S O S
We want our freedom (video)
Atrocities Spanish war (video)
Pau Casals' speech (video)
Birdsong (video)
Catalonia
Landscapes and monuments (photos)
Tales of fiction:
The buyer
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S O S Do you know where Catalonia is?
Do you know something about Catalonia?
For a lot of people in the world, Catalonia doesn’t exist, or it’s a small place in Spain. We have a message for you: Catalonia exists! The Catalans exist, we have our own identity, our culture, and our language, Catalan, which is not Spanish.
Hitler and Nazis committed atrocities. But in Catalonia atrocities were committed and they are hidden or forgotten because everybody suffers amnesia. Massacres, tortures, prohibitions, dictatorships, innocent people imprisoned, martyrs who were murdered, crimes that have never been convicted... Nowadays Catalonia is oppressed by Spain, and the Catalans don’t want to be slave of a country which steals our money. We have suffered the Spanish invasion since 1714, and since 1936 we put up with a Hitler’s follower dictator for 40 years. Now democracy is preached. What kind of democracy is the one that allows us to be treated like slaves, that denies our language, our traditions, our freedom?
The Spanish hate us, but they chain us to their disguise of Constitution. They pardon us (like judges) because Catalonia is a rich country, and they take advantage of our wealth. The theft is too abundant, too obvious. They abuse us, they insult us, they despise us, they ill-treat us and torture us, they manipulate us and make us believe we cannot be free because we belong to Spain, for tradition, because we need each other. Many countries have achieved their independence in recent years. Why aren’t we allowed to be free? Will it be because dictators in disguise of liberal and democratic governors still exist?
We don’t deserve to swallow the instructions in the leaflet of the medicines in a foreign language; we don’t deserve to go to the cinema and not to be able to hear the film in our language; we don’t deserve that close people are called Catalan and lover of Catalonia and they seem to be allergic to Catalan, they don’t integrate into Catalonia and they don’t speak Catalan arguing ridiculous matters of shame.
We want an identity card that doesn’t drive us mad and that doesn’t embarrass us when we have to show it because we don’t identify with it. We want an identity card that doesn’t tell lies and that shows our true nationality.
They threaten not to buy Catalan products, and they threaten to send us the tanks. The media attack us continuously, abuse us and criticise us, as if it was a crime to want to be free. The Spanish treat us like mad, they say we have a collective mental disease.
For a lot of people in the world, Catalonia doesn’t exist, or it’s a small place in Spain. We have a message for you: Catalonia exists! The Catalans exist, we have our own identity, our culture, and our language, Catalan, which is not Spanish.
Hitler and Nazis committed atrocities. But in Catalonia atrocities were committed and they are hidden or forgotten because everybody suffers amnesia. Massacres, tortures, prohibitions, dictatorships, innocent people imprisoned, martyrs who were murdered, crimes that have never been convicted... Nowadays Catalonia is oppressed by Spain, and the Catalans don’t want to be slave of a country which steals our money. We have suffered the Spanish invasion since 1714, and since 1936 we put up with a Hitler’s follower dictator for 40 years. Now democracy is preached. What kind of democracy is the one that allows us to be treated like slaves, that denies our language, our traditions, our freedom?
The Spanish hate us, but they chain us to their disguise of Constitution. They pardon us (like judges) because Catalonia is a rich country, and they take advantage of our wealth. The theft is too abundant, too obvious. They abuse us, they insult us, they despise us, they ill-treat us and torture us, they manipulate us and make us believe we cannot be free because we belong to Spain, for tradition, because we need each other. Many countries have achieved their independence in recent years. Why aren’t we allowed to be free? Will it be because dictators in disguise of liberal and democratic governors still exist?
We don’t deserve to swallow the instructions in the leaflet of the medicines in a foreign language; we don’t deserve to go to the cinema and not to be able to hear the film in our language; we don’t deserve that close people are called Catalan and lover of Catalonia and they seem to be allergic to Catalan, they don’t integrate into Catalonia and they don’t speak Catalan arguing ridiculous matters of shame.
We want an identity card that doesn’t drive us mad and that doesn’t embarrass us when we have to show it because we don’t identify with it. We want an identity card that doesn’t tell lies and that shows our true nationality.
They threaten not to buy Catalan products, and they threaten to send us the tanks. The media attack us continuously, abuse us and criticise us, as if it was a crime to want to be free. The Spanish treat us like mad, they say we have a collective mental disease.
The situation is too tense, grotesque and disgusting, the bad life they give us is constant, and people are fed up and very confused.
We send a message to people who want to help us all over the world, an S O S, so that everybody can know the truth, so that everybody knows that “Spain is different”.
We send a message to people who want to help us all over the world, an S O S, so that everybody can know the truth, so that everybody knows that “Spain is different”.
Attention:
Spain is the only country in Europe that hasn’t fallen out with fascism.
We continue under the military dictatorship.
The dictator Franco named the king Juan Carlos his successor.
He swore to defend the principles of the national movement.
Now the king of Spain is under this oath and he forces councillors, mayors, members of Parliament and senators to swear allegiance to his person in taking of offices.
This aberration of representatives chosen democratically that promise allegiance to a head of state who swore the principles of a fascist party doesn’t happen in another country of Europe.
Remember: Catalonia exists, and Catalan is our language
Thank you for reading our S O S. Please email it to your friends.
The editors
Àngels Arguiñarena and Orland Monguillot
WE WANT OUR FREEDOM
Atrocities Spanish war
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Pau Casals’ speech
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El cant dels ocells
Birdsong
Catalan folk song,
national symbol of Catalonia
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Catalonia
Situated in the northeastern Iberian peninsula, Catalonia covers an area of 32 000 km2 and has 6 million inhabitants.
History, language and a distinct cultural, political and legal tradition have shaped the personality of the country and the people. Nowadays Catalonia is an autonomous community with a government of its own known as the Generalitat.
Catalonia is a land of rich and varied scenery and has preserved a rich architectural heritage.
The Catalan Pyrenees, with peaks rising to 3 000 m, run along the northern side of the country and are ideal for skiing, hiking, hunting and fishing, while perfect conditions for nautical sports are offered by the 580 km of Mediterranean coastline, where the tall cliffs and secluded coves of the Costa Brava and Costa de Garraf alternate with the long sandy beaches of the Costa del Maresme and Costa Daurada and the unique natural environment of the Ebro Delta.
Inland lie many fine cities steeped in character, with magnificent historic building, among them Lleida, Girona, Tortosa, Vic and several others. Barcelona, Catalonia's cosmopolitan capital, is one of the most fascinating cities on the Mediterranean, offering a lively cultural life, good shopping, and many sporting events and facilities.
Language and culture
Catalonia's own language is Catalan, a Romance language. Catalan literature, though affected by the political and cultural vicissitudes of the country's history, boasts outstanding prose writers and chroniclers -Ramon Llull, Ramon Muntaner, Josep Pla-, magnificent poets -Ausiàs Marc, Jacint Verdaguer, Joan Maragall, Josep Carner, J.V. Foix- and gifted novellists -Joanot Martorell, Narcís Oller, Mercè Rodoreda.
Catalan music and drama have produced some remarkable works, personalities and groups. Examples in the field of music are the Llibre vermell de Montserrat, Antoni Soler, Enric Granados, Frederic Mompou, Pau Casals, Alícia de Larrocha, Montserrat Caballé, Josep Carreras, Tete Montoliu and the Nova Cançó movement, while the Teatre Lliure, Els Comediants, Els Joglars and La Fura dels Baus, are among the leading names of the major theatrical revival of recent years.
Catalonia's artistic heritage is a permanent reminder of the creativity of the people. Examples are Empúries, the Roman monuments in Tarragona, the vast Romanesque heritage, both rural and urban, the civil and religious works of Gothic art, the great painters of the 19th century, such as Marià Fortuny, the flowering of Modernist art (Art Nouveau) with Gaudí, Domènech i Montaner and Puig i Cadafalch, and the world-famous Catalan artists of the twentieth century -Nonell, Mir, Gargallo, Miró, Dalí and Tàpies. Catalonia possesses a large number of museums, ranging from the famous Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, with its extraordinary collection of Romanesque art, to the small ethnographic museums of country towns.
Landscapes and monuments
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| Pau Casals' house museum, in Sant Salvador (El Vendrell, Tarragona) |
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| Beach of Sant Salvador ( El Vendrell) |
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| Canigó |
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| Cathedral of Girona |
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| Cathedral of Tarragona |
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| Empúries ( Girona) |
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| Girona |
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| Cadaqués (Girona) |
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| Castellers in L'Arboç ( Tarragona) |
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| Mont Rebei (Pirineu Lleida) |
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| Montseny (Barcelona) |
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| Montserrat (Barcelona) |
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| Montserrat (Barcelona) |
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| Vall de Núria (Pirineus) |
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| Monastery of Poblet (Tarragona) |
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| Monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes (Girona) |
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| Santa Maria de Ripoll (Barcelona) |
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| People dancing Sardana, typical dance of Catalonia |
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| Ruins of Tarragona |
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| Sagrada Família (Barcelona) |
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Tales of fiction
There’s nobody unluckier than me in the world. Perhaps that famous businessman who suffered the mutation of the staples of onion is unluckier. I’m also a great Catalan nationalist, I support him, surely fierce enemy is angry now that we have obtained our deserved independence, and sabotages us indiscriminately, because the hen with the golden eggs has finished, the hen is us, they are starving, thieves and layabouts, they wouldn’t work although they were threatened to be killed. Let’s exile parasites and I’ll tell you my story, you won’t believe it, it’s unlikely, absurd anecdotes only happen to me.
I was walking along the streets on the promenade, when I was taken by surprise by a Chinese bazaar, although it looked like others, it seemed to me to be a bit different. I was surprised, those Asians, that everybody says are identical, treated me with incredible kindness. I was shocked when one of the girls, who was Chinese, spoke in correct Catalan. She spoke perfectly, it was admirable. Probably she was used to doing it, surrounded by tourists from several countries, immigrants and foreigners, who have learnt Catalan perfectly, not like the others that prefer glue stuck to the tongue before speaking it. Well, let’s not wander off the subject.
They treated me with courteously and in a loving way, which I couldn’t refuse, I would have stayed to live there because of their hospitality, they even showed me a bed, but they only intended me to buy it, they didn’t want me to stay there to sleep. In fact I intended to buy nothing. In the enormous long shop, I couldn’t see the end, there was a little of everything, I needn’t describe it to you. Who has never been to a Chinese bazaar? I don’t want to fluster you with small details. The shop was full of people, crowded with brats with runny noses who were looking for inflatable mattresses for the beach in the shape of animals. A great many grannies were trying hard to find some balls of wool to knit, it was fashionable and in the evening a contest was organized on the beach. It consisted of knitting the longest scarf in the water without wetting it. The contest was Summer scarves, and the cleverest would be the winner. The grandmothers of the county were delighted and excitable.
Among grannies and children, the Chinese shop assistants showed me the contents of the shop, in detail, and convinced me to buy a lot of objects, most of them useless. The most extraordinary was a kind of box in the shape of a human mouth that I have never known its use. I needed a big trolley, they also sold it to me, and happily, I went out of the bazaar, after having chatted for a while with the Chinese-Catalan girl on many subjects. She fell in love with me, it’s natural, my charm is a legend, although my modesty doesn’t allow me to boast about it. I had emptied my credit card. I didn’t even have any money left to buy a packet of rice.
Can’t you imagine how many things I bought? With my tongue out, I was exhausted, pushing my trolley, that weighed a ton, which was full, I couldn’t see the way, the objects were blocking my view, they were like being alive and they guided me to the north. It was necessary to rest before dropping dead like an inhuman disaster and before being clawed and eaten by hungry dogs, I stopped, and with a spurt the things dropped me causing a stupid bang. I didn’t know my nightmare hadn’t started yet. I put them on the sidewalk, wondered at the shop window I was elaborating. The tourists who were strolling seemed to be immune to the heat, stopped to look at the junk, pointed to it speechless, and some took photos. Two tourists began to fight to take from me that nice sunshade I had bought with the Catalan flag. They were Dutch, but they were shouting at the top of their voices they were Catalan. It became a grotesque scene because they were speaking Dutch and they assured it was Catalan with a broad accent which they had studied in Oxford
Shortly after, it was impossible to control the situation, and luckily, a police officer came to help me. I begged him to save me from the mad crowd, and the representative of the authority looked at me with a bad face, asking me if I was a foreigner. I wanted to commit suicide. I didn’t feel like disagreeing with them, I assured them I was Dutch, and I even imitated the accent in order that they were happy. I thought the policeman would help me, and he would make circulate the ticks. Don’t believe it! He handcuffed me and arrested me, with strong words. He shouted at me saying that street sellers were forbidden, and he was convinced the objects were stolen with bad arts, and that I was a layabout, although I denied it to him. A twit drunkard who was walking along the street insisted on braying I was a heartless foreign thief. The officer dragged me, seized my junk, putting it, or rather, throwing it with fury on the trolley, breaking it, and although I repeated to him a thousand times: “I am a buyer, not a seller, and less a thief”, the fool didn’t want to listen to me, he was unkind like a rat.
At the police station I was interrogated in Dutch, they had an interpreter, and as I understood nothing, I don’t know what I told them. Without allowing that I defended myself, or claiming that I wasn’t committing any crime, I was put in a cell and I was fined, but I couldn’t pay. I was imprisoned for some days, a punishment for being a street seller and a thief, and they didn’t give me my things back. Broke and without my purchase. Moreover, I had a hard time in the prison, next to criminal murderers and professional rapists. I felt like a foreigner at home.
Well, I advise you that the next day you see a bazaar, near or far, think twice, and don’t be fooled, although they flatter you with sweet words. And especially, avoid the Dutch.
