, irony, impulse, and sincerity, all with the stamp of Salvador Dalí, artist of himself and lover of Gala.

Read this article in Italian

MO Balletbó

@salmaldonart 

Other articles by this author:

With Tàpies catalanity
Gaudí, the most original Catalan architect

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Catalan human towers to be built in 7 European capitals for self-determination

Barcelona (ACN).- On the 8th of June, thousands of Catalans will simultaneously build the traditional human towers – called castells – in picturesque locations in Berlin, Brussels, Geneva, Lisbon, London, Paris and Barcelona, carrying a banner reading "Catalans want to vote". The action is a festive demonstration to raise international awareness about the aspiration shared by more than 75% of the Catalan population: to be able to hold a self-determination vote to decide on Catalonia's future and possible independence from Spain. The project 'Catalans want to vote – Human towers for democracy' is a private initiative organised by the civil society organisation Òmnium Cultural, an entity that does not receive any money from the Catalan Government. In fact, this Tuesday it was announced that the project has reached its initial objective of raising 120,000 euros through Verkami's crowd-funding web site. The money will be used to pay for part of the trip costs of the thousands of castellers, the name given to those building the human towers (called castells), which were declared World Heritage by UNESCO in 2010. However, the crowd-funding platform will still be receiving donations for the coming 11 days and a greater amount is to be expected.

The tradition of building human towers

The tradition of creating the human castles began around 200 years ago in the Tarragona Province, in southern Catalonia. The towers are created by amateur groups and are formed by the castellers standing on the shoulders of each other. They normally take place during local festivals in Catalan towns and cities and tend to involve between 6 and 10 levels of people, literally standing on top of each other and reaching the size of a 3-, 4- or 5- storey building. Depending on the tower's shape and complexity, there are between 1 and 9 people per layer, although at ground level a wide base is formed, which in some constructions secondary and smaller bases are also formed in the first two levels.

In 2010 the tradition was declared a UNESCO element of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It was awarded the honour because of the values of collective self-improvement and solidarity that it promotes, as well its ability to integrate people of all ages and walks of life into the same project.

A civil society initiative

"Internationalising Catalans' right to decide" on their own political collective future. This is the objective set by the action's organising association, Òmnium Cultural, which started its activities promoting Catalan culture and language in 1961, as part of the democratic fight against Franco's Military and Spanish Nationalist dictatorship (which officially ended in 1977).

The initiative is part of the activities to pave the road towards the 9th of November, the day agreed upon by a majority of Catalan parties to hold a self-determination vote. The agreement reached follows the democratic mandate issuing from the last Catalan elections, when some 80% of the votes were for parties supporting Catalonia's right to self-determination and proposing the organisation of a legal referendum in their electoral manifestos. It follows from this that the Catalan Parliament and the resulting Government have the people's mandate to organise such a vote.

The Spanish establishment is blocking Catalans' right to self-determination

However, the Spanish Government vetoes it totally and refuses to even talk about it. Madrid's no-to-everything attitude aims to stop the self-determination process, but a majority of Catalan parties, several civil society organisations and a significant section of Catalan society have been insisting that they want to vote and have proposed several legal ways to make such a vote possible. Despite these efforts, the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, using a centralist and Spanish nationalist interpretation of the current legal framework is pursuing an obstructionist attitude to block such a vote.

After numerous negative answers from the Spanish Government and with several legal ways to organise the vote blocked by Rajoy's lack of political will, a majority of Catalan parties agreed not to wait eternally for the Madrid establishment to change its mind and decided to set a date and an exact question wording to follow the Catalan citizens' electoral mandate and allow them to vote on their independence from Spain.

A clear and absolute majority of Catalans want to vote

More than 75% of Catalans want to vote, regardless of whether they would vote for independence or against it, according to many polls. In addition, although there are no clear figures about how many Catalans would vote for independence, polls indicate support varying between 43% and 60%, while the same polls indicate that those voting against it would represent between 38% and 22%. In fact, probably because independence is the most popular option in all the polls – although in some of them it does not reach 50% of the population – the Spanish Government is not allowing the vote and is threatening Catalans with an apocalyptic future if they eventually leave Spain.

Spain's obstructive attitude will not stop Catalonia's self-determination process

In order to heed the demands of a majority of Catalonia's citizens, Catalan political parties have decided to make all the necessary arrangements to be able to organise a self-determination vote. Since the Spanish Government is blocking the use of Spanish-level legislation, Barcelona-based parties have decided to develop Catalonia's own legal framework, following its legislating powers recognised in the Statute of Autonomy of 2006. This means approving its Consultation Vote Law, a piece of legislation already provided in the aforementioned Statute of 2006.

In addition, they will also use International Law. For this reason Catalan authorities are seeking support at international level, or at least to convince foreign actors not to oppose Catalonia's self-determination process. In this strategy, convincing European Union institutions and EU Governments has paramount importance.

Some international supporters

The third and fourth largest political families in Europe have already backed Catalonia's right to self-determination. Both the Liberals and the Greens announced they would work to allow Catalans to vote on their future. In addition, the Prime Ministers of Latvia and Lithuania partially backed Catalonia's voting demands, but they were forced to modify their stance after loud protests and pressure from the Spanish Foreign Affairs Ministry. In addition, several European intellectuals have publicly supported Catalonia's right to vote on its political future and they have also backed its EU membership in the event of independence.

Since Catalonia's self-determination process is a grass-roots movement, primarily fuelled by civil society organisations and not by political leaders, such organisations also wanted to participate at this crucial moment. Civil society was behind the two massive pro-independence demonstrations of 2012 and 2013, which were the largest demonstrations ever organised in Catalonia, with 1.5 and more than 1.6 million respectively.

Raising international awareness: "Catalans want to vote"

Now, before this year's massive demonstration, which will take place as always on Catalonia's National Day (11th September), Òmnium Cultural wanted to organise a symbolic demonstration in some of the main European cities. The objective is clear and transparent: "internationalise Catalonia's right to decide" on its own future. In other words, raise international awareness of Catalonia's intention to hold a self-determination vote.

The 'Catalans want to vote – Human towers for democracy' campaign was announced around a month ago by this civil society entity. In 29 days it managed to raise more than 120,000 euros to pay for the travelling costs of the participants: the groups of castellers who will build towers in Berlin, Brussels, Geneva, Lisbon, London and Paris, but also in Barcelona and other Catalan cities and town. 36 castellers group have already confirmed their participation, including some of the best. The castells will be built at the exact same time, at 12 pm, and they will show a banner reading "Catalans want to vote". By this action, Òmnium Cultural uses a distinctive feature of Catalan folk culture and makes a festive, peaceful and positive demonstration, in line with, for instance, the 400 km-long human chain that spanned Catalonia from north to south gathering more than 1.6 million people in last 11th September.

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Free or Dead

It was August 2009 when we discovered the character of Ermengol Amill, one of the completely forgotten Catalan national heroes. Therefore we felt like we had the moral obligation to create a biopic in order to internationalize the Catalan conflict. A film is the fastest, the most convincing as well as the most efficient way to help overseas citizens understanding the origin of our main national conflict and, much more, to make them come to understand why now Catalans have started their march to independence. We have just managed to write a novel. It has became a bestseller in Catalonia, being in the TOP 10 most sold books since its first publication in September 2012, as well reaching five editions in just five months—so we will persist in the film.   

Films like Braveheart in Scotland, Michael Collins in Ireland, or The Patriot in the United States, have helped their nations to stand up for themselves and let the whole world understand their wishes for freedom. From the entertainment and mass culture point of view, as well as a historical and documental review, we thought that this sort of production could turn out as a great cultural and commercial product that would catch the attention all around the world.

Free or dead not only explains what the War for Spanish Succession really meant for Catalans and it lets us understand the magnitude of this war, considered by historians as the first world war. The War of Succession was a conflict incited by the English Crown who provoked Catalans into rising up against King Phillip V of the Bourbon, as well as quashed them down when Lord Bolingbroke announced in the middle of the board of negotiation of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713  that defending the rights of the Catalan people was no longer in the interest of England. This treaty radically changed the geopolitics of Europe and America by utilizing the Catalan nation.

The English betrayal that lead to Catalonia's ultimate defeat in 1714 generated a political strifle between the conservatives (Tories) and the liberals (Whigs) in the British Parliament, known as the Case of the Catalans, which left behind feelings of guilt in part of English society, as the pamphlets of the period show, like The Deplorable History of the Catalans,  or as the words that a few centuries later were pronounced by former first minister Winston Churchill: “With kind diplomatic words they were delivered (The Catalans) in revenge to the winner side Spain.”

Therefore the relation between England and Catalonia needed and explanation in order to understand that when there are no friends but just interests, freedom is the price. Soon it will be three centuries since the Catalan nation has been paying that price up to the highest. A lesson that we wanted to point out in our novel Free or dead, a title that evokes one of the slogans written down on the black flags displayed above the walls of Barcelona in 1714.

Let’s hope one day we can see the defense of freedom that Free or dead represents in the big screen, and translated into as many languages as possible. Nothing would make us happier than this.

David de Montserrat @davidmontserrat                                                Jaume Clotet @jaumeclotet

First published at HC on January 17th, 2013

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Catalan activities in Beijing

Catalan activities will be held in Beijing (China) on April 6th. The Catalan Beijing Casal's library with eschange of books in various languages, a Catalan football tournament and special cultural activities.They will took place at the Bar Affairs E101 Fangia Complex at the Chinese city.

Web: www.casalcatalabeijing.com  
Mail:  casalbeijing@gmail.com 

Facebook: Casal Català Beijing  

Twitter: @casalcatbeijing  

QQ: 243437335

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Inordinate Spanish-Language Supremacism of the Cervantes Institute

The Cervantes Institute faces the 2014 financial year with a comfortable budget of €110,450,000. An impressive figure considering the economic situation of the Kingdom of Spain. Among the measures taken by the Spanish Institute, none involve closing any of its 84 centres in 44 countries nor any reduction whatsoever of their bloated staff.

The Institute provides the Diplomas of Spanish as a Foreign Language (DELE) and has announced it will extend exam sittings and the variety of titles (commercial, educational, economic, and through Internet). To do this, they will increase expenditure on classroom rentals especially to hold exams, and on construction for their offices in Brussels, Paris and Warsaw. In the Polish capital the Institute is housed in a five-storey building.

All this is to promote Castilian, what most know as the Spanish language, which as we all know is agonising, with its 528 million speakers. Meanwhile, the Institute scorns with indifference the other supposedly Spanish languages like Asturian-Leonese and Aragonese or displays disdain for Galician, Basque and Catalan. Of the Institute's 210,000 tuitions, for example, 207,000 correspond to Castilian, 900 to Catalan, 100 to Basque, and 100 to Galician. The vast majority of cultural events of the Institute concern the Castilian Spanish language.

Just taking a look at the website of the Institute, you can observe the smouldering supremacism of Castilian. In fact, they have not even bothered to version the website in the languages which they are supposed to promote. The logo of the Institute itself resembles the "ñ" letter that does not exist in the other "Spanish" languages. The Institute is immune to the idea reflected by Romantic writer Victor Hugo: "There is no such thing as a small country. The greatness of a people is no more affected by the number of its inhabitants than the greatness of an individual is measured by his height."

It seems that the language that needs promotion, in which you have to invest, is Castilian. The other Spanish languages can look after themselves. Why help them? Or is it, perhaps, that Castilian is superior to the other languages? Whoever starts believing that certain languages are superior to others ends up defending that some people are also superior to their peers.




Jordi Vàzquez

@JordiVazquez
Editor for Help Catalonia

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Speech by Juanjo Puigcorbé

Companions, today we are celebrating. We are celebrating that we now have a date and a question for the referendum. We are celebrating that on November 9th we will be able to decide the future of our country.

It is TRUE that it is not exactly the question that the 2 million people who filled the roads of Catalonia on September 11th this year, in one of the largest demonstrations of all time, would have liked, but it is also TRUE that an independent state is included in its binary formulation.

It is TRUE that we would have liked an earlier date, but it is also true that the date responds to a political convenience and it also has great symbolic content, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

But most important of all is that we have a date and a question, and consensus from all parliamentary parties in favour of the right to decide and who represent the vast majority of the Catalan Parliament.

Voting is the Way: on November 9th, we the Catalan people can exercise our right to choose our future as a people, in the most peaceful and democratic way there is: voting.

If the Spanish State hinders us it will be portrayed across Europe and the world as the state it is, because no Constitution is above democracy. One cannot be a Democrat and be against the right of a people to decide.

We must take into account that, if in Catalonia those who deny the right to decide are a minority, which does not reach 35% of the MPs, in the Spanish Parliament this proportion is reversed and perhaps exceeds 80%, including the PSOE (the Spanish socialist party), which has already made it known that in a hypothetical federal reform it would never accept the inclusion of the right to self-determination of Catalonia.

Mr Zapatero, who was supposed to be the most “progressive” and pro Catalan of the PSOE, and that, according to him, he was insulted in Granada by people “Shouting “Catalan” at him” a few days ago, has said that the right to decide is UNNATURAL. (Unnatural perhaps even for the episcopal conference).

On the other hand perhaps we are facing the first and last opportunity to decide on our independence. Let’s not waste this opportunity.

The Spanish State has already said that it will do all it can so that the citizens of Catalonia cannot exercise their right to vote on their future. But we should not confuse the Spanish state with the Spanish people. The Spanish people, with whom we have many ties and much affection, has suffered are suffering like us in the stranglehold of an exacting, centralizing, retrograde oligarchy, which is progressively impoverishing us.

But we Catalans have an advantage. We are united by our own language and culture, which are permanently under threat. At the same time, we have an enviable, active, strong, dynamic civil society that will make possible a change in the social and political model. Perhaps this may also be the boost that our Spanish colleagues need to get going.

We Catalans want to design our future, we want to manage our resources, and we want to continue showing solidarity with the people of Spain, but in a much more effective way. And we are in a hurry, because the most disadvantaged people are suffering as never before.

The people of my generation lived through the Spanish transition. We were young and we had the privilege of participating in the democratic reconstruction of the country. Today we have the possibility to help our youth build a new State: a freer, more progressive and caring country and therefore fairer.


We have within reach an inspiring and exiting possibility. What more do we want?

As the poet said: Everything is to be done and nothing is impossible!

Onward Catalans!

Long live Catalonia!




Juanjo Puigcorbé, Actor

Italian Version

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Brave Shakira takes a valiant stand in defence of Catalan language: Once again, a wind of liberty is blowing from across the Atlantic

Shakira, an accomplished and recognized artist with a successful career behind her, whose financial success has allowed her to engage in extensive philanthropy, may not look like the likeliest candidate to attract Spanish hate by daring to take a public stand in favour of Catalan language and culture. Given the increasingly contentious battle between renewed independence-seeking Catalonia (conquered in 1714) and undemocratic Spain, bent on destroying the former's language and culture, why bother? There is nothing to gain. Much easier to keep a low profile, and avoid delving into treacherous waters. This is just what many artists have long been doing, looking the other way while Spain tried to destroy Catalan language. Just this week, a Spanish judge deprived a mother of custody over her child because she was a Catalan-speaker. Also this week, Spain's deputy minister for education said that Spanish would be reimposed as the language of instruction in schools “whether they like it or not”.

Fortunately, not everybody is seeking peace in our time with Spanish nationalists. Not everybody is ready to surrender, or even better avoid a fight in the first place. Not everybody is following the simple expedient of pretending no conflict is taking place between a 1,000-year-old nation struggling to survive and recover freedom and a fanatical regime ready to grab a child from her mother's arms to prevent her from being raised in Catalan. There is a growing number of brave souls ready to take up arms in the defence of democracy and liberty, and when a language is being targeted, what better weapon is there than employing that same language to sing, and even better to sing to a world-wide audience?



This is indeed what Shakira has done, by including a Catalan-language song, “Boig per tu” (meaning “Crazy for you”, one of the best-known Catalan pop songs, by a band called Sau) in her latest album. With her valiant gesture, Shakira has put Catalan on the world map. With her brave action, Shakira has made it impossible for the Spanish regime to hide its genocidal intention to stamp out this language for ever.



Like a wounded beast, Spanish nationalists have reacted furiously at the news, bombarding Shakira with a wide range of insults in the social media. Spanish regime figures may have avoided displaying so openly their true feelings, but there is little doubt that they are fuming. Just when they were trying to eradicate Catalan from schools, and while their politically-appointed judges sitting in kangaroo courts were threatening parents daring to speak Catalan at home, one of the world's top artists seizes the initiative and takes Catalan to to the world stage. Their strategy in tatters, their attempted cultural genocide exposed, the victim of their hate propelled to the world's music charts, insults is all they have left, as they lay impotent, seeing their dark dreams wither away.



Once again, when democracy and liberty are in danger in the Old Continent, the New World is coming to our aid. Once again, in Percy Shelley's words, a West Wind is blowing across the Atlantic. Once again this wind will prevail, defeating the forces of evil. This time the West Wind is carrying the sweet voice of Shakira, singing in a language under attack, and once again, in Sheley's words, it is “The trumpet of a prophecy! O, Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?”

Alex Calvo

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The Catalan version of Wikipedia breaks records

Viquipèdia, the Catalan version of Wikipedia, has broken its record number of visits for the second month in a row. In the newspaper Periódico de Catalunya Ignasi Fortuny gives the data collected by Amical Wikimedia. “In September, 33,7 million pages were visited, and the figure went up to 45,9 million visits in October”.


What’s more, in Global Voices Violeta Camarasa tells us how, in the “Open Science” congress that took place at Vrije Universiteit Brussel on October 24th 2013, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales quoted Viquipèdia as an example of success. If you want to see it on YouTube, here’s the moment when he praises Viquipèdia’s efforts.








On the site his words are transcribed by Viquipèdia editor Arnau Duran:


“…in some of our small language Wikipedias we have very active communities, and there’s maybe only a few people there, but they are very passionate about their mother tongue and they really want to do the work and so they work really hard. If we have a look at some of the larger minor languages of Europe, like Catalan is a good example... Catalan Wikipedia is far larger than you would have guessed from the number of people who are speaking Catalan. And it is because the Catalan people are quite passionate about their language, which has been historically under threat.”


From Estudis d’Arts i Humanitats and the Càtedra de Multilingüisme we would like to congratulate everyone who works for Viquipèdia, almost the oldest Wikipedia in the world, to keep its present incredibly high quality and coverage, with more than 400.000 articles!


But now we must get people to use it more and more, since some critics point out that journalists working for Catalan media tend to use versions in other languages rather than the Catalan one.


According to Wikimedia Catalan is the 85th language in the world in number of speakers, but it goes up to number 37 if we look at the relative number of editors per speaker, and even higher –to number 17 in the world– in number of articles. It goes back down to world’s 30th in visits per hour. And this last figure is the one we all must work to improve. We hope the links in this article will help.

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Catalan literature to be guest of honor at prestigious book fair in Nordic countries

Catalan literature is going to be the guest of honor on the upcoming 2014 Göteborg Book Fair, the most prestigious literary event held in the Nordic countries. On the same week the Paris Book Fair will take place with Barcelona as the guest of honor. Under the umbrella denomination of Voices from Catalonia, eight Catalan writers translated into Swedish and other Nordic languages will participate at the Göteborg Book Fair. With the sight set at 2015, the Ramon Llull Institute is also working on the illustrated children’s and young’s literature to be the honor guest at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair.

The Deputy Director of the Ramon Llull Institute  (IRL), Àlex Susanna, has announced they are working on being invited to some of the big annual literature book fairs so they can project efficiently the Catalan literature heritage from both the past and the present, which has a “huge potential”. In 2012, Catalan literature was the guest of honor at the Québec Book Fair.

As a preparation for this event, next June, eight Swedish editors and translators will visit Barcelona to establish contacts with book publishers, editors, authors, and literary critics. They will be immersed in Catalan literature and will make their proposals for the 2014 event. On this occasion, the focus will only be on authors writing in Catalan language. Mr. Susanna says that it is of paramount relevance for Catalan authors to be known in the Nordic countries, especially in Sweden.

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Gaudí, the most original Catalan architect

Gaudí has been a cry for originality in his personal and genuine works, with a personal style that has deserved the title of key figure in the architecture of all time- and when we mention Modernism the name Gaudí is without a doubt always implicit in the word.

Gaudí was very well connected with the Catalan bourgeoisie, especially with Eusebi Güell, since under the shelter of his sponsorship the artist was able to realize his ideas. He was a profound and deeply religious man, and throughout his life he displayed a strict civic commitment and a great love for his land "Catalonia".

His architecture is inspired by the styles of the past such as Arabic, Gothic and Baroque, which he captures making them his own in a very original way. His creation never hesitates to plunge into the nature and the light of the Mediterranean in order to find his own inspiration.

Gaudí's architecture recreates the use of curves and dynamic forms from the Gothic, which excelled by the application of artisan decorative techniques in stained glass and iron forges, as well as by the treatment of mosaics and colourful ceramic fragments.

When Gaudí was hit by a tram and died that afternoon of June 7th 1926 he was an architect known for his innovative creations. But he was not fully accepted, as detractors failed to understand the audacity of the artist's conception of his own art and the boldness of his technical construction.

What remains to note is that in this great artist's life there was a strong ideological commitment to nationhood in terms of Catalan identity. There are stories that are very typical of Gaudí and which are the proof of this stance such as

when Miguel de Unamuno visited the works of the Sagrada Família and he asked the poet Joan Maragall to be his interpreter in view of Gaudí's reluctance to speak Spanish.

Another example would be when the 11th September 1924, under the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, the architect was arrested for going to a mass held at the Church of St. Just in memory of the fallen patriots after the devastation of 1714. As the mass was being held in Catalan he was prevented from going into the church and he was forced to pay a fine of 50 pesetas.

He uttered these words after this incident, which prophesied a future in which unfortunately we still find ourselves: "when I remember what happened to me I worry that we're heading for a dead end, and ultimately a radical change will be necessary".

Gaudi died five years before 14th April 1931, day of the proclamation of the Catalan Republic.

This collection of experiences shows an artist with a strong ideological commitment to national identity.

Creatively, his work exudes Catalonia everywhere, from the projection of its buildings to the ornate details expressing a clearly Catalan aesthetic sense.

Montse Solé and Montse Olivé
@salmadonart.

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The actor Juan Diego, from Madrid, has set the web alight with an open letter criticising the Spanish government and showing support for Catalan independence

In the case of Catalonia, it is not always only misunderstandings and accusations that come from Spain. There are also people in the rest of the state who understand the Catalan situation and defend not only the right to decide of the Catalans, but also independence. This is the case for the well-known Spanish actor Juan Diego, who in the last few days has seen his name spread across the web. The reason for this being an open letter he wrote on his blog "Spanien Kaputt" in which he expresses his sadness at the conflict between Catalonia and Spain. Diego criticized Rajoy's government for answering “no” for so many years. “No” to everything, to sitting down to talk, to improving funding, to a better redistribution of solidarity funding and now to the referendum, and justifies Catalonia's right to independence in response to the continuous mistreatment received from the Spanish government. "I am not Catalan, I am from Madrid, and it saddens me to say that I understand that to carry on like this, it is best being alone. I would not want to remain where I am not appreciated either”.


The letter, which has gone viral online and has been reported across all media and blogs, has received a lot of praise from Catalonia, where the courage of Joan Diego, a prominent figure from Madrid, is admired for turning his back on the status quo. However, it has also led to staunch criticism from Spanish citizens who cannot tolerate anyone who is not Catalan supporting the cause for independence.


The casual candour and clarity of Juan Diego, presenting his point of view with solid arguments that even go against his own feelings, and avoiding the repetitive topics launched by Spanish Unionists, is a representative sample of a particular way of thinking, apparently of a minority in Spain, but that exists nonetheless, and it proves that Catalan independence also has supporters (often silenced and hidden) on the other side of the river Ebro.

Juan Diego

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Interview with Jordi Vàzquez, Help Catalonia’s editor

His name may not be known to most people, though very often most of us do read what he spreads in five languages beyond our borders. Jordi Vàzquez (Barcelona, 1971) is Help Catalonia’s editor, a volunteer-run website started in 2010 by six people interested in making Catalonia’s struggle for independence be known in English-speaking countries. From a Twitter account, they have become a digital outlet which explains Catalonia’s case in several languages, including English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Surely you may have already heard of it!

-Who is behind Help Catalonia?
Large amounts of selfless work. We have over 60 volunteers now.

-Are you backed by a political party?
Nope. We refuse support from any political party of any denomination. We support ourselves as an inclusive group of Catalans seeking independence, but we don’t accept any external political or financial support. That means, obviously, we have our own limitations. With some financial support we could strengthen our message and international campaigns. We will consider the possibility of getting some crowdfunding.

-What attracts international press attention on the Catalan process?
All those bizarre threats coming from Spain. Spain’s attempt at banning a referendum on independence is really shocking to them because such a thing has not happened in Western Europe in the last half century. Some people in Spain’s government are even in favor of using violence —like the statements by Spanish EUP Vice-president Vidal-Quadras show— and some are in favor of language displacement, while some freely ask for a military intervention of Catalonia. As a couple of examples, Guillem Agulló was murdered by a group of Spanish fascists in 1993, with no consequences to the perpetrators; also, the Spanish Constitutional Court curtailed the Catalan Statute of Autonomy which had been previously approved by a referendum in Catalonia. However, international observers are not that interested in learning about Catalonia receiving an unfair economic treatment due to fiscal plundering. Actually, most international media think that this was precisely what triggered the conflict at the start of the economic recession.

-Why are they not interested in talking about the fiscal inequality?
Maybe because they don’t think of it as a good enough reason for political secession. Though being now quite serious, it is neither the only nor the main reason to understand the everlasting conflict between Spain and Catalonia—of course!

-Are you in touch with all foreign correspondents sending news from Madrid?
Not as much as we should. They are not, in general, interested in listening to both sides of the story. A lot of courage is needed to write from Madrid about Catalonia and especially when, as it very often happens, the message from the Spanish press is so obviously unanimous. Their articles reflect what they read or even, sometimes, what they just translate. Getting to know them better as to have some influence in their opinions is not an easy task. Anyway, on Catalonia’s National Day we met with several foreign press teams that have already gotten in touch with us.

-Do you feel you have already won any battles?
Yes, surely the battle on terminology. We succeeded in introducing some essential words that have been well accepted abroad and are now being used in foreign newspapers such as “unionism,” “bullying” and “oppression” as synonyms of Spanish terrorism.

-What countries or regions are most favorable /sympathetic to Catalonia?
Especially Gibraltar which is, for historical reasons, sort of a bridge to the UK for us. Among the most favorable I would also mention Scotland, Ireland, Kosovo, Poland, and the USA ─where Spanish nationalism does not have a good reputation and many states do not accept Spanish as a second official language. Catalans are increasingly getting more demonstrations of support.

-Has the Spanish taken all of this seriously?
Underestimating the enemy is always a big mistake, let alone when it is powerful enough and able to spend, for example, €25M to buy just a couple of state of the art fighting helicopters which, by the way, Germans are not happy about. This is a David vs. Goliath type of battle, though we don’t need such heavy weapons to knock out the adversary because they are far too proud to look for any international involvements, the Spanish diplomacy being so arrogant. We have a potential ally wherever Spain has a foe. And not a few ones!

-Are you being watched by the Spanish intelligence service?
We do take our precautions to avoid being affected by having them spying on us. Besides, Help Catalonia was set up outside the Kingdom of Spain and would therefore be able to keep operating in case Catalonia were to be occupied by the Spanish army.

-How can Help Catalonia get any citizen’s help?
We have a confidentiality-friendly form on our website that anyone can use to enter their basic info and tell us about what they can do so we can determine the type of work they may best suited for.

-Did Twitter and other digital platforms give visibility to a silent struggle?
Absolutely, digital platforms are having a key role in our process.

-Therefore, the first 2.0 pro-independence process might be Catalonia’s?
Interesting idea, that’s a nice way to put it! Certainly the 2.0 digital technology has blown up the conventional ways of all classical political organizations. In Catalonia, unlike in to Scotland, there many informal or not coordinated pro-independence groups that are taking advantage of social networks.

-What areas are still left to be explored?
Large international campaigns to capture more attention to our process. We need worldwide actions that might garner support—big demonstrations and human chains are not enough. Our motto is “making friends worldwide.” By this we mean getting all the necessary support for when independence finally happens. Civil diplomacy is our main objective, because the Catalan pro-independence movement, historically either too proud or too shy, has failed to build strong support abroad from friends and allies.

Author: Meritxell Doncel (@m_doncel) / journalist and lawyer

Catalan

Spanish

Italian

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Catalan language refused at Court in Barcelona

Barcelona Labour Law Court 11 rejected a petition made by lawyer Miquel Prats to the use of the Catalan language in a legal hearing, as per current law allowing free choice of language to be used legal proceedings.

Catalan newspaper El Punt Avui reported the lawyer’s petition was rejected in a court clerk's writ issued on 13th October. The writ denied the lawyer's right, basing the refusal on the fact that “Spanish is the only common and official language throughout the whole State territory”. But confusingly, it was also states that this is “without prejudice to the right of the parties to use other recognized co-official languages.”

The newspaper reported that after having been served the writ, Mr. Prats sent a formal objection to the governing body of the Superior Court of Catalonia (TSJC) in which he recalls the current legal dispositions and jurisprudence, including a TSJC ruling on the issue which would support his objection.

Catalan citizens are thus once again being discriminated against, even in their own land and by the administration of justice, just because they speak a different language.

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