FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK                                                   

          As we have done from time to time, we want to share with you today an interesting editorial that appeared in EL TEMPS last November. It is still  valid today. Here it is:
 
         “The end of the Spanish Civil War happened more than sixty years ago. And it was almost twenty-five years ago that the Spanish constitution was approved. Until last week, no public institution had made even the smallest intent to remember and pay tribute to the people who had to leave their country because of the Francoist dictatorship’s repression. On Thursday, the 14th November 2002, the Catalan Parliament broke that shameful institutional silence with a vibrant tribute to the men and women who had to flee, both  during and after the 1936 war. Old exiles and their descendants were there as honored guests. It was a plenary session of the Parliament where the diverse political parties remembered this episode of our history.

          The fact that so many years had to pass before an institutional tribute was paid to the exiles can only be explained by the abnormality of the genesis of democracy in the Spanish state. It is not accidental, either, that the silence was broken by an institution like the Catalan Parliament. The Generalitat of Catalonia and the Catalan Parliament are practically the only public institutions of the state to acknowledge themselves as inheritors of the republican institutions. Perhaps this is the key of the oblivion into which these persons had been left.

          The exiled men and women, then, paradoxically became the only living link with the Republic that Francoism was not able to liquidate. They were the people who fled while being citizens of a state with legitimate institutions  liquidated by Franco’s  fascist totalitarianism. With the transition process, the legality that was crushed and destroyed by forty years of dictatorship was not recovered: new institutions by the direct heirs of the Francoist regime were accepted by almost all the political forces. Therefore, those people who were in direct line with the republican legitimacy were not only a hindrance, they could not be acknowledged in any way by the institutions of a Spanish State that had not broken it off with the dark and long immediate past.

          This sad deliberate oblivion is even more shameful  in a State that aims to present itself as a model of democratic transition, specially for countries of the so-called Hispano-American continent. The willing self-deception has even reached the point of concealing the virulence that during the transition caused a number of deaths, due to the tensions between those who were against a change of regime and those who wanted a break.

          After so many years of silence and deceptions, some people have begun to raise their voices to claim the right to acknowledge a traumatic past  hidden by those who made a pact for the transition. Several ideas have been appearing to write again the history that both  the Francoism and the transition have left unmentioned. Memories of those who  suffered are now beginning to come out from the fall into oblivion through books, newspaper reports, exhibits, or social activities still colliding with the morality of the Civil War winners, as it happened with the Comissió de la Dignitat in the case of the Salamanca papers.
 
         In a recent article, that can be read in the news portal www.tribunacatalana.org, the New York Times accused José María Aznar of not willing to fight against the systematic concealing of Francoism’s crimes. The article explains that this is not surprising because Aznar grew up among Francoist politicians with connections to that regime. The article also mentions the help given by the Ministry of Culture to the Francisco Franco Foundation. This is international evidence,  but the sad truth is that no Spanish government, whatever its color, has ever remembered its exiled people.

                           

THE CATALAN VICTORY OF  1705
CHAPTER XVI
(continued)

THE OPPOSED FORCES

          It has already been mentioned that the castle’s commander was the marquis of Caracciolo, a Neapolitan military man in whom Velasco had put his trust. We will have the name of his officers later, when we deal with the relation of prisoniers. He had  three hundred men under his command, almost all of them Neapolitan. During the battle some city forces fought from inside the city. They were the dragoons, who withdrew later on.

          The allied troops, going to take part on the attack, were decided in the meeting that took place on the 13th in prince George’s headquarters. Peterborough was there. The only other man present  was colonel Richards. The prince promised  that if the attack was unsuccessful  he would accept any idea proposed by Peterborough. To attack Montjuïc was, for the prince, the decisive key  of all the future operations.

          The prince decided which officers would command the columns. There would be two columns. The first was to be formed  by four hundred English and Irish grenadiers, commanded by colonel Southwell and belonging to the Rivers’ regiment. Prince George had belonged to that same regiment during the 1690 – 92 campaign. Thirteen years later, however, very few of the officers he had personally known would probably still be there. That does not mean that there was no sentimental bond between the prince and that military unit. Among military men this kind of bond is very strong. The grenadiers would be aided by six-hundred musketeers – four hundred of them were English, one hundred were Dutch and one hundred were Catalan. They were commanded by lieutenant-colonel Thomas Allen of the Gorges regiment, helped by Ambrose Edgeworth, lieutenant-colonel of the same regiment. A small detachment went with them, carrying ladders, ropes, and reserve ammunition. The commander of that mixed column was brigadier lord Charlemont, who was on duty that day.

          The reserve column under brigadier Stanhope was formed  by three hundred  dragoons or cavalry soldiers who would later dismount and fight on foot, and one thousand infantry men. This column was to stop the reinforcements that might be sent to the castle by those inside Barcelona. The Catalan troops were near this column, camping in Creucoberta. They were one thousand men, commanded by the militia general Antoni de Peguera. We know the names of the officers of that unit through the list of salary payments of the English payer Vicent. They are: Pere and Esteve Goi, Miquel Roas, Joan B. Loella, Lluís Trillàs, Raimon Puig i Sorribas, Joan Clavé i Pera, Jaume Birolà, Francesc Artigues, Manuel Moliner i Rau, Joan Audet, Pere Tous, Antoni Comas, Pere Antoni Boadella, Felip Vidal, Pere Paget, Bernat Esteve, Josep Sanahuja, Josep Fontanelles, Pau Claporelles, Josep Comes i Pla.  The superior leaders of this unit were the Vic people already mentioned. I think that the one hundred Catalans that were in the first column were some of those who came from Gibraltar and formed a kind of prince George’s special force.

         Every group had some guides. Peterborough had captain Ignasi Bernades and another man. The prince had three guides, one of them being doctor Caselles. Stanhope had teo guides.

         In spite of Castellví’s opinion, it is more likely what Parnell says. He presents Peterborough rather free to move as the head of the whole group and not as head of one of the columns.

          We will give the names of some of the Dutch men when we look at the letter from  admiral Van Almonde.

THE MARCH TO THE CASTLE

          Because of both the negative feeling about attacking the city and the need to get ready to march towards Tarragona, the troops were relatively crowded together in the camp of Sant Martí de Provençals. One can imagine how that agglomeration of forces  was seen by the defenders inside the city. The news those days show gladness among Velasco’s officers. And sorrow, anxiety , and fear of being abandoned among the leaders from Vic. Burnet writes that the latter were constantly between hope and fear.
          Between three and four p.m. of the 13th, the troops that were to participate in the action began to move in two groups. One group was headed by Charlemont, the other by Stanhope. Between 5 and 6 p.m. they stoped in Sarrià.  There, when the troops were resting, Peterborough and George of Hessen-Darmstadt got together with them. It was decided that Stanhope would stay at Creucoberta, and that the one thousand Catalans that were to leave the camp at twelve midnight would get together there with Stanhope’s troops. The duty of those reserve forces was to help the attacking group and prevent the city to help those in the castle. Although it was already very dark, to prevent those in the city to see the movement, the first column, divided into two groups made believe that it was going to Hospitalet, with the idea of coming back at night and, passing near the chapel of the Virgin of the Port going up the mountain, in order to be able to go near the castle without being seen. However, the column that went with prince George taking the way around the convent of Santa Madrona, was seen at once by the scouts of colonel Manegat’s miquelets, who were in those parts of the mountain protecting the flank of the action that Velasco was directing to the castle at that moment.

         The Charlemont and Southwell’s column reached the attacking point relatively rested. It was not so for the other column, which had to change directions several times because of the errors of its guides. They reached  the base of the castle when it was almost daylight, having walked more than twenty kilometers  carrying all the ammunition and the necessary tools to assault the ramparts. All the sources assert that the soldiers were exhausted and very thirsty.
 
THE FIRST ATTACK

         Commander Caracciolo and his officers knew that the attack  was to begin very early on that same day,  and Manegat’s miquelets had informed them about the movements of the eastern column. The defense was organized planning to abandon the outer fortifications at once since, as Parnell says, the grounds there were not  reliable and offered advantages to the attackers. And if they were to lose many men it would be difficult to make the attackers retreat. On the other hand, the inner trench was deep and both the glacis and the scarp were well cared for. 
          Since they could not see any sign showing that those inside were ready to come to rheir side, they had to make a frontal attack . The prince told Southwell to attack with the grenadiers , who assaulted the exterior wall of soil and loose stones. The defenders retreated, after answering with a firing of musketry. Charlemont’s men joined the grenadiers then, and with them the prince and his men. The detachment carrying ladders and ropes threw those to the trench for the counterscarp. Grenadiers and fusiliers were able to descend easily to the trench and tried to go up the inner walls. But the ladders were too short. The prince encouraged  the men and a part of the wall was taken. The body-guard force of the prince, formed by Catalans, were for a moment on the Sant Pere Màrtir bastion. But the position of the castle’s defenders was much better. From the tower and from the four-sided redoubt, which were higher than the attackers’ position, the defenders could easily shoot at the latter. There were several cassualties and the attackers had to retreat.

THE DEATH OF THE PRINCE
 
          According to captain Wassenaer, the allies were looking from the ships in the harbor “to see how men were trying to help the castle’s garrison by attacking the assailants from behind.” The marquis of Risburg and the Neapolitan count De la Rivera were sent with one hundred horsemen, each of them carrying another soldier behind the rider, and with three hundred grenadiers. They went out through the Portal of Sant Jaume, leaving Stanhope’s expeditionary corps very crestfallen watching the Portal of Sant Antony.

          Prince George, who was between the castle and the city, saw the danger coming from that side. He went to stop them with his brother Henry and with Charlemont. And in order to do that he tried to take over the small fort that stood on the middle of the covered way which was used by the enemy to go up.

          At that moment Peterborough, who had come near the scene of the attack, saw the dangerous situation of the troops surrounding the prince. He then went at full gallop to find Stanhope’s column, who was still rooted on the same spot  due to a cavalry column sent by Velasco to keep him away from the place where things were happening.
          The situation of the group surrounding the prince was difficult, since they were placed between the fire coming from the castle and the fire coming from  those coming up. There are several versions about the way the two different sides got together. Some say that those going up were Irish and spoke in English, and that was the reason  why Charlemont’s men let themselves be caught. Other people say that the prince’s soldiers shouted  “Long live Charles III” and that, in the middle of all the noise , the castle’s men answered with a shout that the prince’s men believed to be the same they had said, according to their idea of the garrison’s betrayal, and therefore they were caught. I do not think that we need to look for this kind of explanations that appeared later to clarify the confusion of those moments. The arrival of six hundred men on one side and the forces inside the castle on the other side were enough to bring to the castle’s portal the troops that were attacking from the valleys and to take them as prisoners.

          In the middle of all this confusion a bullet wounded the prince’s thigh, cutting his cava vein. Some chronicle says that he was wounded on his knee, in the same place he had been wounded during his Irish campaign. But all the Dutch sources refer to his thigh and to the cava vein.. He made himself a knot with his handkerchief and tried to walk, but after a couple of steps he fell down.

          Castellví says that the prince fell on the arms of his aide Leopold Erik de Fortinez, basing his words on the memoirs written by the latter. According to those memoirs the prince was taken to the home of Maria la Pastelera, a house in the middle of the mountain way, and he died there a couple of hours later.

          A lot of the allied troops felt that they were being cornered by the forces coming up against the castle’s trenches and began to run away without listening to the shouts of prince Henry of Hessen-Darmstadt, of Southwell, and of Charlemont. These men wanted the soldiers to go back to their initial  positions, but the soldiers did not obey. It seems that, in a moment of panic, even Charlemont ran away with his men.

           A great number of allied troops were taken: two hundred and eighty-three men. In this group there were English, Dutch, and Catalan men.

PETERBOROUGH TAKES CHARGE OF THE SITUATION  

          Colonel Riutort, who was with prince George when the latter was wounded, understood the importance of what had happened and spurred on his horse to be able to catch Peterborough, who was going to Santa Madrona to move  Stanhope’s troops.

          Captain Carleton, in his apocryphal report, says that he was the one to have the honor of this action, but this is only one of  many falsifications.

          Peterborough arrived on a very critical moment. The castle had been reinforced with the arrival of the marquis of Risbourg's  troops. Since there were too many men in the castle’s reduced space,  Velasco ordered to go back to the city the following night.

	In the middle of the allies’ confusion, lieutenant colonel Joseph Clauser, a Flamand, went back to the city to say that the troops had entered the castle and had taken some prisoners.

          The defense of those besieged in the castle was easy then with the arrival of so many forces, and the positions that had been conquered by Charlemont’s and Southwell’s men were soon lost.

          Caracciolo was busy taking care of things inside of the castle, which was full with the garrison men, those who had come from the city, and the almost three hundred allied prisoners. At that moment, there was no need of thinking to persecute those who were at the mountain.

          On this point there is a tradition that would explain why there was no persecution. They say that some of the Catalan prisoniers that had belonged to the group of  prince George’s men, were talking and one of them exclaimed something like “Poor prince George!”. This was heard by one of Caracciolo’s officers and people began to make their own surmises. When the commander of the castle was told that the prince had personally taken part in the attacks  and that Peterborough was also comming, he was convinced that the attack had not ended and that it was going to be a very serious one. Therefore it seemed to be better, at the moment, to be prepared to stop a new attack than to spend their energy chasing the enemy troops right then.

          The arrival of Clauser in the city brought animation and cheerfulness to Velasco’s men. The Council of the Hundred sent him two messengers to congratulate him for that morning’s victory. At the same time they asked again to be allowed to form the Coronela. But the good words of Joan Magí Barrera and Anton de Cortès were not  convincing enough to change Velasco’s mind. The latter simply said that he had no doubts about the city’s loyalty and conscientiousness, and that he believed that this was going to be the last attack that the enemy would direct against the city. He apologized for not having informed the commons, saying that he hoped that  the allied  fleet  would leave quite soon. This coincides with Castellví, who writes that prince George had known that the viceroy knew the decisions of the allies’ councils of war.The retreat had been planned and had alsmost begun.

          Velasco was not far from the truth. He believed he could play with the Catalan  authorities that would possibly be abandoned quite soon by the allies, on whom they could have relied. Nothing doing about forming the Coronela or taking part in the city’s defence. The city only served to give food and services to the army  that had taken over the city.

          The Council of the Hundred discussed these answers and decided to send to Caracciolo, the castle’s commander, and to his garrison a cow, twelve ewes, a load of brandy and all the bread just baked in the city at ten in the morning. All would be taken to the customs house to be carried up to the castle, But things happened in a very different way.

          Peterborough appeared in a glorious way that nobody could have imagined. Together with Stanhope’s, Southwell’s, and Charlemont’s troops, he again attacked the castle. With a terrible fury he took the outer walls, part of the inner ones, and the bastion called Llengua de Serp (Snake’s Tongue), and the building called Ferreria located inside the inner fortified area.

 
                                                                                                             Antoni Porta

(to be continued)

To the interested reader: LA VICTÒRIA CATALANA DE 1705 by Dr. Antoni Porta can be ordered from  
Clara Prat
Sant Pau 16
08340 Vilassar de Mar.Barcelona, Spain
Price: $20, postage and handling included. Sent check or money order with your order. Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery          

CATALUNYA ACUSA

	“Catalunya vol adjuntar la seva veu a les acusacions que s’estan fent contra el dictador Franco com a causa de fricció internacional i com una amenaça per la pau mundial.” (Text original:”Catalonia wishes to add her voice to the charges that are being made against Dictator Franco as a cause for international friction and threat to world peace”. ) Així iniciaven, els catalans de Nova York, el llarg document d’acusació que el 14 de maig de 1946 adreçaven al Secretari de les Nacions Unides en nom de Catalunya en tant que Nació oprimida. Signaven Josep Carner i Ribalta i Josep Maria Fontanals, els mateixos que havien promogut la famosa Apel.lació de 1945 i que el 23 de març d’aquell mateix 1946 hi havien adreçat una nova nota de denúncia.

	Ara, amb “Catalunya Acusa”, no es tractava solament d’argumentar a favor de la Nació catalana, sinó per abundar en les acusacions internacionals que assenyalaven el règim espanyol com un problema d’abast internacional. Eren plenament conscients que allá, als Estats Units de Nordamèrica, s’estava dissenyant el futur del món i no escatimaven esforços per a evitar que Catalunya quedés submergida i silenciada en una Espanya centralista, uniformitzadora, contrària als postulats de llibertat que la victòria dels aliats assegurava.

	L’Apel.lació a les Nacions Unides és del 14 d’abril de 1945, àmpliament divulgada. La lletra i la nota de denúncia del 23 de març de 1946 varen ser publicades, en català, a la revista “Ressorgiment” de Buenos Aires, el mes de maig, i josep Carner i Ribalta ho reprodueix en el seu llibre “De Balaguer a Nova York passant per Moscou i Prats de Molló” (ambdós casos amb l’error d’anotar dia 25). I “Catalunya acusa”, també lletra i text complet, es va publicar a “La Nova Catalunya” de l’Havana, el mes de setembre, segons versió catalana del propi Carner i Ribalta.
	Els catalans de Nova York sintonitzaven perfectament amb el grup unió de Catalans Independentistes que actuaven entre Mèxic i Cuba --amb activa participació de Josep M. Murià i Santiago Carbonell, respectivament-- que el 1945 ja havien fet circular l’opuscle “Cataluña”, en castellà i en ocasió de la Conferència Iberiamericana com a síntesi explicativa de la Nació catalana, i el febrer de 1946 un nou opuscle, també en castellà, precisament amb l’encapçalament “Cataluña acusa” i aquest anunciat: “Un problema de derecho itnernacional”. Com a lema i introducció recorden la màxima del mexicà Benito Juárez quan afirma que la base de la pau és el respecte als drets dels altres.

	Aquest pensament nacionalista dels catalans de Nova York i de tot Amèrica --que havia donat suport al Consell Nacional de Catalunya, dit també de Londres-- de fet es feia ressò dels grups radicals de l’interior de Catalunya que no es donaven per vençuts, tot i la forta repressió i un tan multitudinari exili, i maldaven per fer sentir la seva veu. De la seva actuació, per exemple, en va donar una àmplia informació Jean Lartegny, corresponsal del periòdic “Paris-Matin”, el dia 23 de novembre de 1945. Completava la seva crònica amb la següent constatació: “Hem de remarcar que la resistència a Catalunya és d’un caràcter essencialment separatista”

	Aquest era el to dominant de la Resistència catalana, a l’interior i a l’exili, durant els primers anys de l’opressió franquista. Més endavant, ja en plena “guerra freda”, varen anar agafant força nous grups de formació i disciplina marxista, amb clar i progressiu orientament antinordamericà. I així es va arribar a la fi de la dictadura, amb l’anomenada Transició, que va propiciar l’establiment d’un Estatut d’Autonomia que encara ara, vint-i-cinc anys després, no ha pogut desenvolupar totes les atribucions que li confereix, en un conjunt d’escandalosa precarietat.

	Ho remarcavem en l’escrit publicat en aquestes pàgines, el novembre d’ara fa dos anys: “Una autonomia precària”, en recordar el que ja el 1983 escrivia Philip B. Taylor en el llibre “Incomplete Power Under Ambiguous Constraints”. Van passant els anys i la situació no millora, sinó ben el contrari. Són evidents els beneficis obtinguts amb les competències a l’abast i la bona administració i iniciatives del Govern autònom i de molts ajuntaments. Però en termes d’Autonomia real --diem-ne nacional o regional-- i sobretot pel que fa als grans problemes del país i les impostergables necessitats, predominen perillosos endarreriments i fins i tot passos enrere.

	El Govern autònom continua sense poder intervenir en les infrastructures bàsiques i l’Estat --el Govern central-- hi inverteix poc i amb vergonyós retard: al Port de Barcelona, a l’Aeroport, a les anomenades Autovies (autopistes gratuites), als Ferrocarrils… Exemple màxim de ruïnós retard: Catalunya continua desconnectada de la xarxa ferroviària europea, amb tot el que això comporta d’handicap per a les comunicacions i el transport comercial. I en relació a les competències que ja figuren en l’Estatut d’Autonomia, no solament encara no tot ha estat transferit, sinó que en aquests darrers anys, hi ha engegat un procés accelerat d’ofegament en tot allò que ja era en plena vigència.

	Com fa gairebé cinquant anys --i a desgrat de viure ara en una Espanya de règim democràtic-- seria vàlid i s’imposa un nou “Catalunya acusa”.

Víctor Castells

	

CATALONIA ACCUSES

           “Catalonia wishes to add her voice to the charges that are being made against Dictator Franco as a cause for international friction and a threat to world peace”. In this way the Catalans of New York began the long document of accusation that was sent to the Secretary of the United Nations on May 14th 1946 on behalf of Catalonia, an oppressed nation. The document was signed by Josep Carner i Ribalta and Josep Maria Fontanals, the same men who  promoted the famous appeal of 1945 and had sent a new note of accusation on the 23rd of March of that same year 1946.

          Now, with “Catalonia Accuses” they did not only want to argue in favor of the Catalan nation, they also wanted to agree with the international accusations that considered the Spanish regime a problem of international scope.  They knew very well that the future of the world  was being forged  in the United States of North America. So, they wanted to do as much as possible to avoid that Catalonia  be sunk and passed over on a centralist, leveller Spain that was against the postulates of freedom that were to come with the allies’ victory.

          The Appeal to the United Nations was presented on April  14th  1945 and was widely circulated. The letter and the note of accusation of the 23rd of March 1946 were published in Catalan in the journal “Ressorgiment” of Buenos Aires on the month of May. Josep Carner i Ribalta reproduces it in his book  De Balaguer a Nova York passant per Moscou i Prats de Molló  (From Balaguer to New York passing through Moscow and Prats de Molló). In both cases he made an error on the day, mentioning the 25th instead of the 23rd. The whole text of “Catalonia Accuses” was published in “La Nova Catalonia” in Havana in September. It was the second Catalan version made by Carner i Ribalta himself.
 
         The Catalans of New York were very much in agreement with the group called Union of Independentist Catalans, who were busy in Mexico and Cuba with an active participation of Josep M. Murià and Santiago Carbonell. In 1945 they had already brought up the booklet  “Cataluña” in Castilian. It was done to coincide with the Ibero-American  Conference, as a condensed explanation of the Catalan nation. In February 1946 a new booklet appeared in Castilian. The title “Cataluña acusa” was followed by the words “Un problema de derecho internacional”, (a problem of international law). As a title and introduction it brings to mind the words of Mexican  Benito Juárez  when he said that the base of peace  is the respect  for the rights of the others.

          This nationalist way of thinking of the Catalans in New York and in all America supported the National Council of Catalonia, also called Council of  London. In fact that way of thinking became the echo of the radical groups inside Catalonia. These groups would never consider themselves as defeated, in spite of the strong repression and the mass exile and they did everything they could to make their voice heard. A good description of what they did, for instance, was given by Jean Lartegny, correspondent of the “Paris-Matin” newspaper, on November 23rd, 1945. He ended the article with this consideration: “We must point out that the resistance in Catalonia has essentially a separatist character.”

          This was the dominant trait of the Catalan Resistance – both inside the country and in exile – during the first years of the Francoist oppression. Later on, during the “cold war”, new groups of a Marxist formation and discipline began to become stronger, with a clear and progressive anti-American orientation. And so the end of the dictatorship was reached, with the so-called Transition. This made it possible to get a Statute of Autonomy stablished. A Statute that now, twenty-five years later, has not yet been able to develop all the powers and authority it was given, due to a situation of scandalous precariousness.

          We mentioned  this in an article published in these pages on November two years ago. It was called “A precarious autonomy”. We remembered in that article what Philip B. Taylor wrote in 1983 in his book  “Incomplet Power Under Ambiguous Constraints.” The years go by and the situation does not get better: in fact, it is quite the reverse. Some things are evident, among them the benefits coming from due competences, the good administration and initiatives of the autonomous government  and of  many municipal governments. However in what concerns real Autonomy – be it called national or regional -  and most of all  in what concerns the big problems of the Country and the needs that cannot be postponed, we do find dangerous delays and even some signs of going backwards.

          The autonomous Government still cannot contribute to the basic infrastructures and the State -–the central Government- invests little in it  and with  shameful delay, as happens with the Harbor of Barcelona, with its Airport, with the so-called Autovies  (free highways), with the railroad system…An example of ruinous delay is the fact that Catalonia is still not connected with the European railway network, with a very negative outcome for communications and commercial transportation. And if we look at the competences that are already present in the Statute of Autonomy we will see not only that not  all of them have been transferred but also that, in recent years, there has appeared an accelerated process of suffocation in all that had already been in full operation.
        As it happened nearly fifty years ago and in spite of living now in a democratically ruled Spain, a new “Catalonia accuses” becomes valid  and necessary.
                                                                                                          Victor Castells

From EL PERIÓDICO DE CATALUNYA

                       YEARS AND YEARS INSIDE OF A SHELL

          It has been known the case of an imam that has been living in Catalonia for twelve years and does neither speak Catalan nor Spanish. Only Arabic. It is an attitude quite different from that of the Moroccans, who have learned in a short time a basic Castilian. And I know some of them who speak a very correct Catalan. The case of the imam is, therefore, a case of negative will. After 12 years, he does not know the languages of the society where he lives because he does not want to know them.

          It is difficult for me to understand it,  perhaps because I like to speak a bit in the language of the country when I am in a foreign land. To be able to speak in the language of the other person seems to make me more friendly or more neighborly  in that place. To refuse to learn anything at all would make me feel isolated and an intruder.

          I have read that the Generalitat will provide an interpreter to those imams who only speak Arabic. I think that this decision will only consolidate the will of foreignness in a person who refuses to learn a language of communication used in the society where he lives. Nobody must give up his or her own language, but everybody should feel the need to know the languages spoken around.

         The problem appears when an imam, or whoever, considers that nothing exists out of the nucleus where he lives or works. When society is substituted by a small group. When there is the will of staying away from the general habits and laws. This is a very special and negative aspect of what is called narrow-mindedness or refusal of coexistence.

          It is not good that leaders – be they religious, political, cultural, or social leaders –be closer to new ideas than their followers because they could make the latter go the way of inflexibility. Each cell has its own life, but no cell can survive separated from the organism of which it is a part. In a sense, this is democracy and we should remember that demos  means people, a group of people that share a given space.

          To live 12 years in Catalonia without willing to learn either Catalan or Castilian is  a contempt that it is not necessary to try to interpret.

                                                                                                             J.M.Espinàs

                         

WHAT  MAY  AZNAR  KNOW  ABOUT GHETTOS?

          A newspaperman is sorry if a political leader states  something badly or says silly things. If politics must be pedagogy, he is offering a bad example to his fellow citizens. That is why we advise Mr. Aznar to go to see the film “The piano player”, shown in vary many good cinemas. Even though he has many things to do, it is necessary for him to see it. There he will learn what a ghetto is and will be able to use the word properly.

          With his characteristic emphasis of absolute majority, he has said that in his project for Spain there is no space for “cultural and identifiying ghettos”, words that have been interpreted as a reference to Catalonia and the Basque Country. With his words he has reached something that lately is difficult to achieve: a nearly unanimous rejection of his words from all the Catalan political groups, from the left party to the nationalists, with the only and understandable exception of the PP.

          He should go to see the movie about the Varsovia ghetto and he would then see that Mr. Duran Lleida is right. Ghettos are not built by those that live inside them, but by those that stay  outside of them. In the movie he will be able to see that the Jews did not shut themselves in, that the streets were walled by the German Nazis who left half a million people isolated inside. However, what could he know about that if he was not born yet at that time and does not seem to be a person who could be later interested in this kind of questions?

          He made a mistake. He thought that if he spoke about a cultural ghetto, an unanimous clamor of voices was going to be heard shouting : “ Josemari, come to liberate us!” But the majority of citizens seem to be happy in what he calls a ghetto and show that they do not want a liberation. There has already been a war in Spain with that same name.

                                                                                                          Josep Pernau                      

From the newspaper AVUI

                                             THAT’S  THAT

          Facts are showing every day that the analysis of Aznar’s party policy made by many commentators is wrong. I have read many of them who are clamoring for a clear succession  and saying that to know the “pepero” candidate to the Moncloa is necessary for the party. Aznar, however, learned very well the lesson of UCD’s crushing defeat. And UCD was an immense party that was  suddenly undone, like a sugar loaf, with a simple push. And he learned, too, the lesson of the internal wars that infected and destroyed the also immense PSOE. Both political parties seemed to be invincible. Their death came from inside the party, a non-planned suicide.

          Aznar is a diligent student. As it is said about some students, he covers his lack of talent with a lot of work. So he thought about it. He has repeated  he will not run again for president, and we only have his word for it. And he refuses to give the name of his successor. The commentators  who say that this gives a narrow road to his party are right, but they do not value the very many advantages that this situation has for Aznar. Cohesion, for instance. The PP is a compact party, perhaps forced to be so,  and it will go on being so  as long as the families in that group may all be candidates to secceed the boss. It is a bit like those old men or women who are very rich and keep all their possible heirs not knowing who is going to be their universal heir. So, all the candidates will be obedient and attentive to the predeceased.

           People are also wrong, we are also wrong when we accuse the PP members  of being postfrancoist , arguing it with facts on hand, because it seems clear that the PP comes out stronger from it. Aznar represents the unity of Spain,  the control of opinion, the supremacy of private over public business, the economic liberalism, and the strengthening  of international links with the most aggressive right wing.

          Therefore we should not be surprised because nobody applies the prevailing laws to Blas Piñar and the extreme right wing  who are getting together again under the name of Frente Español, or because the administration does not fulfill  the command of the Congress to declare that Franco was the author of the Gernika bombardment,  or because the PP votes against UNESCO declaring the sardana to be a heritage of mankind.

          Those things give them votes: the PP is what it is, and there are a very great number of people who are planning to vote for them.

                                                                                                   Isabel-Clara Simó.

                        

A   STATUTE  FOR   LOSERS

          On the pages of this newspaper the “Salamanca papers” have often been discussed. And they will again be talked about. It is a specially strident case  that clearly shows the kind of relationship Catalonia has with Spain.

          The Francoist troops and civil servants took from Catalonia thousands and thousands of private and public documents. They carried them to Salamanca in big sacks, by trucks and trains. Once there, and before heaping them up, they were used to make lists. In this way they were able to persecute and destroy institutions and to emprison and execute many people. The papers  that are in Salamanca have this origin, none other. And they should only be filed away if an express permission had been given first by their owners, those who had suffered because of that robbery.

         In fact, democratic lawfulness and way of living request the immediate return of those booties of war. Because the “Salamanca papers” are booties of war, as Gonzalo Torrente Ballester said a few years ago  and it has again been repeated in some radio broadcasts. It is no secret, therefore, that they own it “by the right of conquest”. And that means that if they still maintain that right is because they still maintain the conquest.

          It is true that Catalonia  and its democratic institutions lost the war. What is difficult to believe is that a so-called democratic government would base its decisions on the fascist victory, on the plundering and persecution made by a dictatorship. Somebody has said that this hurts our sensibility. I think we have become too educated. Sensibility has very little to do here.  The problem is not our having too  much or too little sensibility. The problem is that we are, in a word, wictims.

          In October Salamanca will open  an exhibit called “Propaganda en guerra” where those documents will be exhibited as a trophy of their victory. This seems to be an enormous impudence, but it is not. Traditionally those who win do as they please with the defeated, most of all if the winners are cruel, vindictive, and spiteful. Those who defeated us made use of us. Their heirs still do, and will go on doing it. We are simply the ones who lost. And all the constitutional and statute blarney are just play acting. In today’s victorious Spain we will only have a place to be if we go on accepting the statute of the losers.

                                                                                          Josep-Maria Terricabras

ALMOGÀVERS: 700 YEARS

          In September 1303, Roger de Flor,  with a fleet of thirty-six ships and 6500 men, almogavers and seamen, landed in Constantinople – today’s Istanbul – and introduced himself to emperor Andronicus. For a year and a half the almogavers victoriously fought against the turcs, with Ramon Muntaner, Bernat de Rocafort, and Berenguer d’Entença as members of the company.
 
         In April 30th 1305 Roger de Flor was assassinated in Andrianopolis – today’s  Edirne – and the famous “Catalan revenge” began. This is the way it is remembered in the Greek folklore. In 1311 the almogavers conquered Athens and so began the Catalan rule over the city and all the central Greece.  It lasted almost a century, until 1388.

          This is a very minimal summary of the almogavers affairs in the Expedició a Orient, the expedition to the Eastern lands, one of the most exciting and at the same time most unknown episodes of the history of Catalonia. And this year, September 2003 will mark the 700th year since Roger de Flor and the almogavers arrived in Constantinople. 700 years!  Seven centuries. This is exactly what modern marketing requires: a round and spectacular figure. And that’s my point: why should we not take advantage of this commemoration to create an Amogaver Year? The year 2002 has been the Gaudí Year and the Verdaguer Year. Don’t the almogavers – and all they represent- deserve a year of recognition and remembrance, too?

          I want to argue in favor of the suitability of celebrating the Almogaver Year. And I will do so with three kind of reasons: historical, cultural, and  political reasons.

         First of all: historical reasons. The almogavers were the spearhead of the Mediterranean expansion of the Crown of Aragó in the XIIIth and XIVth cennturies. The almogavers helped Jaume I to conquer Valencia and the Balearic Islands. Afterwards they were the main force with which Pere II conquered Sicily in 1282. And, finally, the almogavers conquered the duchy of Athens and Neopatria. The almogavers are the best leading subjects to explain the history of that expansion which culminated when, according to chronicler Desclot, even the fish in the Mediterranean sea wore the four Catalan bars on their backs. To explain the almogavers heroic deeds is also to explain an essential part of our history.

          Second of all: cultural reasons. To go over the deeds of the almogavers does imply, also, to rescue from oblivion and to bring up to date many aspects of the medieval Catalan culture. Through the Almogavers we get the  “Crònica” by almogaver Ramon Muntaner. According to Josep Pla, this is “the most enjoyable book of all the Catalan literature”. And according to Joan Fuster, it is “ the most exciting,  most irresistible book of adventures of all the European Middle Ages”, Desclot’s “Crònica” deals with the almogavers too. And we should not forget that Joanot Martorell took the image of Roger de Flor as the main role model for his “Tirant lo Blanc”

          And it is not only a case of literary arguments. A short time ago I read that the Ramon Llull Institute has had the very good idea of opening a branch in Sicily. Following  the way marked by the Catalan expansion in the Middle Ages, perhaps the next branch to be opened should be in Athens. It should be remembered  and repeated that Athens was a Catalan city from 1311 to 1388, that Catalan was then its official language, and that the Parthenon was a catholic cathedral, quoted in medieval documents as “the cathedral of Saint Mary of  Cetines”. And something else: there is a fresco painting in Athens that is known as the Catalan Madonna.  I think that the Almogaver Year should be the opportunity to begin a better cultural and institutional relationship between Catalonia and Greece. Would that not be a good occasion for the president of the Generalitat to visit Athens and have his photo taken next to the Catalan Madonna? Could such a year cause the Prime Minister of Greece to come to Barcelona? In the matter of  Catalonia-Greece relations everything is still undone.

          Third of all: political reasons. Spanish nationalism is living a moment of euphoria. Meanwhile Catalan nationalism is somewhat low. This is a diagnosis on which everybody agrees and about which everybody is sorry. Spanishness goes up like foam: the one hundreth anniversary of their soccer team, the Real Madrid, Aznar’s enormous flag, the island of Perejil, the “400 millones”, the familiar “no nationalism”, and so on. What do we have to oppose to all this Spanish onrush that comes over us every day? Not much. But perhaps the fact of celebrating an Almogaver Year with chapter and verse would result in many people recovering their self-confidence. And recovering, too, the pride of being Catalan and of claiming the right  to be Catalan.

         Spain, and the “espanyolistes” who live and work in Catalonia, have always found rather bizarre that we Catalans celebrate our National Day  on the date of a defeat. Should now be the moment to think of a change? The almogavers were Catalan, and  they never lost a battle. Never.  Neither in Valencia, nor in the Balearic Islands, or in Africa, or in Sicily, or in Turkey, or in Greece.

          And now, dear reader, answer me: would  you like to know more about the almogavers?
                                                                                                  Francesc Puigpelat

                              

THERE IS ONLY  ONE  GENERALITAT

          Diverse points of view appeared in the justified replies made to the decision of the  Minister of Culture of Madrid about the Salamanca papers. There are two very valid areas of a general character. A lot has been said about the political area, which does not need the sentimental contents that some people brought to it. Less has been said however,  about the juridical orientation, although the ordinary courts of justice have been named. The juridic-constitutional side, however, has been omitted.

          If the Generalitat was suspended by the act of April 8th, 1938, another and higher act cancelled the first. A royal decree-law  of September 29th, l977, signed by king Juan Carlos and by president Adolfo Suárez abolished the l939 decree and out went the “provisional Generalitat”. A little later Josep Tarradellas took up in Barcelona the presidency  that had already been his in the exile years.

         Therefore, - and this being  perhaps the only case of continuity -, there is no break between the Generalitat existing before the Civil War  and the one existing now. If juridically there is no “corpo cesante” the famous papers cannot justify their staying in Salamanca  because they absolutely belong to one and unique Generalitat.
 
         There are also political reasons: here one hears about the “republican Generalitat”. It is curious that this word is also used in Catalonia, which is a tactical error, also, since it gives some reason for their claim to unify an archive about the Civil War.The Generalitat of republican times had to  coexist with the Civil War and it had different administrations  in exile. During the first years the president was Josep Irla and later on, in Mexico, Josep Tarradellas.

          When the Generalitat could have broken its continuity  was, paradoxically, after Franco’s death. If the meeting that the president of the Generalitat in exile had with the Spanish president Adolfo Suárez in June ’77 had had a negative outcome, this could have meant a break in continuity. In this hypothetical case, after the approval of the Constitution and of the Statute of Catalonia, there would have been autonomic elections and the president of a Generalitat would have come from the Catalan Parliament. And that would have been another Generalitat.

          One of the good things president Tarradellas did – and president Suárez, too- was to achieve the acknowledgment of a presidency and, therefore, of the Generalitat. The poor attention that politicians and the media showed on the 25th anniversary of that meeting explains the omission of an argument   that I think has not been used against those that in Madrid or in Salamanca are still keeping papers of the Generalitat. In spite of what people may believe considering the good outcome, it was not easy to maintain the presidency and the Generalitat. On leaving from the first meeting , after hearing Tarradellas say to the newspapermen waiting outside that the talk had been constructive, once we were back in the police car that had been waiting for us in the airport, I asked  him: "So, things have gone all right?” He answered: “No, they have gone very badly. We are going back to Paris in a couple of days.”

          Suárez asked me to  stay with them for the second meeting. Again, the main point appeared at once. Tarradellas  said  he was not asking for anything. He asked only to be able to live in Barcelona, since he already was president of the Generalitat. Suárez answered: “You say you are asking nothing from me but you are asking everything. You are asking me to allow you to be now in Catalonia as president of the Generalitat, something that evidently will happen, but later on. How can I do it legally?”

          But he did it. Tarradellas was appointed president of the Diputació of Barcelona and, at the same time, president of the provisional Generalitat. In history the word provisional has often become definitive. In this way they were acting legally, and therefore the Generalitat was acting with full moral authority  even though it had very few powers, since there had been no time for those powers to be transferred. After a time, Tarradellas was succeeded by Jordi Pujol, who had been elected and who is still the president.

          Therefore today’s Generalitat is the same one that was presided by Macià in 1932. Since then there have been terrible personal and governmental breakings, but the Generalitat as such  has stayed.There was another shock, in fact. On October 6th, 1934, president Companys appeared on the Generalitat’s balcony to proclaim the Catalan Republic and become a part of the revolutionary rising of Asturies against the Lerroux-Gil Robles government. We probably do not need to be reminded of the fact that  Spanish troops entered the Generalitat in the early morning and took all those that were inside a prison-ship. From there the Generalitat’s government was taken to the Penal de Santa Maria.

          Some members of the Madrid government wanted then to dissolve the Generalitat. Some voices were heard in Catalonia, lead by Francesc Cambó’s, saying that an administration could be wrong but this should not affect the institution. The Generalitat had to go on. After the elections of February 1936, Companys went from the prison to his office in the Generalitat.

          Yesterday’s Generalitat is the same one of today’s. Therefore, the Salamanca papers are not property of the republican  Generalitat, they are property of  the Generalitat, without any adjective.

          After so many years, when even the KGB and the CIA have opened their files, it is not logical to keep the Generalitat’s papers in files that do not even keep the pretended unity of the Civil War. To have that unity there should be, for instance, military maps of El Campesino or  Lister, and those drawn by general Franco himself. The Salamanca papers  keep today traces of a civil war as preterit in time as it should be in the spirit of everybody, without any exception.
´                                          
                                                                                                           Carles Sentís

From ELTEMPS

AN EDITORIAL OF THE HISTORY  SECTION OF “EL TEMPS”

          In November 1842 – one hundred and sixty years ago – Barcelona went  through one of the most important popular revolts of the first half of the XIXth century. The revolt culminated with the bombardment of the city ordered by general Espartero. The general was a military man considered to be progresssive. It is amazing that the city he attacked has now two streets named after him. 

          That  shelling was not the first  Barcelona suffered,  nor was it going to be the last one. Among some sectors of the Spanish political class the belive has existed that Barcelona should be bombarded every fifty years. Even the president of the Second Spanish Republic, Manuel Azaña, wrote on July 29th, 1937, according to one of his friends: “Es una ley de la historia  de España la necesidad de bombardear Barcelona cada cincuenta años. El sistema de Felipe V era injusto y duro, pero sólido y cómodo. Ha valido para dos siglos.”

           Many people and some political leaders of quite different ways of thinking  would probably have shared  that opinion for many years of our contemporary history. The only way to appease the rebellious and anarchical character  Catalans have traditionally shown seems to be  repression. There have been many opinions and written pages about that, and in many occasions the theory has given way to threats and to action.            

             Because Barcelona – and most of all its popular classes – has shown a  rather belligerent and  exclusive character in its most recent history Karl Marx himself, in the XIXth century, noted that Barcelona was the European city that  had more barricade fights in its history. The November 1842 revolt  is an example of it. It was, too, the first occasion  when republican ideals invaded the Catalan political field, with their own strengh and dynamism.

N.E.- In the July issue of CATALONIA TODAY the reader will find a full report of the Espartero incident.

ABOUT  THE  SPHERE  AND  THE  DISH

          Everything that is known and obvious is not  part of the conventional use in the understanding of what is happening in the world. Everyone of my readers can widely prove this simply by reading the daily newspapers. And I am reasonably sure that one of the causes of our limited orientation capacity  can be found  in the oversight of immediate and clear things.

          An immediate and clear thing is, for instance,  that the idea of globalization – whatever this horrible neologism may indicate – would be an impossible idea without the vision of the world in the shape of a globe. To say that we live in a global world – including the small or big world of literature – seems  real obviousness, since the world is a globe, is round, has the shape of a ball.

          But this, which seems to be a primary and elemental assertion,  is in fact a very recent piece of news: “before”, the world was flat. Flat as a dish, or so was it seen  and perceived  and, therefore, this is how the vision of the world acted on the activity and the mind of people, including “literary people”, that is to say those who wrote or read books. Flat as a dish. And therefore, unavoidably, always seen from the center of that flat surface.

         In fact the center has always been the place from which one looks: the place “we” occupy. The history of the literature, for instance, -especially, if  you will,  of “western” literature – is a very long process of expansion of that center, of perception of concentric circles, a process of  extension of what is ours and of adoption or integration of what is odd or external. Until right now, a time when the world is not flat anymore  and the circles are not concentric.

          The paradox of this change is that, although this is a global planet, we see it unavoidably split up into very precise spaces: built like a puzzle of oddly shaped pieces, of maps of states with very exact borders, inside of which – always inside- things do happen. Now that the world is open and round,  we live more than ever enclosed in flat-shaped pictures: we live inside the political map, and all the information is interior or  exterior, “national” or “international”, according  to the point  from which it comes, from inside or outside of which one  of the maps.

         This, that is so obvious and so commonplace, is another new development of the present times. There were no maps before, or people did not know them, there were no exact borders or people were not aware of them and, most of all, nobody knew the exact shape of their own flat space, of their “country”.

          The present is local, national, and global all at once: commonplace things are universal, and universal information is as instantaneous as town hall information. Most of all, of course, when it is about wars, politics, bombs, misfortunes, and disasters. But it is always present and commonplace the presence of diversity: the vision of something that is different and foreign comes to us at home, at lunch or dinner times, with images, faces, landscapes, streets, names, and people.
                                                                                                                
          When a fashion concern  sends all over the planet  advertising campaigns with the motto of “united colors” – United Colors of Benetton – you may be sure they know what they are doing. It is not a miracle: it is the outcome, still unfinished and confused, of a long historical process. The world is now, a little bit, as Nicolas de Cusa said that God is:  a sphere – certainly not infinite, as the divine sphere is – a sphere where  there is no periphery and where any given point may be the center. It is a great new thing: it had never happened before.

                                                                                                            Joan F. Mira

DID
                     YOU
                                      KNOW

                                                           THAT…?

*** The Archive Museum Tomàs Balvey  of Cardedeu exhibited last November works of art in the form of books created by forty-two artists. There is only one work per artist in the exhibit.The shape had to be a book, but pages and contents  were up to the artist. The size was also given:  37.5 x 58 cm. The idea was called  “ Shipwrecks: diaries of a castaway”. The concept was that the artist was sinking  in his sea of ideas and anxieties while the work was taking shape in the shadow of his creativity.

*** The Arran Cultural Association has just edited a double CD with forty-one songs by several groups of the country. The title of the CD is “Cultura de resistència”. The common link of all the groups is their political feeling. Some of the songs are new and all of them are sung in Catalan, even when this is not the native language of the group singing it.The styles are diverse: a lot of punk and hardcore, but there is also rock, ska, reggae, folk, rumba, electronic, and hip-hop. This last one is an innovation, since the Catalan hip-hop is not usually found in the music stores yet. The earnings produced by this CD will be used to pay the expenses of the “Centre de Documentació d’Arran”. This is a public archive created in 1999. It holds documents from political, social, cultural and union organizations, most of them related to the Sants district of Barcelona, where this organization resides.

***The book “Una cultura diferent, un món de semblances” (A different culture, a world of likenesses) by Maria Victòria Freitas, gives the reader the tools to establish similarities and differences between the Jewish quarters in Girona and those in Toledo.The book may be a basic help to study different cities where calls (Jewish quarters) existed. It can also be used as pedagogical material for high school students, but it can also be read to satisfy the curiosity of people interested in those spaces and culture. The book has been published by the Universitat de Girona.

*** The International Catalonia Award has been awarded this year to Nawal al-Sadawi, a writer who is a novelist and a psychiatrist. She was born in Egypt and has always been a woman dedicated to social activism. She has been the leader of associations of Human Rights, which sometimes has brought her a prison sentence and always an international fame. She was director of the Health Policy in Nasser’s Egypt from 1958 to 1972, a job that she lost after the publication of her book “Women and sexuality”. The award, endowed with 80,000 euros, is the most important of the awards given by the Generalitat. It will be presented to the winner on the 6th of May.