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| Catalans celebrate their difference – up to a point | Catalans celebrate their difference – up to a point |
| (8 days later) | |
| Whenever Barcelona football club plays another European team, someone in the crowd will hold up a banner in English that reads "Catalonia is not Spain" just to remind TV viewers that Catalonia is different. This somewhat defensive assertion – you can't imagine a Scottish fan holding a banner that read "Scotland is not Britain" – reflects the need of many Catalans to distance themselves from Spain and to insist on what they call the fet diferencial, the thing that makes them different. | Whenever Barcelona football club plays another European team, someone in the crowd will hold up a banner in English that reads "Catalonia is not Spain" just to remind TV viewers that Catalonia is different. This somewhat defensive assertion – you can't imagine a Scottish fan holding a banner that read "Scotland is not Britain" – reflects the need of many Catalans to distance themselves from Spain and to insist on what they call the fet diferencial, the thing that makes them different. |
| But what, aside from the not insignificant difference in language, is it that sets them apart? "Perhaps the fet diferencial, and the thing that unites most Catalans, is simply the desire to be ourselves and for that to be recognised at a political level," says Oriol Garcia i Quera, a Catalan cartoonist. | But what, aside from the not insignificant difference in language, is it that sets them apart? "Perhaps the fet diferencial, and the thing that unites most Catalans, is simply the desire to be ourselves and for that to be recognised at a political level," says Oriol Garcia i Quera, a Catalan cartoonist. |
| He adds that Catalans are more collectivist by nature, whereas the Spanish tend to be more individualistic , taking as an allegory the collective effort of the castells (human towers) of Catalonia and the individualism of the Spanish bullfight. "These are symbols of a different way of being, although of course not all of us are castellers or bullfighters," he says. | He adds that Catalans are more collectivist by nature, whereas the Spanish tend to be more individualistic , taking as an allegory the collective effort of the castells (human towers) of Catalonia and the individualism of the Spanish bullfight. "These are symbols of a different way of being, although of course not all of us are castellers or bullfighters," he says. |
| Vicky Vicente Selvas says her Andalusian friend Espe complains: "You Catalans are so boring. If I want to visit you I have to call three days in advance to ask for permission. For me, if I'm passing by a friend's house, I'll ring the bell and in I go and it doesn't matter if she's in her pyjamas or wearing curlers, if she's my friend she'll be happy to see me." | Vicky Vicente Selvas says her Andalusian friend Espe complains: "You Catalans are so boring. If I want to visit you I have to call three days in advance to ask for permission. For me, if I'm passing by a friend's house, I'll ring the bell and in I go and it doesn't matter if she's in her pyjamas or wearing curlers, if she's my friend she'll be happy to see me." |
| Vicky says that for a Catalan this sort of spontaneity is taken as an invasion of privacy but that she's got used to Espe's unannounced visits. "If she turns up and I'm peeling potatoes, she sits down with me and peels potatoes as well. Sometimes, against my nature, I make surprise visits to her. But she says I'm the only Catalan she calls on unexpectedly because she's tried with others and it hasn't been well received. At least she doesn't say, 'You're not like a Catalan,' which is supposed to be a compliment but which reflects the false and negative way we are perceived in the rest of Spain." | Vicky says that for a Catalan this sort of spontaneity is taken as an invasion of privacy but that she's got used to Espe's unannounced visits. "If she turns up and I'm peeling potatoes, she sits down with me and peels potatoes as well. Sometimes, against my nature, I make surprise visits to her. But she says I'm the only Catalan she calls on unexpectedly because she's tried with others and it hasn't been well received. At least she doesn't say, 'You're not like a Catalan,' which is supposed to be a compliment but which reflects the false and negative way we are perceived in the rest of Spain." |
| Eva Dallo Ibar, a Basque from Navarra who lives in Barcelona, says: "Perhaps the Catalans are a bit more serious than people from other provinces, but I don't really see that as a cultural identity. Perhaps it's how they choose to present themselves and we buy into it. And I say this as someone from Navarra and from a family where a generation was forbidden to speak Euskera [Basque] by the dictatorship, but this doesn't stop me from seeing that we're much more similar than we make out. Maybe it's because I've just come back from Cape Town, where people seem to be trying to overcome their differences rather than make the most of them, but I'm sick to death of this insistence on being different." | Eva Dallo Ibar, a Basque from Navarra who lives in Barcelona, says: "Perhaps the Catalans are a bit more serious than people from other provinces, but I don't really see that as a cultural identity. Perhaps it's how they choose to present themselves and we buy into it. And I say this as someone from Navarra and from a family where a generation was forbidden to speak Euskera [Basque] by the dictatorship, but this doesn't stop me from seeing that we're much more similar than we make out. Maybe it's because I've just come back from Cape Town, where people seem to be trying to overcome their differences rather than make the most of them, but I'm sick to death of this insistence on being different." |
| Maite Domingo, who is from Barcelona but whose family is from Aragón, believes part of this is down to ignorance. "There are many Catalans who have not travelled enough around Spain and are also biased, thanks to the Catalan media," she says. "Many of them see the Spanish as a shapeless mass who think and feel in the same way. As the poet Antonio Machado said, 'The Spaniard despises what he doesn't know,' but many Catalans are just as ignorant of the Spanish." | Maite Domingo, who is from Barcelona but whose family is from Aragón, believes part of this is down to ignorance. "There are many Catalans who have not travelled enough around Spain and are also biased, thanks to the Catalan media," she says. "Many of them see the Spanish as a shapeless mass who think and feel in the same way. As the poet Antonio Machado said, 'The Spaniard despises what he doesn't know,' but many Catalans are just as ignorant of the Spanish." |
| "I don't really know what politicians mean when they talk about the fet diferencial," says Vicky. "Perhaps by different they mean superior, but we Catalans aren't better or worse, just different in some respects and the same in others." | "I don't really know what politicians mean when they talk about the fet diferencial," says Vicky. "Perhaps by different they mean superior, but we Catalans aren't better or worse, just different in some respects and the same in others." |
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