For weeks I have been receiving instructions via whatsapp to create the Republic of Catalonia. I am part of a sentimental plot that moves through chains messages that keeps our troop together and alert, either to pay the bail of Artur Mas or to concentrate on the streets. This is due to the spamming of […]
Categoría: In English
They are under investigation for sedition
Published in Spanish. “Son investigados por delito de sedición” Almacén de Derecho President of the Catalan Regional Division of the Judicial Professional Association “When democracy and fundamental freedoms are in peril, a judge’s reserve may yield to the duty to speak out.” Judicial Ethics Report 2009-2010 European Network of Councils for the Judiciary Barcelona, October […]
Why the law?
Originally published in Spanish. “¿Por qué la ley?” Tsevan Rabtan. Las cuatro esquinas del mundo. When I was fourteen a friend of my father gave me a book as a gift. He did it because he always saw me reading, not because he disliked me. It was called -the book, not mi father’s friend- Goat […]
State of exception
On September 6 and 7, as I was watching in amazement the sessions of the Catalan Parliament in which the attempt to legitimize a new and improvised legality was staged, I recalled a reflection by Elias Canetti in his Notes, written in London in 1942, when Great Britain was resisting Hitler’s breakthrough throughout Europe: «Whenever […]
Lessons from Quebec for Catalan secessionists
Originally published in Spanish. «Lecciones desde Quebec para secesionistas catalanes» Isaac Nahon-Serfaty. Letras Libres. Although the cultural and political context of separatism in Quebec is different from that of the Catalan independence movement, the history of the former could shed light on the future of the latter. Catalan separatist nationalism could afford to learn a […]
Catalonia
Originally published in Spanish. Jorge San Miguel. Medium. We arrived at Penedès at noon. We told the owner of the house that we are going to a wedding, just in case. Surely we exaggerate. It is a renovated farmhouse, with a white stone tower that rises on a ridge between vineyards. We eat at Avinyonet […]
Feelings can be questioned
Originally published in Spanish. Aurelio Arteta. El País. It’s not true that national feeling is not debatable. If political sympathies were immune to criticism, they would all be equal in value. To nationalists, the end-all of politics is to preserve that which is theirs and draw borders between themselves and others. Among our most widespread […]
The Eternal Process
Originally published in Spanish. Ignacio Varela. El Confidencial. “WE, the democratic representatives of the people of Catalonia, in the free exercise of the right of self-determination. CONSTITUTE the Catalan Republic, as an independent and sovereign State. ENTER into force the Foundational and Legal Transition Law of the Republic. INITIATE the constituent process. AFFIRM the desire to open negotiations with Spain. […]
The Scapegoats
Originally published in Spanish. Ignacio Vidal-Folch. Crónica Global. In this sinister movie which is the Catalan process (from which, judging by the first cataclysmic consequences, with the businesses leaving Catalonia for Madrid, Valencia, Aragon or wherever, with the elders panicking for losing their pensions, with the emptying of banks boxes, and even with the possibility […]
Europe as a solution?
Originally published in Spanish: «¿Europa como solución?». Sandra León. El País Catalan nationalist parties who have embraced independence do not seek in Europe a space for participation, but for acknowledgement “Spain is the problem. Europe is the solution”. This quote by Ortega y Gasset, which was pronounced at the beginning of the 20th century in […]