Tribuna - Víctor Lapuente
Catalonia is mestizo and we also claim a mestizo Spain; we are fed up with
exaltations like those in Plaza de Colón. We do not want more redeemers or
destroyers of the country or "robbers of the nation"
Those of us who did not attend the Plaza de Colón
concentration want to demonstrate. I speak in my name, but I believe that I
share the opinion of hundreds of thousands of Catalans, and of many other
Spaniards: we do not feel identified with the sovereignty drift or with the
nationalism of chest blows we saw on Sunday in Madrid. We are accused of
remaining silent; in fact, however, we feel silenced. If you live in Seville,
Burgos or the Huesca of my childhood, taking out to the balcony the red and
yellow flag has no costs. But if you are a Vic businessman, a Barcelona civil
servant or a Tarragona employee, you risk your business, the promotion
possibilities or the esteem of your colleagues and friends. This is for sure a
perspective of life threatened by the possibility, small and distant in time,
of secession of Catalonia, as well as by the probability, strong and close, of
social conflict in this beautiful land.
Our voice is not represented by any political party.
And it is manipulated by almost each one of them. No, we are not equidistant
between the two nationalisms. We are Spaniards, because so is recorded in our
DNI and all the legal systems, national and international, past, present and
future. And we feel Spaniards, because we share affective and blood ties with
the rest of Spaniards. And this is not because the most frequent surnames in
Catalonia are all of Spanish origin - unlike what happens in Norway, whose
independence from Sweden is an example for the Catalan separatists, and where
the surnames were and are ... Norwegian-, but because we share the same daily
life and ways of living. We feel sorry for the same tragedies, like the Utrera
accident, and we rise with the same acts of heroism, like having the most
praised organ donation system in the world. Or the goal of Iniesta, that both
‘Barcelona’ and ‘Español’ supporters celebrated with the same passion.
In Catalonia we also watch Dónde
estabas…, the TV show of La Sexta. We do not see Où étiez-vous ... on the French television or Where were you ... on the British one. Our frame of reference is
Spain. Every Thursday night, Spaniards from inside and outside of Catalonia
share the melancholy of the summers in which we danced the same songs, the
pride of the advances in the recognition of sexual minorities or the shame for
the media treatment of the crime in Alcàsser. And we remember, with
astonishment, how, since the arrival of democracy, we have gone from the
rearguard to the vanguard of the advanced world in almost any indicator of
quality of life.
When in 2039 we will be watching 'Where were you in
2019?' we will be ashamed of the present nationalist madness in both sides.
However, we also feel Catalan. Of a Catalonia that
is part of Spain. A mestizo part, not pure. We Catalans want children to learn
Catalan, the history of Spain and the history of Catalonia, to know the songs
of Serrat, but also those of Llach. Many of us live in Barcelona, one of the
most cosmopolitan cities, and one of the most longed for tourist destinations
on the planet. But we also enjoy rural Catalonia, we climb its magical
mountains and honor its traditions, from the castellers to the Catalan matrimonial right, irrespective of
whether we marry in Montserrat or in a civil court in El Prat. Catalonia is
mestizo. And, defending this mestizo nature, we also claim a mestizo Spain.
We are not equidistant. We are patriots. And being
a patriot is not an aseptic adherence to the Constitution, but an emotion. But
an emotion that seeks union, not confrontation. And, in these moments, in the
Spanish public debate we have too many saviors of the country and few patriots.
If we learned something during the Twentieth Century, it was that the saviors
of the fatherland are the ones who destroy the homelands. We do not want more
redeemers or destroyers of the country or "robbers of the nation", as
Alfonso Guerra called the pro-independence people. We are fed up with both nationalisms.
We are tired of the pro-independence activists using
the procés to put under the carpet
the real problems of the Catalans, from a public health system that requires
reforms which cannot be postponed to a policy of urban mobility that, for the time
being, has left the organizing city of the Mobile World Congress without Uber
or Cabify. A glaring example of negligence is the scant discussion about the
educational model, beyond, of course, the respective fussing about the
"indoctrination" or about "nostra
llengua".
In these moments an interesting academic debate is
taking place on the effects of the linguistic immersion on what really matters
to the Catalan fathers and mothers: how much are their children learning? And these
are the questions that should matter to politicians and analysts: do we have an
education system that guarantees equal opportunities for all children? or do we
have in place one which only benefits those who have more resources or speak a
certain language at home? Empirical studies begin to be available, showing either
the negative effects, or the positive ones, of linguistic immersion. It is
these data, and the need to come up with more, and more rigorous, studies, what
should be the focus for the political discussion.
The basis of the pro-independence argument rests on
the premise that the Spaniards suffer from Catalanophobia.
And we are fed up with nationalist exaltations like
those in Plaza de Colón. Those who, in Girona, Barcelona, Lleida or
Tarragona, suffer from misrule in Catalonia, who are accused of traitors and botiflers, who live in a bubble where
you have to watch your words in every conversation, trivial or professional,
who suffer in our own flesh what others observe from the outside with the
comfort of the spectators of a sporting event (and the irresponsibility of the hooligans), those are the ones who
really know that demonstrations like the one on Sunday, which inevitably
unleash the most rancid passions, are the best fuel for the pro-independence
movement.
The evidence is there. When the PP collected
signatures against the Estatut, there were unscrupulous people who, when asked
by journalists, answered something like "I'm here to sign against the
Catalans". And these expressions were, and continue to be, manipulated by
the pro-independence movement: "See? They do not want us in Spain. We have
to go". The basis of the pro-independence argument rests, in the
background, on the premise that the Spaniards suffer from Catalanophobia.
The intention of those who called the
demonstration, and many of those who, with good spirit, gave a positive answer
to the call by assisting, was not to unleash again this Catalanophobia. But in
politics do not count the intentions, but the results, which will be the same
as those of the infamous collection of signatures against the Estatut: to
strengthen the pro-independence fire.
I hope that when in 2039 we will watch Where were you in 2019? we will be
ashamed of the nationalist madness of each side. We the patriots must rebel.
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