The death of Catalan culture?

Tribunal Constitucional

Today the whole statute sentence has been published, a handful of Spanish judges have decided that Catalonia is not a nation. This is not the worst, since we already know Catalonia is a nation regardless of what they think. The problem is that this Statute is a major step back from the existing one and will have terrible practical consequences against the tiny achievements gained since since the monarchical restoration that guaranteed a certain social cohesion in Catalonia .

One of the main reasons why Catalan is still alive today is because of its language immersion system. Catalonia’s educational system guarantees that education is in Catalan as a main language so everybody comes out of high school education being fluent, at least, in Catalan and Spanish. According to this Statute is that Catalan will no longer be the main language for education.

One of the consequences is that immigrants from Spain or other Spanish speaking countries will have the right to demand their kids to be educated in Spanish and therefore this will set two or three parallel educational (and eventually social) systems. One in Catalan, one in Spanish and maybe a mixed one. You can imagine the impact to Catalan social cohesion this will have.

In fact, this sentence also attacks recent laws passed in Catalonia that guarantee that customers have the right to be served in Catalan in private businesses. Now this won’t be the case anymore.

In this situation and with the current globalisation and social and media pressure from Spain it is only a matter of a few years before Catalan is substituted completely by Spanish and disappears. What is normal in any country with a state, that everyone who wants to live in a country must learn and adapt to the local culture, is not guaranteed anymore in Catalonia. It was not entirely guaranteed since there was no way to enforce this to adults but at least their kids grew up learning the language and involved in Catalan society helping the newcomers to be integrated in the country they live in. This has now been completely shattered.

The Statute effectively programs the disappearance of Catalonia, the genocide of its culture. I hope that we rebel against this and find the courage and determination to walk towards independence as soon as possible.

Below I’ve posted an inspiring video (with subtitles) from the catalan association Òmnium Cultural which features many well known catalan celebrities and intellectuals. Òmnium have organised a demonstration tomorrow in Catalonia, let’s hope it is a big success and continues the process that’ll lead to independence. It is the only way and it is now more urgent than ever.

8 thoughts to “The death of Catalan culture?”

  1. You are confused. Catalans are a nation, Catalonia is not.

    PS: You cannot force linguistic integration by law. If you had any idea of linguistics you’d see the mechanisms and would apply them accordingly and intelligently.

    If you want to apply blunt force, you´ll meet resistance even from the softest head.

  2. Of course you can force linguistic integration, it’s what every country in the world does and noone questions.

    Or do you think you can live in England of Germany without speak the language? but as of today you can live in Catalonia without speaking Catalan. We are the exception, not the rule, and the only reason for that is our lack of a state.

  3. You conveniently did not react to my main point, but only to the PS.

    You conveniently misquoted me: it’s “force linguistic integration by law”.

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