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Revistes Catalanes amb Accés Obert

CLOISTER OF THE MONASTERY OF RIPOLL 
1 D O S S I E R  
T H E  BIRTH O F  T H E  
C A T A L A N  P E O P L E  
CATALONIA WAS BORN MORE THAN A THOUSAND YEARS 
AGO, WHEN SHE BROKE OFF FROM THE CAROLINGIAN 
TRUNK AND, GROWING OUT OF THE "SPANISH MARCH", 
SHE SHOOK OFF ALL SUBMISSION BEYOND THE PYRENEES 
AND SET OUT ON HER OWN PATH THROUGH HISTORY. 
O ations don't spring up at ran- dorn, like rnushroorns. In the ma- jority of cases, their birth, as in 
the case of Catalonia, has involved 
long and painful labour that has lasted 
for centuries. There are nations that in 
spite of having been born more or less 
as such survive in a perpetua1 adoles- 
cence until they die of exhaustion or are 
absorbed by another, stronger nation. 
What do we understand by Catalonia? 
This is  where we have to start frorn. 
Strictly, or rather, politically speaking, 
Catalonia today is the north-eastern re- 
gion of Spain -recognized as a "nation- 
ality" by the Spanish constitution of 
1978 and given substance as an Auto- 
nornous Community by the Statute of 
CLIMENT F O R N E R  P o E T  
1979-, rnade up of four provinces: Bar- 
celona, Tarragona, Lleida and Girona. 
It is also known as the Principality of 
Catalonia. But in a broad sense, true to 
history, it is  more, rnuch more: it corn- 
prises everything known as the Paisos 
Catalans, or Catalan Lands, which, to 
use an emblernatic expression, stretch 
from Salses to Guardamar and frorn 
Fraga to Maó. 
The Paisos Catalans today are distri- 
buted over three states: Spain, France 
and Andorra. Although they were not 
given this name until the end of the 
nineteenth century, frorn at least 
the twelfth century they consisted of the 
group of lands whose language was 
Catalan, differentiated from Latin for 
centuries. Later on, in the thirteenth cen- 
tury, due to the growth of the Catalan 
population, the Balearic lslands and the 
País Valencia were incorporated. The 
Catalan regions belonging to the French 
state since the disastrous Treaty of the 
Pyrenees of 1659 are Vallespir, Con- 
flent, Rosselló, Fenolleda and Alta Cer- 
danya, al1 on the other side of the Pyre- 
nees. L'Alguer, the town on the island of 
Sardinia where Catalan is  also spoken, 
is a case apart. 
Another point worth clearing up before 
we go any further is  the etymology or 
rneaning of the word "Catalunya". 
Where does it come frorn? Researchers 
are not fully agreed on this question. In 
fact, the word "catala" appears for the 
first time in a Latin document of the tenth 
century. It was actually the inhabitants 
of the country who called themselves 
"catalans". "Catalunya," the same as 
"Castilla", could mean a land of many 
castles. Some people say the narne 
"Catalunya" comes from "Gotlandia", 
land of the Goths, or from "Castrum 
Catalaunicum", the Latin name for Cha- 
lons-sur-Marne. Legend would have it 
derive from a mythical figure, Otger Ca- 
taló (723 A.D.), a hero of the Recon- 
quest and cornpanion of the Nine 
Knights of the Round Table. If there is 
no agreement as regards the name, 
there is  on the other hand when it 
comes to the origin of the national flag 
of Catalonia, the four red stripes on a 
golden background, which was the coat 
of arms of the Counts of Barcelona, and 
one of the oldest in Europe according to 
Dr Marti de Riquer. But this coat of arms 
is  also shrouded in legend: the four 
stripes were supposedly left by four fin- 
gers dipped in the blood of Count Wil- 
fred the Hairy, mortally wounded in 
French territory. 
And now we take up the thread once 
more. The Catalan nation was born 
more than a thousand years ago, when 
it broke off politically from the Euro- 
pean Carolingian trunk and, growing 
out of the "Spanish March", shook off 
al1 submission beyond the Pyrenees and 
set out on its own path through history. 
In its gestation during the previous cen- 
turies, various colonizations and cul- 
tures had played a part in shaping it: 
Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Visi- 
goths, Muslims, etc. The country's pre- 
Romanic inhabitants are known under 
the name of lberians and stretched from 
Languedoc to Andalusia. Because of its 
geographical location, Catalonia be- 
came a free and welcoming stopping- 
off point, always open to culture and 
sensitive to freedom. It's not surprising 
that the musician Pau Casals, one of this 
century's most universal Catalans, 
speaking before the United Nations in 
1971, should have expressed his pride 
at being a Catalan, the first democratic 
country in Europe. 
The territory of Catalonia was shaped 
on the basis of counties: ancient Visi- 
gothic administrative divisions that were 
ruled by counts with military, political 
and iudicial functions. A group of coun- 
ties formed a "march". There were 8 17 
counties. That of Barcelona, the city 
now called "Cap i Casal de Catalunya" 
(Head and Ancestral Home of Catalo- 
nia), was the most important and deci- 
sive, since it came to dominate the rest, 
either by right of conquest or by mar- 
riage alliances. When Catalonia and 
Aragon united to form the Catalano- 
Aragonese Crown (1  137) and James I 
conquered Majorca ( 1  229) and Valen- 
cia (1  2381, we can say that the country 
lived its age of greatest splendour. 
From 1200 on, she made herself mis- 
tress of the Mediterranean with her 
commercial activity, even mentioned by 
Dante. 
If the Counts of Barcelona did not break 
politically with the Kings of France until 
985, the Ecclesiastical Province of Cata- 
lonia (with its metropolitan seat in Ta- 
rragona, the "Tarraco" of the ancient 
Romans) split off from that of Nar- 
bonne, on which it depended, in 1091, 
an event which was commemorated this 
year. It's important to note that the men 
who really forged the country and left 
their indellible footprints were, in order 
of importance, the monks, the knights 
and the peasants. But the man consi- 
dered the "father of the land", on ac- 
count of the enormous religious, cultural 
and political influence he wielded at the 
beginning of the eleventh century, was 
Oliba, son of the Count of Cerdanya- 
Besalú Oliba Cabreta, and himself 
Count of Bergueda-Ripolles until he be- 
came a monk of Ripoll and, in time, 
Abbot of Ripoll and Bishop of Vic. He 
was famous, amongst other things, for 
the "Pau i treva de Déu" he established. 
This "Peace and truce of God" was, 
according to the historian Antoni Plade- 
vall, a kind of religious institution which, 
with the help of the civilian power, im- 
posed periods of respite in the endless 
private wars that shook the life of the 
1 D O S S I E R  1 
CAPlTAl OF MONASTERY OF RlPOil 
society of those days; it lasted from the 
eleventh to the thirteenth century. The 
chief historical rnonurnents that still 
speak of hirn are the rnonastery of Ri- 
poll (10321, considered the "cradle of 
Catalonia"; the cathedral of Vic ( 1  0351,- 
and the rnonastery of Sant Miquel de 
Cuixa, in the Conflent. He was also the 
founder of the rnonastery of Montserrat 
(1 0251. 
Monsignor Jacint Verdaguer, the Cata- 
lan poet par  excellence, helped create 
the legend of the origins of the Catalan 
nation with his great narrative poern, 
"Canigó", in which his love for his 
country and his religious feeling are 
wonderfully blended thanks t<r the un- 
equalled flow of his language. This ís 
the poern that starts: "Amb son germa, 
lo comte d e  Cerdanya,/ com aliga que 
a I'aliga acompanya,/ davalla Tallafer- 
ro d e  Canigó un matí" (With his broth- 
er, the Count of Cerdanya,l like an 
eagle accornpanying the eagle,l Talla- 
ferro descends frorn Canigó one rnorn- 
ing1 and ends with the verse of "The two 
belltowers": "Lo que un segle bastL I'al- 
tre ho aterra,/ mes resta sempre el mo- 
nument de Déu;/ i l a  tempesta i el torb, 
I'odi i l a  guerra/ a l  Canigó no el tiraran 
a ferro,/ no esbrancaran I'a1t1'vol Piri- 
neu." (What one century built, the next 
will not dernolish,/but for ever stands 
the monurnent to God;land the storrn, 
the blizzard, hate and warlwill not de- 
rnolish Canigó,lthey will not fell the lofty 
Pyrenees.) If it were possible here to 
look more closely at this epic, we would 
see what is  already recognized by his- 
torian~: that "the birth, the history and 
the culture of Catalonia are steeped in 
Christianity", to use the words of the 
docurnent "Arrels cristianes de Catalu- 
nya", published by the Catalan bishops 
(1  9851. 
To surn up; The Catalan Nation, already 
well established in the tenth century, 
became politically independent frorn 
France -the "Spanish March" had a 
non-Spanish origin-, lived centuries of 
splendour and expansion and conti- 
nued, with ups and downs, until 1714, 
when Philip V, the ill-omened Castilian 
Bourbon king, defeated the Catalans 
and subiugated them with the iron rod 
of the decree of "Nova Planta". How- 
ever,. the day after that sarne 1 1 th of 
Septernber of that unfortunate year, 
Catalonia began to rise again, return- 
ing to normal life and taking up once 
more the struggle for her independ- 
ence. In other words, she refused to 
die. Because, as Monsignor Josep Ar- 
rnengou, author of the book Justi- 
ficació d e  Catalunya (1 9791, states 
categorically, "We are Catalans or 
nothing." 
All this rnade it possible for the pheno- 
rnenon we cal1 the Renaixenqa to come 
about in the rnid-nineteenth century. 
Catalonia learnt self-awareness, began 
by retrieving her language and her lit- 
erature, so weakened under the despo- 
tic ernpire of the Castilian language, 
and started to activate her industry and 
econorny and grow into a prosperous, 
rnodern country occupying a leading 
position in Spain as a whole. The Civil 
War of 1936- 1939 once more interrup- 
ted this recovery, since Catalonia, irnpli- 
cated as she was, carne off very badly 
and had to pay the consequences for 
the forty years that the Franco régirne 
lasted. Following the death of Gene- 
ral Franco (1  975) and the restoration 
of dernocracy, she has once more 
raised her head. We could say that 
she has been reborn. But will she be 
able to recover the lost sovereignty 
her history has earned her? That is  the 
question. 
And another, even more incisive. Has 
she the necessary political and popular 
will to achieve it? Only God and time 
will tell. For the rnornent, the doubts are 
worrying, in spite of the changes in Eu- 
rope that are so favourable to the re- 
cognititon of historical nations, what- 
ever their size. At al1 events, so as not 
to lose hope, it is worth remembering 
those lines of Josep Carner: "Salut a l a  
Patria, no encara nascuda/ com I'hem 
somiada sos fills." (Hail to the horne- 
land, as yet unbornlas we, her sons, 
have drearned her.1 


The Birth of the Catalan People

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