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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/21/catalonia-tales-in-favour-independence
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| Version 2 | Version 3 |
|---|---|
| Catalonia tales: 'I think we have waited long enough and it's time to move forward' | Catalonia tales: 'I think we have waited long enough and it's time to move forward' |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| Dolors Selis | Dolors Selis |
| The independence movement has not just emerged from the financial situation we are in right now. For many of us it comes from long ago. I was pro-independence even when I did not know my feelings had this name. In my case, as it must be for many other people, it has to do with culture and way of life and thinking. I have never felt any ties to Spanish culture. For me, the Giralda in Sevilla or the Cibeles or the Museum of Prado in Madrid are as admirable or beautiful as any other monument elsewhere in the world. I can admire their beauty but I do not feel them as mine. I have many friends living in Spain, but I do not feel they are my friends because they are Spaniards. They are my friends because I like them as individuals. I am a Catalan, and this is the only nationality I want to be anywhere in the world, and I want it without having to show my reasons for being a Catalan and not any other nationality. In other words, I want to be normal. If I were living with a husband or a partner and I found no reasons for remaining together I would end the situation, regardless of the reasons leading to such a feeling. With Spain it is the same. If there is a majority not seeing a reason for keeping the ties with Spain and there is a feeling that we are not treated as we deserve, if both parties are civilised people and the decision is clear, the best thing is to live apart, and independently. This is exactly I want. I do not want to separate from Spain because I don't like being a Spaniard, but because I like the idea of having the chance of being who I am and not having to give explanations for that. Just as many other people in the world do. | The independence movement has not just emerged from the financial situation we are in right now. For many of us it comes from long ago. I was pro-independence even when I did not know my feelings had this name. In my case, as it must be for many other people, it has to do with culture and way of life and thinking. I have never felt any ties to Spanish culture. For me, the Giralda in Sevilla or the Cibeles or the Museum of Prado in Madrid are as admirable or beautiful as any other monument elsewhere in the world. I can admire their beauty but I do not feel them as mine. I have many friends living in Spain, but I do not feel they are my friends because they are Spaniards. They are my friends because I like them as individuals. I am a Catalan, and this is the only nationality I want to be anywhere in the world, and I want it without having to show my reasons for being a Catalan and not any other nationality. In other words, I want to be normal. If I were living with a husband or a partner and I found no reasons for remaining together I would end the situation, regardless of the reasons leading to such a feeling. With Spain it is the same. If there is a majority not seeing a reason for keeping the ties with Spain and there is a feeling that we are not treated as we deserve, if both parties are civilised people and the decision is clear, the best thing is to live apart, and independently. This is exactly I want. I do not want to separate from Spain because I don't like being a Spaniard, but because I like the idea of having the chance of being who I am and not having to give explanations for that. Just as many other people in the world do. |
| Janira Tor | Janira Tor |
| Seeing the Catalan flag and the Catalan independent flag on Catalan balconies anywhere you go is a sight many of us would not have believed even a year ago. Most will not be taken out until Catalonia is independent. And I hope it is sooner rather than later. In any case, it is worth the waiting – the discussions, the arguments, and even the current economic crisis, because we have finally realised that it is in our common interest to decide by ourselves what we want to be. Is it fair to deny this option? Who is entitled to deny this right to us? Would the European Union or the United Nations really not back us? I am not sure, because we will show that we are a people of peace, compromise, rich in values, ready to work harder, ready for the freedom we have waited for for the last 300 years. I think we have waited enough, and it is time to move forward. It makes me remember when I told my parents I wanted to live on my own when I was 22 and I went to England to study for my Masters. It was hard for them to let me go. I was their little daughter who was growing up and wanted to live her life. Have I stopped visiting them? Spending Christmas with them? Sharing Sunday lunches with them? The answer is no. Then, what I ask, and I can say that it is shared by most Catalans, is let us live our lives. We are old enough and we know what we want. | Seeing the Catalan flag and the Catalan independent flag on Catalan balconies anywhere you go is a sight many of us would not have believed even a year ago. Most will not be taken out until Catalonia is independent. And I hope it is sooner rather than later. In any case, it is worth the waiting – the discussions, the arguments, and even the current economic crisis, because we have finally realised that it is in our common interest to decide by ourselves what we want to be. Is it fair to deny this option? Who is entitled to deny this right to us? Would the European Union or the United Nations really not back us? I am not sure, because we will show that we are a people of peace, compromise, rich in values, ready to work harder, ready for the freedom we have waited for for the last 300 years. I think we have waited enough, and it is time to move forward. It makes me remember when I told my parents I wanted to live on my own when I was 22 and I went to England to study for my Masters. It was hard for them to let me go. I was their little daughter who was growing up and wanted to live her life. Have I stopped visiting them? Spending Christmas with them? Sharing Sunday lunches with them? The answer is no. Then, what I ask, and I can say that it is shared by most Catalans, is let us live our lives. We are old enough and we know what we want. |
| Miquel "Mike" Hostench (director of the Sitges international film festival) | Miquel "Mike" Hostench (director of the Sitges international film festival) |
| This storm has been brewing for years now, and the signs were there for those who wanted to see. Not the Spanish government and media, who mostly analysed the multiple reasons that led to the current situation from purely political and economic angles. These are true, and part of the equation. But from my personal experience, there were also other, perhaps more telling signs. First, acquaintances with unionist and pro-Spanish politics started to need to explain themselves as Spaniards. You only have a compulsion to do that when you feel part of a minority, and insecure about your own significance and how you are perceived. Second, foreigners visiting the country started to ask about Catalonia beyond the classical and inevitable soccer talk and sweet words about Barça. They used to react in awe when they heard Catalans had a different language, a 1,000-year history and so on. Now it's foreigners who are eager to bring up the subject of independence. Third, the freak factor. Catalan nationalist intelligentsia always used to be made up of mostly low-profile intellectuals. The movement lacked a star-system that would appeal to a broader base. Now the funkiest elements of our society express publicly (and in some cases loudly) their separatist ideas. I am talking about wacky late-night TV guests, pseudo-celebrities, porn starlets-cum-commentators, and other extravagant but popular individuals. We finally have our own freak star system, an odd but reliable sign that a society is becoming normal. Finally, the media from Madrid always thought Catalan nationalism mere opportunism, created to obtain economic benefits from central government. Madrid journalists felt that when Catalan politicians really had to walk the talk, their ideas would dissolve. President Artur Mas i Gavarró saying in Madrid, "Catalonia needs the structure of a state" has turned him into a dangerous messiah in the eyes of the very people who 24 hours before saw him as a blackmailer and opportunist. I believe that the time of self-determination has come for Catalonia. Quoting Victor Hugo: "Not all the armies in the world can stop an idea whose time has come." And no intellectually honest man could deny this applies perfectly to present-day Catalonia. | This storm has been brewing for years now, and the signs were there for those who wanted to see. Not the Spanish government and media, who mostly analysed the multiple reasons that led to the current situation from purely political and economic angles. These are true, and part of the equation. But from my personal experience, there were also other, perhaps more telling signs. First, acquaintances with unionist and pro-Spanish politics started to need to explain themselves as Spaniards. You only have a compulsion to do that when you feel part of a minority, and insecure about your own significance and how you are perceived. Second, foreigners visiting the country started to ask about Catalonia beyond the classical and inevitable soccer talk and sweet words about Barça. They used to react in awe when they heard Catalans had a different language, a 1,000-year history and so on. Now it's foreigners who are eager to bring up the subject of independence. Third, the freak factor. Catalan nationalist intelligentsia always used to be made up of mostly low-profile intellectuals. The movement lacked a star-system that would appeal to a broader base. Now the funkiest elements of our society express publicly (and in some cases loudly) their separatist ideas. I am talking about wacky late-night TV guests, pseudo-celebrities, porn starlets-cum-commentators, and other extravagant but popular individuals. We finally have our own freak star system, an odd but reliable sign that a society is becoming normal. Finally, the media from Madrid always thought Catalan nationalism mere opportunism, created to obtain economic benefits from central government. Madrid journalists felt that when Catalan politicians really had to walk the talk, their ideas would dissolve. President Artur Mas i Gavarró saying in Madrid, "Catalonia needs the structure of a state" has turned him into a dangerous messiah in the eyes of the very people who 24 hours before saw him as a blackmailer and opportunist. I believe that the time of self-determination has come for Catalonia. Quoting Victor Hugo: "Not all the armies in the world can stop an idea whose time has come." And no intellectually honest man could deny this applies perfectly to present-day Catalonia. |
| • If you have a story to tell, know someone Jon should talk to or live somewhere you think he should visit, please contact him via email at jon.henley@guardian.co.uk, or Twitter @jonhenley (the hashtag for this journey is #CataloniaTales) | • If you have a story to tell, know someone Jon should talk to or live somewhere you think he should visit, please contact him via email at jon.henley@guardian.co.uk, or Twitter @jonhenley (the hashtag for this journey is #CataloniaTales) |
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