TABLE OF CONTENTS

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
THE CATALAN VICTORY OF  1705……………………………………………………….………….
THE SIDEWALKS  AND   THE  URBAN  PEACE………………………………………….……….
INCOHERENCE……………………….……………………………………………………….……….
DOCTOR,  I  AM  NOT  FEELING  WELL…………..……………………………………….……….
INTERIOR POLICY AND SOCIETY IN THE XIIIth   AND XIVth CENTURIES   IN CATALONIA..
IN FAVOR  OF  THE  OASIS………………….………………………………………………………
LIFE  IN  THE  MEDIEVAL  CITIES……………..……………………………………………………
P  U  J  O  L………………………………….……..……………………………………………………
DID YOU KNOW THAT?.............................................................................................................

 CATALONIA TODAY                                                        MARCH  2004

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

          More than a year ago, President Pujol officially declared that he was not going to run again for the presidency of the Generalitat. He had run and been elected six times for that presidency, and considered that 23 years as President were enough. He did a very good job. He is an intelligent, tireless man, always aware of what was happening inside and outside of Catalonia, of Spain, and of Europe.
          When visiting other countries, he was able to speak in their own language: French, German, English, or Italian. He understood so well the need to know other languages because he loved Catalan, his own language, very much. His presidency began at the same time that democracy was being established in Spain.
          His name, always linked with Catalonia, is today known and respected all over Europe and the American continent.  He won the election to the Catalan Parliament for the first time on March, 20th, 1980. He was the 126th President of the Generalitat of Catalonia and worked arduously to build a strong Catalan self-government.
          Vicent Sanchís, director of the newspaper AVUI, published an extra edition last December 18th entitled “PUJOL EN 24 IMATGES”, where well know people who may or may not have shared the President’s way of thinking, wrote their thoughts. . It is a very interesting document. The first “image” is offered by Mr. Sanchis, and here are some of his ideas:
          “A long historical era ended last Tuesday in the Parliament of Catalonia which for almost two and a half decades he has governed and presided over the federation of Convergència i Unió.”
          “Pujol was the first president elected by ballot after the long lack of legality due to the Francoist dictatorship. He has been, therefore, a political phenomenon both due to his persistence and his vitality.”
          “Today’s Catalonia is, in good measure, the product of a way of understanding the country and of a way of ruling it. On both counts, the personality of a president who has been able to win at the ballot box for six consecutive times has been extremely important.”
          “Jordi Pujol is clearly a part of the living history of this country. A long period of analysis, understanding, evaluation, and judgment is opening. His administration will be studied as a government that has defined the present and that will affect the future.”
          Mr. Sanchis also writes that both the strength and vitality of President Pujol have not allowed a clear reflection of his work.  Now will be the time to do this.
          We feel that a time of reflection and evaluation of President Pujol‘s work from 1980 to 2003 will show the many great advances of Catalonia under his presidency and the respect he earned throughout Europe.
           He has been a good president, an intelligent, energetic ruler and a challenge for all of those who will be rulers in Catalonia in future years.

THE CATALAN VICTORY OF  1705
CHAPTER XVII

THE REBELLION SPREADS ITSELF THROUGH THE PRINCEDOM AND THE VALENCIAN LANDS.	
           After the unsuccessful attempt of rebellion in May 1704, the Catalan leaders began to prepare the rebellion against Philip IV, most of all the Military Arm, since it included the nobility. This occurred after the Genoa meetings had begun. According to what we now know it would be difficult to say how it was organized; yet I think that this was due to a lack of research. It is understandable that the parties wished to keep their talks secret, since their doings could be considered as a betrayal in many countries.
         Francesc Castellví, a Catalan writer who wrote some twenty years later, is careful to deal only with the military part of the expedition, which he validates with documents. However, he is silent about things that we know were true, but which could be used to confirm the disreputable name given to the Catalans in both the Bourbon and the English writings of the people who accompanied Peterborough, Stanhope, Carleton, and the like.
          When the allied forces landed in Barcelona, the rebellion was already alive in many places such as Vic, the duchy of Cardona, and the duchy of Urgell. Prince George of Hessen-Darmstadt had been writing to the Vic people, those in Tarragona, Urgell, and Pallars. From within Barcelona the Marquis of Besora kept in touch with the Vic people, while Manuel Desvalls and Miquel Sobies kept in touch with the people from Urgell. These two men had been in Barcelona since a few days before, when they had been expelled from the city by Velasco. The contact with the people in Tarragona was kept through father Francesc Frexances, of the monastery of Poblet.
          The revolted groups generally ruled the area where they were located, but the official declaration of obedience to Charles III could not be made until people were authorized by the King or by Prince George to receive that oath of fidelity. These expeditions to request this oath of fidelity are recounted by historian Castellví, who never explains much of what had happened before this, and concentrates the action in the activities of the people authorized to receive the oath of fidelity to Charles III. He does not explain anything about the Valencian endeavors: he only mentions that one of the leaders was rejected in the village of Ginsona, near Alacant.
        The act of giving an oath generally took place in the council of the town or village. Once the ceremony was ended, the expedition would go to the next village, taking with them a number of people to add to their forces. Sometimes these people were recruited, but very often, they volunteered to go with them.
          More often than not, there were neither fires nor plundering, or people sent to jail in the cities where the oath of obedience had been given. The only exception to this was  in Tarragona, and when the king knew about it, he ordered that the jailed people be given back their freedom.
          Leaving aside the spontaneous popular movement, if we consider the process of requesting obedience – which was in fact the final object of the rebellion – we will see that the country lived that movement in several nuclei: the one in Vic, that also included Osona, la Selva, Bages and Vallés; the in Olot, which served as a platform for the Garrotxa; the one in Castellfullit for the Gironès and the Empordà; the one in Tremp, with the field of influence over both Pallars, the Vall d’Aran and the Ribagorça; the one in Poal. With the rebellions of Urgell, Noguera, the Garrigues, Segarra, Segrià and the basin of the Cinca; the ones in Riudoms and Poblet that had influence in two directions: one of them was the Serra de Prades, Ribera d’Ebre, Terra Alta and Montsià, and the other was the Camp and city of Tarragona; Cardona was the nucleus for all that duchy, the Berguedà and the Cerdanya. The Vic people took other regions, such as the Maresme and the Pla del Llobregat, and the regular troops were in the military actions that followed the landing.
          The participation of the regular army was minimal, and was only effective in Girona and in the western region to facilitate the taking of Fraga. The rebellion was an act of the citizens of Catalonia, and the presence of a group of members of the regular army was often used to ease the surrender of the military men from the occupied fortresses.
         At that time, the existing fortresses in Catalonia were Tarragona, Tortosa, the castles of Miravet, Flix and Mequinença near the river, Lleida and Castellciutat, Cardona, Girona, Figueres, and Roses.
          Along the Ebre River, there were only a few soldiers in the riparian castles, never more than forty in each of them. In Tortosa, there was no garrison. Lleida had seventy men, Cardona had forty. Girona had a garrison of three hundred German men, Figueres had two hundred Italians, and Roses had about five hundred men. The strongest one was Tarragona, where colonel Vico had four hundred and forty Italian infantrymen, one hundred and fifty Neapolitan horsemen, two regular companies, and twenty artillerymen.
THE ACTION OF THE VIC NUCLEUS
          The man who went to Vic to receive the oath of fidelity was a military man born in Olot and called Francesc Barnola. When he was a lieutenant in the Portugal battlefront he had gone over to the allies and from there he went to Gibraltar. Prince George had given him the position of a cavalry captain, sustaining Charles III’s promise to all those who joined them in the Portugal battlefront. As soon as the troops landed in front of Barcelona, he received a signed document on August 22 giving him the power to accept the oath of obedience of Vic and the Garrotxa. With him came a group of forty cavalrymen and a good number of the insurrected Vic people.
          During the time he was advancing through the villages that were openly on the side of Carles III, these people had been adding themselves to his group. The only village that had to be threatened into obedience was Manlleu.
         Having completed his job, Barnola went back to the allied field in front of Barcelona on September 10. Three days later, and because of his deed, the Olot representatives arrived in Barcelona. They were Francesc Despujol and his son Antoni on behalf of the nobility while doctor Francesc Vila and doctor Ferrer were for the community.
THE ACTION IN THE GIRONA LANDS
            The people from the Gironès and the Empordà had been in touch with the Vic people. On account of this, when king Carles III landed, the first Catalan gentleman to greet him was Ramon de Bell-lloc, whose family mansion was in Palau Sacosta and who was later present in the Sant Martí camp where he participated in the surrender of Girona, as we will see.
          To attain the surrender of those lands the prince had sent Jaume Birolà, who, on leaving Gibraltar with a small group of sixteen men, had been made colonel of the fusiliers – namely, the miquelets- they went to Castellfollit, and were quickly joined by a great number of people. 
           Baron Van Beek, the pro-Bourbon governor of Girona, called a meeting of the war council. The Italian colonels Rico and Tiberius Carrafa were present in that council, as were the Spanish Josep Marc and Joan Sarriera, Count of Salterra. They determined to ask Perpinyà to help them and while they waited, they would call the popular militia and to offer positions for volunteers in the army. Only two volunteers appeared, nevertheless.
          Consequently, an expedition of two hundred Italians set off under the command of Gregori Prats i Mates from Figueres. Their aim was to expel the count of Salterra and colonels Josep Prou, and Vilar de Klers, Birolà, from Jafra, but they failed. On September 17, Birolà surrounded them with eight hundred volunteers, forced them back to Besalú, and from there to Navata, where the Bourbon column was routed.
          The members of the popular militia returned home and the Italians sought shelter in Figueres. On the 23rd Birolà attacked Figueres with one thousand three hundred men. As soon as the civil population spotted them, the Italian soldiers were handed over to Birolá as prisoners. Once inside the Birolá camp, the one hundred eighty-nine Italians decided to take the pro-Austrian side, and a Spanish nobleman with fifty soldiers who had come from Perpinyà to help the Italians, followed suit.
           After Figueres was taken, a column of eight hundred men arrived from the Rosselló, under the command of a Spanish nobleman called De las Torres. De Quinson, governor of Perpinyà, had sent the column to the aid of Figueres. When they realized that their assistance was useless, they returned to France. De las Torres went back to Castile by way of Irún.
          The Empordà was soon free of Bourbon men, except for Roses. There, Colonel Gandolfo had a garrison of three hundred soldiers, which was soon reinforced by four hundred more soldiers, sent from Cotlliure. Roses was the town that presented longer resistance to Charles III. At that time, Birolà could only maintain the siege around Girona and Roses to make it impossible for France to help them again. Antoni Despujol was placed there as superintendent of the Empordà.
          The siege of Barcelona was ending and Viceroy Velasco had asked in his capitulation to be allowed to go to Girona by sea or by land. . In Charles III’s camp, everybody realized the need to clean up Girona to avoid having an enemy nucleus on their back aided by Velasco’s forces. Consequently, on October 7 a good number of people left Barcelona. Among them were Austrian colonels Kolpacz and Rosenthal, with two hundred horses and a considerable army of fusiliers, or miquelets, from Vic, all under the command of Francesc Puig i Sorribes, Carles Regàs, Antoni Cortada, Josep Anton Martí and Domènec Perera. Ramon de Bell-lloc had gone to his family seat in Palau Sacosta, where many of the negotiations that followed took place.
          There was a siege situation inside the town. Van Beek had only half of the necessary number of men because of the many sicknesses that existed. During the first days of the Barcelona siege he had asked the citizens to form a regiment, like they had done in Tarragona, forming a kind of Coronela. People did not respond and Francesc Vila, the regiment’s aide, resigned. After requesting this in various ways, Van Beek was able to achieve that guards be placed in front of the house of the colonel of the regiment, or of the head of the city’s jury, but he did not dare to send them to the ramparts to do sentry duty. The preference of the city was so evident that not even Miquel Joan de Taverner, the Bourbon bishop, dared to ask the people to help in the defense of the city.
           Once the Austrian colonels and the Vic people arrived near Girona, they began planning. Kolpacz sent a message to Van Beek, who still believed he could resist the strong artillery sergeant. That was on October 8, and news of the surrender of Barcelona had been sent officially to him. Van Beek asked the City Council for more men to defend the metropolis, but the city jurors did not agree. The council of war asked the bishop’s opinion. The bishop, considering how badly things were going for them, placed everything in the governor hands. His advice was that everyone follow what the governor would decide.
          The Council then formed a special group to study the opinion of the people. The group was formed by Gabriel de Masdeu, a nobleman; by Antoni de Sarriera and de Rocabert, a nobleman: by Jeroni de Ferrer, a military man; and by Francesc Benages, an honorable citizen.  These men called together the representatives of all the local institutions and explained to them that an armed defense should be organized. They wanted to gauge, through their reaction, what the true opinion of the people was. In this way, too, they indirectly avoided a possible accusation of spreading alarmist news or of inciting rebellion. The response showed such a lack of enthusiasm that the commission went back to the Council and made clear that there was no possibility of getting the support of the people to organize an armed defense of the city.
         The jurors told this to Van Beek.  It is curious to discover in the jurors’ words the same argument used by the city of Valencia to explain the defection of the pro-Philip forces: “Many people were afraid because the place had been left so deserted. ª
            Ramon de Bell-lloc had sent to the city’s authorities a letter from Charles III with a promise of freedom, similar to those sent to all the cities. He also let the people of Girona know that Barcelona had surrendered.
          Kolpacz and Rosenthal were in Riudarenes and the bands of Vic people passed freely through the Gironès region. The city organized a commission to talk to Bell-lloc. This group was formed by the honorable Josep Font i Llobregat, by the merchant Esteve Andreu, and by the canons Narcís Font i Llobregat and Carles de Viver. Bell-lloc demanded that the city surrender at ten o’clock in the morning on the following day.
         However, it was not to be yet because Van Beek disagreed. There were groups inside the city that were willing to open the doors to the Vic people, but one of the capitulation documents required that those coming into the city not be from the Vic groups, so, the authorities tried to pacify them.
           On October 12, Kolpacz sent as messenger the honorable Jeroni de Capmany, to demand the surrender. He requested that the Portal de l’Areny be surrendered, adding that, if this did not transpire, he would allow the Vic people free rein to plunder the city.
          In conclusion, Van Beek was forced to accept because of the Council’s pressure, with the safeguard of being allowed to go to Bellaguarda and Roses. A commission formed by Pere Rosselló, Josep de Font i Llobregat, Francesc Puig, and Francesc Milans, presented a list of requirements that were accepted by practically all in Kolpacz.
          Historian Pere Voltes says that the Portal de l’Areny was taken by pro-Austrian troops commanded by Francesc Puig de Perafita from Vic. It seems clear that the Perafita surname is wrong because Castellví only quotes Francesc Puig i Sorribes as being present. If it were Perafita, it would have to be an uncle of his, who does not appear anywhere else.
          Baron Van Beek and bishop Taverner left Girona with their friends for Perpinyà. Between 1701 and 1702, the bishop had sent to several people an anonymous pamphlet in opposition to the Catalan Courts. He returned six years later with the French army. He and all his family were strongly pro-Philip. 
(To be continued)                                                 
 Antoni Porta

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Clara Prat
Sant Pau 16
08340Vilassar de Mar. Barcelona. Spain

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From EL PERIÓDICO DE CATALUNYA

              THE SIDEWALKS  AND   THE  URBAN  PEACE

Every one of us has seen, at least once, rows of ants advancing, connected, one after the other without any problem. Or clouds of starlings in movement that fly without bumping into each other. And there are films where one can see very compact groups of penguins that walk over the ice with very short steps to avoid a slip up. It seems that they only fall when an airplane or a helicopter come near them. They follow it, staring at it, until they fall on their backs.
          We can also see human beings walking, crowded together, on the sidewalks of urban streets. But they do not do it with the same order and regularity that is seen in penguins and ants. It seems that, in order to avoid problems, the people in London are considering marking out two ways in the sidewalks of Oxford Street, one of the more populated streets of Europe. As it happens in all popular streets, there are those people who simply take a stroll while others are in a hurry. Those who walk slowly create a kind of traffic jam.
          We live this conflict in Barcelona, too. You may be, like I am, one of those citizens who are constantly being pushed. as he is peacefully walking or window-shopping. Yet, when he wishes to walk quickly he finds it very difficult to open a path through the slow ones and those who stop now and then.
          So, people in London are considering the project of marking in the sidewalks of Oxford Street one slow route and one express route in which the minimal speed would be around 3 miles per hour. Offenders would have to pay a ten- pound fine.
           I believe that the London idea can be improved upon, and I dare offer certain suggestions about special routes on sidewalks. There could be one for mothers pushing a baby carriage; one reserved for walkers who swing their arms a lot, to avoid collision with the more restrained ones. Routes for people who use walking sticks; for those carrying an open umbrella; for those who carry a small cart to the market or to the supermarket; for those who walk their dog; perhaps a curved route for drunkards, and, of course, routes for smokers and for non-smokers.
           Since each day it is more difficult for us to tolerate any inconvenience, long live the multi-route system!
                                                                  Josep Maria Espinàs

From AVUI
                                          INCOHERENCE

           I am bothered by the Spanish government’s incoherence in its policy outside the State’s borders – called international policy - and its policy inside those borders –called national policy.  This not only reveals an ideological contradiction but it also creates a source of troubles, hesitations, and evasive answers which are very detrimental for the people who are governed.
          It is not enough to frown, to say a witty phrase, or to condemn with a bovine look everything that is not produced by the Spanish government ruling party. I have right now on my desk two examples that are just the tip of the iceberg of much deeper problems.
          One of these examples refers to the Olot town council’s decision to forbid bullfights inside their municipal area. This decision may please some people and may upset others, but a town council has the democratic right to make it stand. Yet, the Superior Court of Justice, having perhaps not much to do, has decided that democracy is one thing and the Spanish essence is something else, and has decreed that Olot must accept that which had been democratically rejected.
            At the same time, however, the Spanish government has received another of many condemnations sent by the European Commission about the broadcasting of bullfights on public and private television channels during children’s viewing times. This means that Europe considers such programs to be spectacles with no edifying values, destructive and harmful for children.
          The Spanish attitude towards the European Constitution is even more serious.  Ana Palacios, the minister of Foreign Affairs, talking with the German minister Joshka Fischer, said that she could not agree that Europe should have only one voice in this and other questions, and that there should be as many voices as countries.
         However, my dear Palacios, this cannot be at all!  Are not all of you constantly saying the opposite thing in home policy? Aren’t we completely tired of hearing that it is not efficient to have seventeen voices in culture, or about Income Tax collection, or in  international presence? Don’t you think that it is exasperating to read in the newspapers that Palacios gave a pedagogical lecture so that Europe would understand her wishes while at the same time her administration splits its sides laughing when Catalonia attempts to use a type of pedagogical form to explain itself to Spain? Think about it, people think about it.   
                                                           Isabel-Clara Simó

DOCTOR, I AM NOT FEELING WELL

          The woman was not feeling well. She felt herself to be insecure, uneasy, without a sense of motivation. Everything she did was, in some way, a failure. She distrusted herself. She could not achieve any of her hopes.
          She went to see a doctor. “I do not know what is happening to me”. The doctor examined her and told her that he could not find any organic disease. “Take some vitamins. They will be good for you”. Nevertheless, the vitamins did nothing for her. Finally, she decided to see a psychiatrist. She lay down on the couch. She talked a lot, feeling free.
          One day, suddenly, she discovered that her problem was in fact quite simple: she was married to somebody who was not good for her. It was hard, but it was true. There were histories and obstacles that made it difficult to reach a solution. A little later, however, things improved. It was not at all easy, but the couple did separate, and now, recovered, she functions much better. She can be herself.
          Sometimes the trees do not allow us to see the woods. I will try to explain what I mean.
          In Catalonia, the everyday problems are so close to us that they often keep us from seeing something that stops and freezes us in a general way, something basic that does not quite allow us to function well. It’s something, but, what is it?
          In Catalonia – doctor, doctor, give me vitamins, because I do not know what is happening to me – our minds are full of anxiety; our heads feel like they are going to break from hours of thinking. Perhaps we are not perfect enough…perhaps we are a nation…or perhaps we are not. Perhaps we have not done a deep enough study of our old roots.  We stir up what is incidental and avoid facing the main source of what is hurting us.
          If we dared to face it, overcoming our fear, we would discover that our misfortune is neither unique in the world, nor beyond repair, nor difficult to understand. We have been married, for quite a long time, to a spouse who deceives us, forcing us through hard times, who changes his mind, tramples our morale, humiliates us, and keeps us from being who we really are. Our discomfort derives from the fact that we are married to Spain.
          The Catalan society has grown up. As all societies with a high degree of civilization, it is a complex, keen, and vulnerable society. It is strong, too. When it wants to go out in the street, its rights are demonstrated by the presence of hundreds of thousands of men and women of all ages and conditions who fill up the cities. It does not need  vitamins nor analgesics. It has very good health, but a bad marriage.
         Because of all of these frustrations, this society becomes a bit depressed. However, its trauma is not congenital. In truth, what is happening is the fact that her partner diminishes her.
          The history is well known. Since 1714, Catalonia has been attacked by Spain three times: during the War of Succession, during General Primo de Rivera’s coup d’état, and during General Franco’s military insurrection. In the more or less peaceful intervals, Spain has generally had a hostile attitude – softened only when necessary – while it was legally consolidating what it had taken illegally, that is to say by force.
          After the political transition, after the death of the dictator, Spain has eroded through its successive rulers, the sense of the Constitution and the scope of the Statute of Autonomy, changing it into a decentralization lacking any contents of substantive power and the process goes on.
          Mental health advises us not to get away from the real question. The guardianship of the Spanish State over Catalonia is ethically blameworthy, politically ill-fated, and economically outrageous. Catalonia has come of age, and it should make use of its wholeness. And all the rest will come freely.

                                                                             Xavier Renau

INTERIOR POLICY AND SOCIETY IN THE XIIIth AND XIVth CENTURIES IN CATALONIA

          While Jaume I was underage, the nobility had gotten used to acting on their own, totally ignoring the monarch. The political tie between comtes-reis (count-kings) and the nobility derived from the feudal pact and also involved the Church. However, the strength of the feudal system allowed businessmen (the patriciate) to enter the world of politics during the XIIIrd Century. With the power of money, the patriciate dominated city rule and imposed a new distribution of power, creating a balance among nobility, Church, and the bourgeoisie.
         The nobility became uneasy because they had lost privileges. In addition, the new conquests did not completely solve the problem- the barons of Aragó were disappointed because they would have preferred that the Valencian lands become an extension of the Aragonese kingdom. The Catalan noblemen did not accept Jaume I’s attempts to strengthen his power inside Catalonia, as well. The last years of the Conqueror were particularly complicated: Members of the Catalan and Aragonese nobility rebelled (1270-71 and 1274-77) and the king and his heir, Pere el Gran, threatened them with the confiscation of their possessions as well as an armed conflict.
          The royal privileges of autonomy for villages and cities could be viewed as a political move by the king, who was looking for the bourgeoisie’s help in his struggle with the nobles. Pere el Gran did not call for the assembly of the Corts at the beginning of their reign, but pretended to turn a special grant into a compulsory tribute and tried to annex the county of Urgell as a part of his lands. All these things provoked a new rebellion of the nobility, which ended when king Pere took Balaguer (1280). This ended the armed opposition to the royal power and it was the beginning of a time in which the aristocracy collaborated in the exterior enterprises of the king, using the parliamentary play of the Corts to preserve their political position.
THE THREE ARMS
          The stability was achieved, therefore, with the strengthening of the political institutions: the Royal Council or Cúria Regia, a body that advised the king in the management of public affairs with a kind of domestic quality; and the Corts, that were the great political assemblies of that time, called and presided by the king or by the king’s representative. They were formed by the three arms, or ranks: the representatives of main families of the nobility; the Church’s hierarchy, the patricians of the villages, and the cities of the kingdom which belonged to the king and were not included among the possessions of the nobility or of the Church.
          The Corts legislated in unison with the king. They also took care of making amends for any offense perpetrated by the king, or by any authority of the kingdom, against any institution. They voted on paying extra taxes, or contributions, to cover the expenses of royal policies, and proposed to the king the best policy for each case. Once the extraordinary taxes, or contributions, had been voted upon and the Corts dissolved, the   compilation of what had been accorded, the delivery of it to the king or to the king’s creditors, had to be done by the Diputació del General or Generalitat, an economic-financial assembly that acted as a delegation of the Corts.
          In the local administration, the Catalan townships were born in the XIIIrd Century. In the beginning, the local government was in the hands of agents (the veguer or the battle) who represented the royal or lordly power everywhere with jurisdiction and coercing power to be able to maintain peace and order. They presided over the assemblies of neighbors who advised them. After a time the older neighbors’ assembly disappeared and a reduced council took its place. This council was formed by the more outstanding neighbors in charge of counseling the reduced group of magistrates in charge of the township’s government.
NOBLEMEN, CLERGYMEN, AND PATRICIANS
          The noblemen were the most important owners of the land. They controlled the land and the working force, received the agrarian incomes and the jurisdictional charges. The barons occupied the higher offices of the administration, were in charge of the most important diplomatic missions, and presided the military and political operations of the great territorial and maritime expansion, from which they received substantial benefits.  The lesser nobility was more tied to the land, the castles and the fortifications. They occupied the middle level of the Church hierarchy and trained the soldiers of the military orders.
          The Church controlled almost a third of the Catalan population. Bishops and abbots came from the high nobility or even from the royal family. The middle hierarchies of the church came from the lower nobility and the patricians, while the lower ecclesiastical ranks were constituted by the sons of rustic families or by individuals from the more common classes in the city. Collectively with the city men, the priests were the great allies of the monarchy, to which they gave both donations and their support in the fights the king had with the nobility. 
          The wealthy aristocracy (the patriciate) was the third important rank. They tended to consider themselves to be at the level of the lesser nobility, they impulsed the institutionalization of the townships and made use of their privileged position to reinforce their control over the township governments. In addition, they monopolized the representation of the kingdom’s townsmen and city men at the Corts, the royal arm, formed by a divisible body in three strata: the major hand, constituted by these patricians; notaries, surgeons), and the lower hand which assembled the workmen.
          The merchants were a rather small group, but their activities brought great vitality to urban life. They were especially worried about their Salvation, which they believed to be threatened by their way of life and the money they earned. In order to expand their businesses and settle them securely, the merchants supported the proposals of the royal arm at the Corts in favor of the Mediterranean expansion, and made loans and donations to the Crown. They received conquered goods and privileges, in exchange.
          The merchant circuits were integrated with global logic and based primarily in the re-exportation from Catalan territory of goods bought in other countries. The importance of this kind of trade can be seen in the diverse commercial routes that were used: the route of North Africa, the route of the islands or of the central Mediterranean Sea; the Byzantine route, that also incorporated the Greek islands; the overseas route, that reached Cyprus, Damascus, Tyre, and Alexandria; and the Western route, that went up to Bruges, and from which the oriental goods were distributed throughout Europe. The existence of  many Catalan consulates was also important. These were formed by associations of merchants in foreign cities where commercial exchange took place. The main products found in those areas of commerce were spices, wheat, cotton, gold, and slaves.
WORKMEN AND PEASANTS
          The popular urban groups could be considered in three levels: the artisans, the non-specialized workers, and the poor and margined people. The artisans were organized in guilds, or brotherhoods, that brought together masters and craftsmen of each profession under the protection of a patron saint and the authority of magistrates elected by the masters. Each guild had its own rules, approved by the municipal power, which, in this way, controlled the workers. The guild made sure that there was always enough raw materials for work, oversaw the production, and protected the members of the guild from those competing with them.
          At that time Catalonia was the economic motor behind the crown. Its well-being was based on the production and exportation of medium quality manufactured goods, and in a very solid component of rural Catalan production (saffron); as well as acting as intermediaries, a role that they knew how to play in international commerce.
          They obtained wool from Aragó, and esparto, linen, hemp, silk and wool from Valencia. The industrial production of villages and cities was geared toward providing for the needs of the local market and then, to export. With the exception of textiles, the medieval industry was characterized by the lack of specialization. The production came from small and scattered family workshops, a fact that explains both the low technical level and the limited work production.
          The peasants were the basic producing class and formed the great majority of the population. They supported the rest of the society with their work. The peasantry was not a homogeneous group, and was subjected to different degrees of exploitation and subjugation. In the New Catalonia (the land West and South of the Llobregat River basin), even though servitude had come with the repopulation and the organization of the dominions, the needs coming from the colonization itself had broadened the peasant ownership of the land, or the hereditary lease possession. However, in most parts of the Old Catalonia the landowners expanded servitude and created a characteristic peasantry: the “remença”.
          The “remença” peasants were men who could be ill-treated with impunity by their lords (ius maletractandi). In addition to giving the owner diverse payments for the usage of the land, they were also forced to respect the owner’s monopoly and work the owner’s lands. At the same time, they were being subjected to six types of harmful exploitation: the remença, the intestia, the eixorquia, the cogúcia, the arsina and the ferma d’espoli.
         At that time, the so-called practice of the “heretament” was generalized among the peasants. That practice consisted in the fact that the peasant would donate the largest part of the inheritance (two-thirds or three-quarters) to the “hereu”, who would then own the property of the lands while his father retained the usufruct for the rest of his life. The brothers and sisters of the “hereu” received the “legitima”, equivalent to a third or a quarter of the value of the lands in money.
          Aragó was the main producer of cereals and cattle. Catalonia, on the other hand, was lacking in meat and cereals because of the population increase and due to the focus of its production towards industrial and speculative export, which also happened in Mallorca. Sometimes Valencia needed more wheat, too, but they compensated it with the production of rice, which, together with sugar, fruits and vegetables constituted as the main export shipments.

CONCLUSIONS
          During the period from the XIIIrd to the XIVth centuries, Catalonia lived a golden era that was clearly reflected in cultural expressions. People lived through an important spiritual impulse (creation of religious orders), an intellectual impulse (depth and wisdom of literature and historiography), and an artistic impulse (origins of Gothic art). It is from this period that the Catalan nation diversified itself internally, and obtained the rich chromatics that is still alive today and which characterize and justify the plural Catalan Lands.
                                                                                        Eduard Juncosa             

  From LA VANGUARDIA

IN FAVOR OF THE OASIS

          Some commentators say that fortunately the “Catalan Oasis” has ended. If this were correct, it is not clear why this news should be considered as being positive. On the other hand, it would be very negative for Catalonia and for Spain if the Catalan method of understanding and living politics were lost.  Furthermore, nobody will want to have such a responsibility, and eventually society would demand to know why.
           The dilemma is to know why some people say that they are glad to see the disappearance of the “Catalan Oasis”. They were probably missing the discord, the radical division in groups separated by deep chasms.
          They most likely failed to notice the adversary’s disqualification just for being an adversary, condemning the opponent’s ideas simply because they are different from their own, given that partisanship is the fodder for political purpose. In this way, everything becomes more clear and simple: only my people are good and, obviously everyone else, is not.
           The “Catalan oasis” will not disappear. The model of cohabitation, of tolerance, the quest for agreements, the acknowledgement of an adversary’s rights, these are the basis on which Catalonia has built its progress and its stability as foundations of its ambition for freedom. This is now too great a legacy for it to be squandered to satisfy a few people who justify their incapacity to accept the pluralism of the reality of Catalonia, by using the method of confrontation.
          If the “Catalan oasis” were to disappear, it would not be beneficial for anyone. Primarily, it would not be good for Catalonia. Divided, Catalonia would not be able to confront the challenges that the future may place in her path. In the face of the radicalization of Spanish political life, where the practice of irreconcilable sectors is present again, where there are more condemnations than proposals, where it is more important to block the opponent rather than stimulate everyone with a project for the future; Catalonia would be very wrong if she allowed herself to be maneuvered into the factions, the fronts, and the division. If the “Oasis” is the opposite to all of these, then let it remain.
          Let those who wish it gone be left without their entertaining pastime. However, let us not lose the good thing, which can improve and further defend our coexistence, as well as give meaning to our contribution to the policy of the State.
      Historically, there were times when not even the “Oasis” saved us from the dramatic moments in Spanish life. Yet, this is not a reason for us to become the driving force for the absurd. In so doing, there would be no hope.
          And there is hope.  Those who criticize the “Oasis”, either, do not know history, or do not remember it. Had this not been so, they would not disparage it. Herein, for the way of understanding and making politics, one can be different as well.

                                                                    Miquel Roca i Junyent

From EL TEMPS
LIFE IN MEDIEVAL CITIES

           During the early medieval times, the Christian cities of Western Europe had become quite reduced. Some urban life could only be found in the episcopal sees and in the towns where the kings or preeminent men lived. The strength of the economy and the foundation of power were based on the possession of lands, and on the authority presiding over these lands and the peasants. This was certainly not the case in the Andalusian world, where urban life was intense.
          Beginning in the XIth century some nuclei began to grow, both in the number of inhabitants and in urbanized space, comprising a diversity of craft works that continually became more specialized; including also a trade market as well as an urban environment and mentality. Those cities also provided themselves with statutes of freedom and a significant level of self-government within the feudal society. Even though the cities had that freedom, we must understand the established pact between the monarchy and the growing bourgeoisie as a type of feudal agreement; another among the very many private pacts and group privileges that were so characteristic of the feudal society.
          In the Catalan Lands, Barcelona was the city that had grown the most, followed by Perpinyà, Lleida and Girona. The incorporation of two important Islamic cities – Mallorca and València – to the Catalan-Aragonese crown certainly contributed to create a more urban tone but, in spite of the commercial and maritime expansion of the XIVth century, the context continued to be essentially agrarian.
          Our cities, as most of the Mediterranean cities of that time, were mercantile and artisan, but they still kept some features of the agrarian cities, coupled to the production of cereals and wine. These were basic products of the population, products that could become scarce due to climatic misfortunes, so characteristic of our lands.
          The cities, always enclosed within the fortified area, were growing with the aggregation of new suburbs and towns, and new ramparts around them. These nuclei became filled with foreigners who came mostly from the rural region looking for better ways of living. Inside the fortified section, the streets were narrow and full of turns, only made smaller by stone benches, tables, and counters, which created difficulty for anyone walking.
          The general atmosphere was of great activity, where the haulage of stones could be seen everywhere, and the building enthusiasm did not rest during the remaining medieval centuries. During the XIVth century and the beginning of the following, most cities were constantly busy paving streets, building cathedrals, churches and monasteries, opening places to create markets and strolls, building markets for merchants, guild houses, draper mills, hospitals, observing the growing suburbs beyond the walls, the construction of shipyards, and the way the port areas were enlarged in the cities that were near the sea.
          Because of the growing of walled towns and cities, most of the people in them lived in small and dark houses. It is understandable, therefore, that a good part of every day’s life was out in the open. The artisans worked in the doorways of the houses and often in the street; the housewives did their spinning on the stone benches, and the children got together there, as well. The streets were the setting for joys and grief, the places to meet and publicize, not only products, but also knowledge and confidences.
     A change in the way of living and in mentality happened especially in the latter medieval centuries. The cities were becoming consistently more urban. Their priority was defense, as can be seen in the construction of ramparts to protect, limit, and enclose the space separating the area of piled-up houses from the orchards that the inhabitants cultivated. Their care for the aspect of the cities was shown in their opening of squares, paving of streets and embellishing the monuments. The life of the urban people often took place in the streets, where diverse public manifestations occurred. The authorities took care of the order of life in the streets, and the town criers trumpeted abroad prohibitions and information.
           In the medieval cities, all was learned through the senses. The visible symbols and the oral messages informed the illiterate majority. Groups of curious people got together in the markets, at the churches, at the fountains, and even around the gallows. They were simple people, ready to be amazed about everything.
           Among other developments near the end of the XIVth century public clocks were made, or tried to be. An example of this can be found in Perpinyà, in the royal palace, or in the proposal of the Valencia jurors to build one of them. A proposal denied by king Pere ej Cerimonios, since “campanes no les ha hom sino en esgleyes o en palaus de reys”. (People do not have bells, churches and the palaces of the kings have them). Another example is the construction of the hours- bell in the city of Barcelona, paid by the town hall, but finally placed in the cathedral. By the end of that century, the citizens did not have to look at the sun to know the time, and they did not care much for the canonical hours that ruled the life of parishes and convents. The citizens made the civilian hours ring with a manual clock that became a symbol of urban life.
          Many artisans did their work in the streets during a good part of the year. There they created the objects that, either they themselves or their wives or sons would sell, often showing them in the street on counters and hangers that were protected from the rain and sun with awnings. All these things made it very difficult for people, carts and horses to transit through the streets.
          The authorities limited the zones through which the beasts of burden could pass. Therefore, we already had streets for pedestrians back in the XIVth Century. They tried also to control the installation of counters outside the doors of the houses of artisans and shopkeepers, but they were not often successful.
            Some artisans made sure that people saw from afar the symbols of their trade Hostels, and other houses where wine was sold showed a broken off branch over the door, at least in Barcelona since the XIVth century, as ordered by the “consellers”.
          The markets appeared in the squares and streets of the city in improvised counters. Everything had its place to be sold at: the Wheat square, the Millet square, the Cabbages’, the Cherries’ the Oil’, the Wine one, the Straw one, the Wool square, indicated the spaces for each corresponding market. During weekdays, early in the morning, the markets were full of people, of voices, of colors and odors.
By the afternoon, all the stalls of the market were dismantled and the only thing left was the dirt that the neighborhood had to clean out, even if they did not very much feel like it.
         Any universal event might be accompanied with parades, tournaments, cavalcades and other festive happenings, somewhat organized by the city. The coming of kings or other important people was celebrated, the news of military victories, the arrival of relics, the marriages or birth of princes, and even burials, and all were conducted with great ceremony. There were also popular and spontaneous festivities. The characteristic traits of the popular festive expressions in the street were bonfires, bowers, music and dances. People would wear their best clothes. For some special festivities, people were asked by a public announcement to stop being in mourning. so that the atmosphere in the streets would be full of joy. Festivities had a very attractive and solemn character: the bonfires and lights were symbols of great joy, and were lighted at the top of the bell towers and the ramparts to celebrate victories or the arrival of important people.
           During the medieval centuries, the Church participated in order to have a status in the street festivities. Some popular manifestations were synthesized in the processions. Specially important was the of Corpus Christi that tried to integrate a group of popular cultural manifestations and christianize them: farces, bowers, bonfires, mystics, theater, dance, people disguised as angels or devils and fantastic animals made out of cardboard were present on the streets and inside the churches.
          At sunset the doors of the city closed, and thus it remained, dark and locked in itself. The outer doors of the houses were closed, too. Those doors stayed open during the day, but at night only, the brothel kept its doors open.  The streets became silent and empty. In the early morning, during spring and summer, however, one could hear every now and then, here and there, groups of young men playing their instruments and singing songs of the dawn under the window of some young woman, or shouting insults at someone’s door.
                                                                            Teresa Vinyoles i Vidal

  P U J O L
  
          I do not know if anyone truly knows the gentleman Jordi Pujol, a gentle man who is now at that certain age that shows, this gentleman who has a big head that must certainly be well made and well filled.  I seem to recall that Montaigne said, “A well made head is better than a well filled head”. He did not consider the cases, which must be very few, where the two qualities coincide.  This gentleman departed the palace of the Generalitat a few days ago, with the mossos’ guard of honor formed for the last time, and was received in the square by the whistles of a few ill- mannered youths.
          Now that Christmas and the New Year have already passed, now that Mr. Jordi Pujol is no longer the president of Catalonia, now that people have bid farewell to him so officially and with so little warmth, I would like to reminisce on two or three of the times I have been near the man, simply because it may be useful to the pujologists – a profession not yet created, I believe - to the Pujolists, or to interested readers.
          For instance one day, over twenty years ago, at the closing ceremony of the Congress of Catalan Culture, in a closing dinner at Espluga de Francolí, after the acts held in the Monasteri of Poblet. Several hundreds of people were waiting in the big hall, and a long line of diverse personalities, important politicians and very well known faces, were near the table. Between the door and this group of people, there was another line of people standing: they were the waiters, the cooks, and the kitchen helpers. President Jordi Pujol came in, while music played, and he headed directly to all the service people, greeting them one by one, and shaking hands with them. I was very close to them, and I heard him tell them how important they were, that without them that ceremony, that dinner, could not have been accomplished, and other words to that effect. Once the waiters and the cooks had been greeted, Pujol made an ambiguous gesture to the important people and went to take his seat.
          The second instance that I remember happened one September evening in the city of Balaguer where, for reasons that are not important, I coincided there with a visit by Jordi Pujol. By his side, together with his retinue, I walked through streets and squares at a good pace, observing how he was drawing back the small curtains of inauguration plates, how he greeted everybody, recalling faces like those of Mr. Ramon and Mrs. Pepita, talking enthusiastically, walking and walking until we arrived at a platform near the river where the last act of the day would take place, perhaps in memory of the count of Urgell. The evening was dreadful. There was a strong wind blowing, big rain drops were falling, leaves were flying, the dust was swirling up, and yet, President Pujol gave an optimistic and passionate speech: “Catalonia is going well but must get even better, we have done many things and have to do many more.”  Over the heads of the ecstatic people, there were flags, dust, and umbrellas broken by the wind. Nobody left.
           The third time was a day that he had asked me to go to see him in his office, that is, in one small room at the palace of the Generalitat. He was coming to Valencia, I do not recall why, and he wished that I explain some things to him. Granted, I had to wait a long time for him: I think that he was returning from either Rome or New York. He finally arrived, tired and late. We had a couple of hours to talk. I think I only spoke for about twenty minutes of those two hours, as he did the talking for the rest of the time. . He spoke about the Valencian Land, and about everything else that came to his mind, and I thought, “Why has he called me if he is the one talking?” Later I understood that he already knew everything that I had thought he would want to ask me. He explained everything at length to me, pacing almost all of the time, and I have come to think that he was using me as an opponent or as a listener in a general rehearsal.
          And this is now my small homage, minimal homage. All I have recounted you may add to the collection of anecdotes, both small and substantial stories that so many people know, and which will perhaps help us find out what we do not know. I have the impression that other presidents are certainly easier to portray, be they from now or from before, from here or from elsewhere, 
                                                                Joan F. Mira

DID
                YOU 
                                     KNOW
                                                        THAT…?

*** The branch of International Amnesty in Catalonia (AIC) commemorated its 25th anniversary last November, on Wednesday the 26th, at the Barcelona Auditorium. There were many newspaper columnists and well-known artists who wanted to show their support. After several activities and presentations came the closing act: a varied musical program that put together the most diverse tendencies under the same thought, that is to say the absolute respect for human rights everywhere, with special emphasis in freedom of speech.

*** Estanislau Torres (Barcelona, 1926) received the Sant Jordi Prize for an autobiographical story of remembrances of the Civil War – La Derrota, 1966). He has now published the book “Quasi un dietari. Memòries 1926-1949”. The book is a type of chronicle of infancy and youth, of the family roots and everyday life of a person who has lived through the Republic, the Civil War, and the Francoist era. The book is also a very interesting mental exercise, since it recreates the life of the writer through his own memories. This is clearly envisioned through the eyes of the reader in a book that is simultaneously a chronicle and a painting, and that is full of life,

*** The Escarré International Center for National Minorities, (in Catalan CIEMEN), has awarded its annual prize to the writer Joan Francesc Mira, in the national section, and to Umar Khanbiev, ex – minister of health Txetxenia, in the international section. These prizes are intended as recognition to people and institutions that have been outstanding in the defense of the collective rights of peoples. In this sense, CIEMEN considers that in 2003 Mira was outstanding as “one of the most clear and compromised thinkers of the country.” Catalonia Today has been and is proud to present in every issue one of Mira’s articles published in ELTEMPS.  CIEMEN has distinguished Khanbiev with the award as “an homage to the Txetxenian people, who have suffered and continue to suffer a most terrible genocide” adding “This surgeon has done a very intense humane work in favor of his people”. The prizes were awarded on January 12.

*** The book “Mercat d’històries. Relats i poemes d’Africa i el Carib” edited by Icaria Editorial, was an idea of the Associació Cultural Translit, created in Barcelona in 1993 to promote African, Asian, and Caribbean literature in Europe, through publications and activities related to literature. This volume is an anthology of 18 authors.