Google...not so smart...

The tag "#gogglecat" has become the Twitter 'trending topic' in Spain after Google Map users in Catalonia noticed that the names of several streets throughout the Catalan country have been translated into Spanish in a such ridiculous way. To get an idea of such piece of nonsense, imagine that a person using Google Maps in France reads street names in English translated into French. For example: "Times Square" would be "La Place des Temps"; "Broadway" would be "Le chemin large"; "Wall Street" would be "La rue du Mur"; or the "Westminster Abbey" would become "L'abbaye du la Cathédrale du Ouest".

Yes. Google programmers are not infallible and they also make mistakes typical of beginners!!

An example of a stupid translation: "Ronda de Dalt" is translated into "Ronda de Arriba"

Two Spanish MEPs jeer at the Catalan MEP Ramon Tremosa for not speaking in Spanish

Strasbourgh.- Today Wednesday, two Spanish Members of the European Parliament have jeered at Ramon Tremosa, a Catalan MEP, for speaking in English instead of Spanish. As Tremosa explains in his tweet: I have defended an oral amendment in the plenary, in English as usual. Some people shouted "hablas mejor español! [you speak better Spanish!]". 2011 or 1939?

Tremosa asks himself "2011 or 1939?" regarding to the dark times of Franco's dictatorship (1939-1975), during which Catalan was forbidden in Spain. The behaviour of the Spanish MEPs is just another example of the intolerance that politicians in Spain have toward Catalan language and culture. The funny thing though is that Tremosa was speaking in English during the plenary, not in Catalan. That's simply pure arrogance for believing that Spanish should be the leading language in the world. After all, the mean level in English skills in Spain are reduced to know what does "motherfucker" and mean.

Ramon Tremosa - MEP

Bullfighting eventually forbidden in Catalonia

Finally the well-known world-wide barbarian Spanish tradition of bullfighting has come to its end in Catalonia. The Catalan Parliament banned the spectacle in  July 2010 after 180,000 signatures were collected for a petition. The law will take effect from January 2012, which means that today's "corridas" taken in Barcelona will be the last ones.

Whereas the majority of Catalans support this decision,  a minority claims for the right of freedom to torture bulls to death. Specially, the Spanish ultranationalist parties "Ciudadanos" and "Partido Popular" have tried to prevent the ban from being effective, arguing the ban is yet another attempt of Catalan nationalist parties to remove any trace of the Spanish culture out from the Catalan society.

Bullfighting in Catalonia has been a declining interest during the last 30 years. This is not true for the rest of Spain though, where bullfighting is very active (specially in the south region of Andalusia) and where this tradition has its own TV programs as well.

As a Catalan, I am happy with this ban because I have never identified myself with this old-age tradition in which men dressed up as Christmas trees and with cocky behaviour slowly torture a bull that eventually dies drowned in its own blood. Bullfighting supporters try to defend this abhorrent show by saying that many animals are killed in slaughterhouses everyday... Well, of course we need killing animals for food, but a bull in a bullfighting show is tortured for about 20-30 minutes before dying: the "torero" sticks "banderillas" (some sort of colorfully sharpen sticks) to the bull's back; one after another. While the bull bleeds, it tries to attack the "torero" who dodges the bull. This is repeated several times until the bull is completely exhausted. Then, the "torero" sinks a long sword into the bull's back cutting its lungs and finally sticks some sort of knife to the bull's cervical zone, which paralizes it completely while still being alive.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen... "Toreros" and the Spanish ultranationalist parties "Ciudadanos" and "Partido Popular" claim for people's freedom to practice this "beautiful" tradition. They even say that personalities like Goya and Picasso supported this practice as if it were an argument in favor of it. Goya and Picasso lived in past times, not in the 21st century.

Anyway I'm glad because, hopefully, no more bulls will be tortured to death in my country from now on.

Spanish bullfighting banned in Catalonia.

Catalonia calls the World

We are not better than France.
We are not better than UK.
We are not better than Ireland.
We are not better than Italy.
We are not better than Greece.
We are not better than Belgium.
We are not better than Denmark.
We are not better than Germany.
We are not better than Portugal.
We are not better than Spain.
We are not better than anyone.

We simply want to be what the countries above are: a free nation of Europe; a free nation of the World.

This is a Catalonia calling to the World. Do you want to pick up the phone? Listen, then:

Spanish firemen boo and insult Catalan firemen during WPFG 2011

The World Police and Fire Games 2011 contest celebrated in New York has turned to be the scenario of a  scuffle broken up between the Spanish and Catalan police and firemen. During an exhibition, the Catalan team performed a human tower that was crowned at the top by a member waving a Catalan independentist flag which led the Spanish team to start insulting and mocking the former. Teams from other countries also performed their corresponding presentation without being mocked nor insulted. During soccer matches in Spain, Catalan and Spanish hooligans often insult one each other, but this may be considered "normal", as happens in other countries and sports. However, watching the Spanish police and firemen shouting "fuera!" (get out!) and "hijos de puta!" (sons of bitch!) in a foreign country and during a world-wide event has been really shameful.

The video below shows the moment the Catalan flag is raised while the Spanish team booes and insults the Catalan team.

Catalan music: Beth

This may be an outdated post, but this blog was born more ore less a year later than Beth's last album was released in 2010. This album is titled "Segueix-me el fil", which may be literally translated as "Follow my thread" (got the love message?). I must admit that Beth has never got my attention in a musical sense, although I've always thought she's got a nice voice. However there are a couple of songs from this new album that have really caught my soul, due to their lyrics, music and, of course, Beth's voice.
Beth's fame started after the Spanish TV show "Operación Triunfo" (aka OT) , some sort of reality show consisting on a music academy where unknown people were instructed to become a pop star or something like that. I really hated that show: it was stupid, childish and there was everything but good music there. However there were people having good voices, and among them, there was Beth.


You can access to my favourite songs from "Segueix-me el fil" below.

Song #1: "Tots els botons" (All buttons)

Song #2: "Terra trencada" (Broken land)

Hope you enjoy them!!!

P.S.: if you want a translation of either songs into English, please tell me and I will post it.

Catalan independentism: nonstop!

During the roughly 30 years of democracy in Spain, Catalan independentism has never been so active like in our days. Since the crowded demonstration that took place in Barcelona the past July 10th 2010, Catalan independentism has turned to be for many people the only solution for Catalonia (currently a nation embedded in the state of Spain) to achieve complete cultural and economical freedom.

So far, several experts in different areas have given their opinion about Catalonia's independence from Spain. The nobel prize winner in economics F.E. Kydland asserted it would be easier for ‘the Catalan government to show its level of credibility as against the Spanish government as a whole’ in reference to the financial confidence that a state is able to generate with a view to attracting investment in such difficult economic times. Several months later,  the former IMF chief Kenneth Rogoff said Catalonia would be one of the richest countries in the world if it were independent. Another example is the brittish-born writer Matthew Tree, who recently wrote a book addressed to foreigners that do not understand what Catalan nationalism is actually about. Finally, the past week the "Financial Times" published an interesting discussion about the viability of Catalonia of being independent.

Anyway, whatever is said against to or in favor of Catalonia's independence, the truth is that this subject is a current affair. Actually, the next July 9th 2011 another pro-independence demonstration is to be taken in Barcelona, and many cultural institutions as well as political parties have joined the event.

To read further about what's currently happenning  in Catalonia, please read this post.

Ad promoting the next demonstration, July 9th 2011

(in Catalan and English)

"Fer pinya"

Pep Guardiola and his magical football team F.C. Barcelona won yesterday the UEFA Champions League Cup 2011 by overwhelming Manchester United 3-1 with goals by Pedro, Lionnel Messi and David Villa.

Pep's team demonstrated the Catalan values of humility and team-based hard-working. There's no place for individualism: success is something to achieve by the team, not by individual persons. In Catalan we have the expression "fer pinya" that means to stick together and help each other out to achieve a goal. This is what Pep's team has demonstrated during the last three years. Yesterday he wanted to show this idea in the New Wembley Stadium by emulating the Catalan national dance called "la sardana", which consists on building up a circle of people holding their hands:

La Sardana

FC Barcelona team, yesterday in Wembley

"Fer pinya" means saying to a team member: "Hey, forget your differences and your problems with other members because we need to achieve this goal. You decide: either you are with the team or you are out. And don't forget: you can be better than another, but you'll never achieve the goal alone". A good example of what "fer pinya" is can be found while building up the Catalan "castells" (human castles). The "pinya" is the base of the castle that must be solid enough to hold the entire structure:

Catalan Human Tower ("Castell")

The funny thing is what "fer pinya" literally means. "Fer" means to do, and "pinya" means pine cone.  Indeed, you will have to use a hammer or a hard rock to break up a pine cone to eat its nuts! :-)

A pine cone!

Spain's secret conflict

"Through these polls [for Catalonia's independence] the Catalans are sending a clear message to Spain: for 300 years we've had to listen to you and do what you've told us. Now this is what we have to say."

With these words the documentary of endboard productions, Spain's secret conflict,  ends a 40-minute exposition of a reality that is often hidden by Spain to the world. The journalist Gary Gibson interviews different Catalan and Spanish personalities to talk about the cultural and economical conflict between Spain and Catalonia, which is pushing many Catalans to want independence from Spain. The video has received in 2 days more than 8000 visits on Vimeo and is being spread throughout several Facebook profiles and public forums. You can see the documentary (in English) below:

Sant Jordi: when roses and books fill Catalonia with color and culture.

According to the legend, once upon a time there was a dragon that threatened a little village where a princess lived in. Some day, the dragon was about to kill the princess when a brave knight known as Sant Jordi (Saint George) arrived to the village to fight the beast. After a long and hard fight, Sant Jordi sank his lance into the dragon's body, who eventually dropped down dead. The legend tells that from the blood dripped from the dragon, a beautiful rose appeared. Sant Jordi took the rose and gave it to the princess.

Nice, isn't it? Well, the legend is a little bit childish but it is actually a tale for children. Anyway, every April 23rd Catalonia celebrates Sant Jordi's day, and, to follow the tradition, men give a rose to their princesses, who can be either wives, girlfriends, mothers, grandmothers, etc... On the other hand, since April 23rd is also the International Book Day, people also give books, so altogether leads bookstores and flower shops to set up one-day little street markets where people can buy books and roses. Sant Jordi's day also carries a lot of Catalan symbolism which makes cities and towns around Catalonia to be washed of senyeres (the Catalan flag with four red bands on a golden background).

So, you want to do the Erasmus programme in Barcelona, huh?

Congratulations. You have chosen a great city with good climate, next to the Mediterranean sea, washed of sunlight, with the healthy Mediterranean diet and with nice people :-)

So, are you sure you know everything about coming to study in Barcelona? I repeat: do you know EVERYTHING? I ask this because many Erasmus students are not well informed by their universities about the linguistic reality of Catalonia. Indeed, one of the main things that shocks a foreign student is the unexpected and unknown language they should get on with in order to move around the city with not too much problems: the Catalan language.

Although Barcelona (and in extension, Catalonia) belongs to Spain in an administrative sense, it does not belong to Spain in a cultural sense. Catalonia's language is not Spanish, but Catalan. Of course Catalans know Spanish, but if you come to Barcelona, you'll find that everything is in Catalan language: traffic signs, information panels (unless they are for tourists) or shop signs. However, don't panic: you will always find someone to ask in case you don't understand something. Regarding to University, you will find no problems with burocratic issues like enrollment, scholarship requests, etc... However Catalan universities give their classes mainly in Catalan language (unless Master or PhD courses that may be done in other languages). Only a small part of the classes are repeated in Spanish version for students from abroad, specially from Spain, and here it is when the conflict arises: what happens if you come to study in Barcelona thinking that knowing Spanish is enough and you apply to a group that gets their classes in Catalan language? That was the case of a good friend of mine. In the first class day he was shocked of what kind of language the teacher was speaking in. Well, he knew it was Catalan but he couldn't understand a word from the lesson. After some minutes, my friend asked the teacher for giving the class in Spanish. Hundreds of eyes looked at him while the teacher said that there were other groups that got classes in Spanish language. My friend said that he made a mistake during the application and accidentally applied to the Catalan version class, so the teacher asked people if there was any problem in giving the class in Spanish. Although there was a clear disappointment in the air, people said there was no problem, and then the teacher went on giving the lesson in Spanish. I must say though that I've seen other cases in which the language was not changed despite the request of the foreign student.

What I want to say is that the information an Erasmus student receives from his/her local university is often incomplete. My friend quickly got on with Catalan language and soon he was able to fully understand classes in Catalan; he later said to me that he understood people's disappointment during the first class day. He said it is natural for a country to have its own language and if he had been informed before coming to Barcelona that Catalan was so important, he would had learned it.

A 40% of Catalans use Catalan as their primary language, whereas a 57% use Spanish (the remaining 3% use other languages).The reason of this unbalanced percentages is that during last 300 years Spain has attempted to anhilate Catalan language, which was legalized again 30 years ago. During Franco's fascist dictatorship (1939-1975) speaking Catalan in public was severely punished an today Spanish courts still ban any possibility of Catalan language to gain its fair acknowledgement status. Where Catalan language is clearly used by most of the Catalans is in higher relationship levels: for dealing with Catalan administration, banks, cultural institutions, universities, etc... Spanish has somehow settled as the language of the street, where people from many places mingle, specially in neighbourhoods with high Spanish immigration rates.

So, if you plan to come to do the Erasmus programme in Barcelona (or whatever city or town in Catalonia) consider learning Catalan. Otherwise you may find yourself in difficult or uncomfortable situations. You don't have to worry about being understood in Spanish, since all Catalans do speak it, but you'll see that if you make an effort in learning Catalan you will feel more "accepted". What would you think about an immigrant that comes to your country and makes an effort in speaking your language? Well, Catalans will think the same about you!

Some Catalan language related resources:

• parla.cat:  a virtual learning space for learning Catalan.
• F.C. Barcelona soccer team anthem is written in Catalan language (the link points to the team's official site and contains an English translation).
• The world record lipdub for the independence of Catalonia is sung in Catalan.

What's happening in Catalonia?

Barcelona (the capital of Catalonia) voted past Sunday, April 10th, for Catalonia's independence in an unofficial non-binding referendum. The surprise has been the final participation of 20% of Barcelona's citizens, a quantity that doubles initial estimations. What may seem a low participation rate, may not be underestimated: this referendum has been organized by volunteers; it has not been supported by political parties and Barcelona's city council did not provide any facilities nor permission to advertise the event. Besides, many people decided to stay at home or going out to the beach instead of voting a referendum with no practical effects.

But, what's happening in Catalonia? What is shaking the Catalan society to the point of making unofficial referendums, demonstrations, worldwide awarded lip-dubs, internet activism, and other stuff to promote the break-up with Spain? Moreover, what's happening in Catalonia that even some politicians that were cautious some time ago say now that they have no arguments to not support independentism? Or even more, what is happening to make an English writer to write a book for foreigners in order to explain them the Catalan nationalism, which is often misunderstood abroad? (Catalan nationalism has nothing to do with ethnic or racist issues, but just cultural ones).

Some years ago nobody thought Catalonia could begin its trip toward independence. Today, Catalonia has a government with renewed politicians that are less tolerant to the attitude of the Spanish government against Catalan culture and economy. For example, CIU - the largest Catalan nationalist party - is challenging Spanish courts to not obey any law that may go against Catalan language, continously threatened by Spanish parties which look for imposing Spanish over Catalonia's own language. Many of these politicians voted yesterday saying yes to independence.

After Franco's dictatorship, during which many Catalans were executed to defend the Catalan nation and during which speaking in Catalan language was strictly forbidden, independentism has been a big taboo and nobody deared to play with the idea of breaking up with Spain. As time has passed, this taboo has vanished, and today Catalans have no fear to shout their desire for cultural and national freedom.

The reaction of Spanish media to this event has been the one expected: although they have always said these referendums are non-sense and useless, now they try to use the participation results as an argument to say that the 80% of Catalans do not want independence, whereas recent polls say that there is a large amount of people that do not know what to decide yet. However some Spaniards think that 20% is a worrying number, wondering how a reduced amount of volunteers could mobilize more than 270,000 people in Barcelona (over 1.4 million census) to vote a non-binding referendum.

Barcelona's referendum has been the last one of a series that began on September 13th 2009, in the Catalan village Arenys de Munt. A total number of 874,173 people have voted and a around 90% supported independence. And now...what? Spain forbids any referendums for getting independence, so some Catalan independentist parties are proposing to pass the Law of Independence, which gives power to the Catalan Parliament to proclaim independence unilaterally. The spotlight is focused now on CIU, the largest Catalan nationalist party, which has been traditinally ambiguous regarding independence. Meanwhile, the volunteers that organized the unofficial referendums told they will start doing pedagogy on the right to decide*, which is systematically violated by the Spanish government and laws.

An example of internet activism for the right to decide.

*
Universal Declaration of The Rights of Peoples

Section II. Right to Political Self-determination, Article 5: every people has an imprescriptible and unalienable right to self-determination. It shall determine its political status freely and without any foreign interference.

Barcelona to vote unofficial referendum for Catalonia's independence

The next Sunday, July 10th, Barcelona's citizens will vote for Catalonia's independence in an unofficial referendum, thus, with no practical effects. Barcelona Decideix (Barcelona Decides), the entity that organizes this referendum, estimates a participation between 10% and 20%, which is seen by many people as a defeat for independence supporters. So far, Catalonia's people has been divided in four main groups:

1. those who want to be Catalans in an independent state within Europe.
2. those who want to be Catalans in a Catalan state within a federal Spain.
3. those who want to be only Spanish (mainly people from Spain that came to live in Catalonia)
4. those who don't mind.

Recent attitudes of Spain toward Catalonia's culture and economy have made the size of the first group to be multiplied by 3 in 10 years. Besides, since Spanish laws seal any possibility of converting Spain into a federal state, today the main groups have been reduced to three:

1. those who want to be Catalans in an independent state within Europe.
2. those who want to be only Spanish.
3. those who don't mind.

The BIG problem today in Catalonia is that Spanish laws also forbid legal and effective auto-determination referendums, leading in a complete ignorance of what are the real sizes of the first and second group. Barcelona decideix will ask people "do you want to be independent from Spain?"; and the entity expects a participation of 10% to 20%. What would happen if the question were: "do you want to stay in Spain?". Probably, the poll would yield the same participation numbers. Why? Because this referendum is absolutely effective-less. Voting this poll means nothing. Whatever the result is, Catalonia will not change its status and this leads many people to spend their time enjoying with their families. Of course, the day after the referendum, non-independentist people will probably misunderstand that 80% of Catalans want to be Spanish, without thinking first if they had voted if the question were expressed in the opposite way.

Three days after the referendum, the Catalan Parliament will vote to pass the Law of Independence, which does not proclaim independence, but sets the basis to do so. CIU, the biggest nationalist Catalan party, is in the spotlight because they are often criticized to be hesitant toward Catalonia's independence.

Spanish fascist group La Falange to sabotage pro-independence referendum

Yes, Spain still has remnants from the dark past of Franco's dictatorship. La Falange, a dangerous fascist group that is surprisingly legalized by Spanish laws, has warned about its plans to sabotage the unofficial pro-independence referendum that is to be taken in Barcelona the next April 10th. During the last week, this group is trying to prevent people from going to vote by promoting threatening messages. The last one is that "they would like to go to the polling places in Barcelona to break the ballot boxes". The leader of La Falange  is calling fascist activists to go to polling places to advice people of the bad consequences an independence of Catalonia would yield.

About 1 million people are called to go to vote for this unofficial referendum. Some people think this kind of referendums are not a good idea because, since they will have no practical effect, many people would rather go to spend Sunday out with the family. This would lead anti-independentists to use the low participation as a (false) argument to say that Catalans do not want independence. The problem is that, in Spain, legal auto-determination referendums are forbidden.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the famous sentence often said by tourists when coming to visit Spain is right: "This is Spain!"

The fascist group La Falange during a demonstration.

Another demonstration for Catalonia's independence

It seems that Catalan independentists do not surrender to achieve the goal to get independence from Spain. Yesterday, April 2nd, another demonstration has been taken in Sant Jaume square in Barcelona, the seat of the Catalan government, where hundreds of people (about 2000 demonstrators) gathered to ask the government for passing a law that will let Catalonia to unilaterally declare its independence from Spain, that is, without the endorsement of the Spanish government. Catalonia is living really bad times, as a Herald Tribune article described two days ago. Catalonia contributes with the 10% of its GDP to support poorer regions of Spain through taxes collected by the Spanish government. The inability of Catalonia to decide the amount of taxes to transfer to Spain for solidarity leads the Catalan country to a deep impoverishment, specially in these times of crisis. The only way the Catalan government can get funds is, first, to save money by cutting public spending and, second, to borrow more money; both are bad solutions, specially the latter. The problem is that, again, the Spanish government has forbidden Catalonia to increase its debt. This difficult economical situation together with the continuous attempts from Spanish politicians and courts to gradually annihilate the Catalan identity have lead independentism to be multiplied by three during the last 10 years. The past July 10th 2010, more than 1 million people filled the streets of Barcelona during a huge demonstration to demand the right to decide. Some months later, the nationalist party CIU won Catalan elections and a new independentist party (SI) entered the Parliament. Actually, SI has been the party that has proposed the Law of Independence that people in the today's demonstration were claiming.

The Law of Independence will be discussed in the Catalan Parliament from April 13th to 14th, and it will be a decisive event to show what parties are true supporters of independence. During the past elections, CIU gained the confidence of many independentist voters, so their decision on supporting the law will be crucial for saving or hurting their credibility.

Plaça Sant Jaume (Saint James square), Barcelona, April 2nd 2011

Matthew Tree: “Catalonia will only be fully understood abroad if it becomes independent from Spain"

The English writer Mathew Tree has stated that Catalonia will be fully understood abroad if it becomes independent from Spain. Tree has presented his last book Barcelona, Catalonia: A View from the Inside, in which the author gives many examples of how foreigners do not understand Catalan reality or how they do not know anything about it.

"It is not a particularly nationalist country, in the sense that catalanism has no ethnic component or whatsoever; everything is based on the culture and the language", says Tree, who is very critical with the Spanish State in general and particularly with its attitude towards Catalonia. Whenever Catalan people decide to do something that goes against the Spanish nationalism or against Spanish establishment, Madrid makes all Catalan aspirations fail. Tree says that this attitude is "an insult to collective intelligence", and he actually states that if Madrid does not change its attitude, Catalonia will eventually become an independent nation.

You can see a 2-minute video with Mathew Tree presenting Catalonia to foreigners:

Read more at ACN.

Knowledge of Catalan language to be taken into account to renew immigration certificates

The Spokesperson for the Catalan Government, Francesc Homs, stated that knowledge of the Catalan language will be a very determining factor when issuing immigration certificates, such as family grouping or residency permits. Homs believes that if immigrants attain a certain level of knowledge of Catalan language, their integration into Catalan society will be easier.

After reading and listening to some opinions in Spanish media, it seems that, as usual, Spaniards do not agree the Catalan Government. Many of them believe that Spanish should be the only preferent language an immigrant should learn when coming to live to Catalonia. Although Spain usually displays itself as a multicultural country, reality is quite different: according to the Spanish thought, Catalan should be left as a "home-purposed" language to be spoken only with friends and family; Catalan should never be the preferent language over Spanish. This is an often controversial subject that eventually makes many Catalans to think that independence from Spain is the only way to protect the Catalan culture: if something is true is that a language having an independent State behind has more chances to survive than a language that is pushed into the background by laws that are on the side of a historically imposed language (in this case, Spanish).

Photonic sciences researchers wanted

The Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) powered by the UPC (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya) is attracting leading researchers from all over the world, as is the case of  F. Koppens, a Dutch scientist coming from the Harvard University and specialised in nanophotonics and quantum optics. Koppens is interested in studying the optical properties of a newly discovered material, graphene, which allows building 1-atom-thick layers of carbon atoms and whose features seem to be very important for the manufacture of future high-performance electronic devices. Melike Lakadamyali (from Harvard too) and Gerasmos Konstantaos (from University of Toronto, Canada) also came to Barcelona to join the ICFO for also working in this subject.

Read more at ACN.

Google considers Catalan one of the 10 most active languages in the world

Representatives from Google pointed out the high presence of Catalan language in the Internet compared to the number of speakers (about 10 milion people around the world) during the Convit conference, whose goal is to discuss several language-related issues. Luis Collado, director of Google Books and Google News in Spain and Portugal asserted that Catalan falls into the range of the first 10 to 15 most active international languages.

Original information source (in Catalan)

Catalan music band Manel release their second album

Some days ago the Catalan music band Manel released their last album "10 milles per veure una bona armadura" (10 miles to see a good armour).

The band admit they are surprised to see the success this album has achieved because in few days it has become the #1 sales, not only in Catalonia but also in Spain. Manel has become the first Pop Music Band ever that has achieved the first position singing in Catalan. The top songs from "10 milles per veure una bona armadura" are "Aniversari" (Birthday), "Boomerang" and "La cançó del soldadet" (The song of the little soldier). But what has shaked the audience is the awesome music video of the song "Aniversari":

Manel made their debut in 2008 with the awarded album "Els millors professors europeus" (The best European professors). They quickly became famous and played around Catalonia and in cities like Madrid, Buenos Aires and London.

What is Catalonia?

I think the best way to start this blog is by talking a little bit about what Catalonia is. According to the definition from the Catalan Encyclopedia, "Catalonia is a country in the Mediterranean Europe, the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula, nestled within the Spanish state as an autonomous region, and whose capital city is Barcelona". The picture below depicts the location of Catalonia (region painted red) within Europe:

Maybe you've listened about Catalonia before: in 1992, the Olympic Games were celebrated in Barcelona; the artist Salvador Dalí, born in Figueres, is worldwide known for his surrealist paintings; or maybe you've listened about Antoni Gaudí and his modernist architecture. Do you like medieval art? If so, you probably know the medieval churches of Vall de Boí, starring the paintings of Sant Climent de Taüll.Or maybe you love to delight your palate! Then sure you know Ferran Adrià, Carme Ruscalleda or Santi Santamaria (recently deceased).

The recent history of Catalonia has been really painful. Since 1714, Spain has tried over and over again to supress Catalan identity and culture, with the goal to homogenize the "Spanish culture" under a single language and single nation. The last attempt was performed by Franco during his dictatorship from 1939 to 1975. During this period, speaking in Catalan in the street was strictly forbidden and punished. Today, after about 30 years of democracy, Catalan people are allowed to freely use their language (not in all situations though), but Spanish laws still keep looking for homogenizing language and national identity. For example:

• Catalonia cannot have its own national sport teams. Scotland does although it belongs to UK.
• Catalan people cannot vote in referendum to decide their future. Canada Québec, Greenland and even Scotland are allowed to celebrate referendums.
• Catalan people cannot define themselves as a nation.
• The use of Catalan language cannot be preferent to Spanish.
• and a long so on...

Well, let's gonna leave political issues aside. What about Catalan traditions? Well, I bet one of the most famous Catalan traditions are "Castells" (human towers), which have recently been declared intangible cultural World Heritage by UNESCO. Below you can see an emotive video about "Castells"; I really recommend you to watch it!:

Another activity Catalans like to do is eating....Yes, we love eating! Our habits are based on the Mediterranean diet: olive oil, fruit, greens, dried fruit,... Perhaps our most famous dish are "calçots" some sort of thin and long onions that are cooked over a grill and eaten after dipping them in "salvitxada" or "romesco" sauce. The picture below shows an example of how "calçots" are served. Please, do not build an opinion in your mind based on their appearance. I promise you they are delicious!

Well, I think it's enough, so far. I miss a lot of things about Catalonia, but I will have time enough to talk about it in future posts. Cheers!