Literatura científica selecionada sobre o tema "Catalonia (Spain) – History"

This article provides an overview of the key events in Catalonia during 2019. In order to put the events in context, the article begins with a brief overview of the recent history of Catalonia and its relationship with the rest of Spain. Particular attention is placed on the events of 2014 through 2017 and, in particular, the second unauthorized referendum and its aftermath. The article then focuses on the protests, counter- protests and clashes with the police that followed the sentencing of Catalonian officials in October 2019. The article concludes with an examination of the lack of role the European Union has had on this conflict and minority issues generally and what this all means for Spain and Catalonia moving forward.

In 1714 the Catalans, being in the camp of the losers in the War of the Spanish Succession, finally lost any hope to gain independence. 300 years later, nationalists, who are in power now in Catalonia, want to take advantage of that memorable date by organizing a regional referendum in order to choose their own path of development. In the aggravating conflict of interests between Madrid and Barcelona both parties use not only political and propaganda measures, but also financial leverages of influence. The ethnonational issue in the multiethnic Spain is far from being solved, because for centuries the process of forming a unified Spanish state was characterized by political union of several genetically related (except Basque) ethnic communities, although with significant socio-cultural and linguistic differences among them. It is not coincidental that regional identity in Spain is still extremely strong, while the interethnic consolidation of the Spanish nation can be characterized as incomplete, which can be seen, particularly, in the intensification in recent decades of radical nationalist and separatist sentiments in Catalonia, the Basque Country and some other autonomies. Among reasons which escalated confrontation between supporters and opponents of Catalonian independence, we should mention the global financial crisis that hit the regions of Spain as well as the overall national economy. The separatists have many barriers on their way, starting from the constitutional provisions proclaiming Spain a united and indivisible state which impede to carry out regional plebiscites, and ending by an ambiguous attitude towards the hypothetical independence of Catalonia by both the residents of the region and in other parts of the country. It is important to keep in mind that in today's world the possibility of breaking large multiethnic state into ethnically constituting elements is more possible than 40-50 years ago. Disintegration of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union and the emergence on the world political map of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and most recently of the Republic of Crimea - confirm this. The Catalonian nationalists in their arguments in favor of the sovereignty of Catalonia refer to the arbitrariness of the borders formed in the past between separate European countries and the regions. Modern state boundaries indeed are not the result of rational planning, democratic arrangements or consideration of the local population's opinion. In many ways, the current borders are the result of historical processes, often - of bloody wars and territorial annexations. In other words, they are the result of actions which are contrary to current international law and moral norms of behavior. Independent Catalonia is still a hypothesis, but under certain conditions and, more importantly, as a result of concerted efforts of regional nationalists it could become a reality.

Masterworks of Antoni Gaudí as the Manifestation of Catalanism?Catalonia is an autonomous community in Spain, possessing a unique culture. This is meticulously preserved, not only by intellectuals, but also by its citizens, who hold their individual language, common history and traditions in the highest esteem. It is the perfect example of a nation without a state, truly dedicated to the peaceful struggle for survival of its exceptional individuality. The article explains how the historical relationship between Catalonia and Spain has awakened the Catalonian sense of individuality and the will to fight for its rights, leading to the creation of a separate political idea – Catalanism. For the major part of the article the author presents the views on the Catalan issue as expressed by Antoni Gaudí – one of the most distinguished of Catalans.

The history which is taught in Catalan schools is not on the margin of the political, economic and social situation which is being shared by those living in Catalonia. There is an on-going debate about citizenship between the Catalans and the Spanish, which has had a major impact in the media, and has had repercussions for the future of Catalonia within the Spanish state. Teaching the history of Catalonia and Spain is an issue that has a strong resonance within this debate. The problem is not new and has deep historical roots. It has re-emerged, on the one hand, because of the attitude of the state government, which represents the most centralist Spanish nationalism. Moreover, the current economic situation has made the latent problem even more urgent. However, the debate has also served to mask other important problems.

The aim of this article is to analyse the issue of “weak separatism” in Latin America as well as to give an answer to the question why there are no significant separatist movements in this region. The authors provide the definitions of separatism and secessionism as well as an explanation of these phenomena. Moreover, they present an overview of historical and contemporary separatist movements in Latin America. Based on Horowitz’s theory of ethnic separatism, the authors attempt to analyse the separatist movement “The South is My Country” in Brazil and compare it with separatism in Catalonia in Spain, where a referendum on independence from Spain was held in 2017, serving as an impetus for a similar referendum that took place in the South of Brazil. In spite of similar goals of these two separatist movements, the authors argue that there are significant differences in their nature, which are determined by the history and culture of the respective countries.

The thousands of Spanish National Police and Guardia Civil sent to Barcelona in order to prevent the referendum legislated by the Catalan Parliament on 6 and 7 September 2017 raised major questions about the fragility of Spanish democracy. The subsequent display of police violence on 1 October and the imprisonment and criminalisation of political opponents for the archaic offences of ‘rebellion’ and ‘sedition’ looked even less ‘democratic’. Indeed, those events in Catalonia constitute a remarkable moment in recent European history. This article uses the literature on ‘postfascism’ (developed in this journal and elsewhere) to analyse this remarkable moment and develop its social connections to the parallel re-emergence of fascist violence on the streets and the appearance of fascist symbolism in mainstream politics in Spain. The literature on postfascism identifies contemporary fascism as a specifically cultural phenomenon, but generally fails to identify how the conditions that sustain the far right originate inside the state. In order to capture this historical turn more concretely as a process in which state institutions and processes of statecraft are intimately involved, we argue that the Spanish state is postfascist. The article offers a brief critique of the way the concept of postfascism has been deployed, and, through an empirical reading of the historical development of Spanish state institutions, it proposes a modified frame that can be used to understand the situation in Catalonia.

The purpose of the article is to cover the history and determine the relevance of Galician nationalism. The origin and development of the nationalist movement in the region is analyzed. In our study general scientific and special historical and political science methods were applied. The general scientific methods (deductive and inductive, analysis and synthesis) were used as specific cognitive tools necessary to implement the principles of historicism, systematicism and objectivity. The general and special historical methods (historical-typological, statistical, comparative-historical, problem-chronological) allowed us to make a comprehensive analysis of the problem of Galician nationalism. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that the author, for the first time in the national historical science, analyzes the features of Galician nationalism, the history of its development and the current state. Galician nationalism took shape in the 19th century. Among the predecessors of Galician nationalism, three movements can be distinguished: provincialism, federalism, and regionalism. Provincialism (later called Galicianism) was a movement that emerged in 1840 with the aim of protecting the integrity of the territory of Galicia. Regionalism became an intermediate phase in the evolution of the Galician movement between provincialism and nationalism. Galician federalism began to develop in 1865. The federalists argued that Galicia should be formed as a canton within Spain and that it be governed by its own cantonal constitution. Conclusions. As one of the four historic autonomous regions of Spain (along with Catalonia, the Basque Country and Andalusia), Galicia is significantly different in its understanding of its own nationalism. While Catalonia and the Basque Country strive for even greater independence, including threats of secession from the state, the nationalist movement in Galicia is becoming less tangible.

In this thesis I ask whether food can be used to express Catalan national identity, and if so, in what ways this occurs. In doing so, I consider the lived realities of nationalist movements, rather than simply the ideas and political claims that inform such movements. The Catalan Autonomous Community in northeast Spain is an ideal place to research this issue, due to the strengthening of nationalist sentiments there in light of the rise in support for independence from Spain. I wished to see whether this had any effect on the connections between food and national identity (or gastronationalism). National identity and food are connected in many diverse and varied ways. Food culture allows us to reflect on national identity as a whole. Themes which commonly appear in nationalist discourse, such as cultural specificity, historicism, or landscape (to name but a few), also inform discussions of national food identity. In the present case, while other markers of identity (e.g. language) are also important, ideals of Catalan nationalism may take the guise of Catalan gastronationalism as well. The current pro-independence movement has had the effect of making Catalans more aware of their cultural symbols, including cuisine, which is now one of many such symbols that can be mobilized for the expression of national identity.

The present study opens up the field of Catalan connections with English literature. The importance of Edwardian influences on the general transmission of English authors and works is demonstrated. Original data on the reception of G.K. Chesterton, the Edwardian figure with a most remarkable impact in Catalonia, is brought to light (Chapter 1, Appendix 1), followed by discussion of the presence of H.G. Wells and G.B. Shaw and an account of the reception of Well's early fiction (Chapter 2); their influence sheds new light on the aspiration of an élite to modernise Catalan culture. Catalan translations of English fictional works produced in the period 1918-38 (Chapter 3, Appendix II) are linked to the reception of the roman anglais in the context of the crisis of the roman à thèse, and the meditating influence of French criticism is revealed. The values of romance, adventure, and the common man (from Defoe to Stevenson, from Stevenson to Conrad) constitute the recurrent thread associated with the English tradition and with the Edwardian fictional canon, as these were mediated from France to Catalonia. This panorama of transmission enhances an understanding of Catalan views of the novel, in the light of Edwardian values (Chapter 4), as exemplified in Carles Riba's critical appraisal of two Catalan authors, in the appeal of Joseph Conrad's narrative technique and its influence on J.M. de Sagarra, as well as in the comparison of Frank Swinnerton's Nocturne (a best-seller of 1917) and its Catalan counterpart, M. Teresa Vernet's Les algues roges. This thesis also includes a chronology of the reception of Chesterton and a list of Catalan translations of English works of fiction.

Esta tesis es un estudio de las migraciones granadinas a mediados del siglo XX, fundamentalmente acerca de sus causas y también sobre aspectos concretos de las múltiples formas de inserción espacial y laboral que desarrollaron los granadinos en la Barcelona de posguerra. Los ámbitos geográficos escogidos son principalmente numerosas localidades rurales granadinas, distribuidas por la práctica totalidad de la provincia y la ciudad de Barcelona, incluyendo diversas ciudades industriales de su área metropolitana. El período investigado comprende las dos primeras décadas de la dictadura franquista, 1940 y 1950, aunque incorpora en el primer capítulo una perspectiva histórica de mayor alcance. El primer capítulo trata de situar el desarrollo económico de Granada previo a la guerra civil y el desarrollo del movimiento obrero granadino hasta el final de la contienda. Usamos para ello una perspectiva de largo alcance para comprender determinadas particularidades de la configuración histórica y social de la provincia de Granada. Mencionamos los antecedentes migratorios de la población granadina, para analizar el papel que este fenómeno desempeñó en las estrategias de las clases subalternas de la provincia. Finalmente analizamos el desarrollo del movimiento obrero en la provincia de Granada y su evolución, deteniéndonos particularmente en el periodo de la II República y la guerra civil. El segundo capítulo se enmarca completamente dentro del período investigado y aborda el estudio de las causas del fenómeno migratorio en la posguerra. De ese modo, reconstruimos las diversas modalidades de la represión, vinculadas a la implantación de la dictadura franquista y su relación con la emigración de los trabajadores granadinos. Partiendo de la experiencia del retorno de los excombatientes republicanos, este capítulo trata de profundizar en el conocimiento de las múltiples fracturas intracomunitarias que ocasionó el resultado de la guerra civil. Por su parte, el tercer capítulo también está destinado a analizar las causas de la emigración de la población rural granadina, en este caso a través de un análisis de la crisis del mundo agrícola y como afecto a la segmentada estructura social de la Granada rural. En este capítulo se abordan las consecuencias del fracaso de las propuestas industrializadoras en Granada. También analizamos de qué manera se vieron afectadas las economías domésticas del campesinado granadino, tanto en el caso de los jornaleros como en el de los labradores, por la implementación de las políticas agrarias del primer franquismo y los intereses de los grandes propietarios de tierra. El cuarto capítulo relata la experiencia del viaje e inserción espacial de los inmigrantes granadinos en Barcelona. En este apartado se observan las dificultades que encontraron las granadinas y granadinos para la realización de su proyecto migratorio y cuáles fueron las pautas de asentamiento que llevaron a cabo. Abordamos también un análisis de los discursos contra la inmigración que surgieron en la década de 1940 y 1950 y como afectaron a la implementación de políticas represivas contra el hecho migratorio. Ante esto, observamos el despliegue de un amplio repertorio de estrategias por parte de los granadinos inmigrados para conseguir superar los límites impuestos por la administración, en el complicado contexto de la Barcelona de posguerra. Por último, el quinto capítulo explora los mecanismos de inserción de las personas inmigradas en el mercado laboral barcelonés. En sus páginas describimos los mecanismos de inserción y principales ámbitos donde se ubicaron los trabajadores inmigrados y por qué motivos. También describimos de qué manera percibieron la reaparición de la conflictividad laboral en tierras catalanas y que reacciones tuvieron ante ello. Por último, observaremos los mecanismos que llevaron al surgimiento y transmisión de una cultura de la emigración hacia Barcelona entre la sociedad granadina.
This thesis is a study of internal Spanish migration in the mid-twentieth century, focusing on the causes and also about specific aspects of the multiple forms of community integration and job placement that migrants developed in postwar Barcelona. The geographical areas chosen are mainly numerous rural towns in the Andalusian province of Granada, distributed throughout almost the entire province and the city of Barcelona, including various industrial cities in its metropolitan area. The period under investigation covers the first two decades of the Franco dictatorship, 1940 and 1950, although the first chapter incorporates a more far-reaching historical perspective. The first chapter analyses the economic development of Granada prior to the civil war and the development of the local labour movement until the end of the conflict. The second chapter deals with the study of the causes of migration in the post-war period. To this end, we reconstruct the various forms of repression linked to the establishment of the Franco dictatorship and the relationship between the repression and the emigration of Granada’s workers. The third chapter is intended to analyze the causes of the emigration of the rural population of Granada, in this case through an analysis of agricultural crises and its effect on the stratified society of rural Granada. The fourth chapter recounts the experiences of travel and integration of immigrants from Granada to Barcelona. This section points out the difficulties for relocation faced by immigrants from Granada and what they could expect in terms of finding a home. Finally, the fifth chapter explores the dynamics of labour market insertion for immigrants in Barcelona, analyzing the sector's opportunities and conditions as well as the pressures and motives underlying migrant labour insertion.

El Diluvio fue un periódico barcelonés con una vida superior a las ocho décadas que representaba un punto de vista republicano, federalista, laico y partidario de la justicia social. Unas ideas que estuvieron perseguidas durante la mayor parte de su existencia, de 1858 a 1939. La Segunda República, en cambio, fue el marco perfecto para el desarrollo del periódico, que vivió un gran crecimiento en su tirada y tuvo una influencia muy notable en la política catalana. Fue el diario popular en la llamada Cataluña populista. Los artículos de El Diluvio marcaron diversos hitos desde inicios de 1931 hasta el fin de la guerra civil en 1939 y su impacto fue reconocido por las figuras políticas de la época. El periódico también enfrentó un periodo de dificultades al formarse los gobiernos de derechas y desencadenarse una serie de acontecimientos que implicaron la suspensión de su publicación y censura previa. Jaime Claramunt, nacido en Cuba, fue su director hasta 1938, cuando fue apartado por la Unión General de Trabajadores, que incautó el periódico. El final llegó con la entrada de las tropas franquistas en Barcelona, que cerraron El Diluvio y reprimieron a los hombres del periódico que no marcharon al exilio.
El Diluvio was a newspaper from Barcelona with a life of more than eight decades that represented a republican, federalist, secular and social justice point of view. Ideas that were persecuted for most of its existence, from 1858 to 1939. The Second Republic, on the other hand, was the perfect framework for the development of the newspaper, which experienced a great growth in its circulation and had a very significant influence on Catalan politics. It was the popular newspaper in the so-called populist Catalonia. The articles of El Diluvio marked several milestones from the beginning of 1931 until the end of the civil war in 1939 and its impact was recognized by the political figures of the time. The newspaper also faced a period of difficulties in forming right-wing governments and triggering a series of events that involved the suspension of its publication and prior censorship. Jaime Claramunt, born in Cuba, was its director until 1938, when he was separated by the Unión General de Trabajadores, which seized the newspaper. The end came with the entry of Franco's troops in Barcelona, which closed El Diluvio and repressed the newspaper men who did not march into exile.

L’objet de cette étude est d’offrir une vision à la fois d’ensemble et particulière sur les revues satiriques publiées durant les dernières années du franquisme et pendant Transition démocratique. En effet, de nombreux bouleversements politiques et sociaux s’opèrent entre 1970 et 1982, ce qui représente objectivement une période relativement courte mais très riche en événements dans l’histoire de l’Espagne et de la Catalogne. En ce qui concerne la presse, l’entrée en vigueur de la Ley de Prensa e Imprenta en mars 1966 marque un point d’inflexion car elle supprime la censure préalable et permet le développement de publications beaucoup plus critiques et irrévérencieuses au début des années 1970, tels que Mata Ratos, Barrabás ou Por Favor. Très imprégnées par la tradition satirique catalane (comme Xut!, El Be Negre ou ¡Cu-Cut!), les revues de cette époque sont aussi influencées par la presse française, américaine et anglaise (Hara Kiri, Charlie Hebdo, National Lampoon, Punch, etc.). Peu à peu, elles réussirent à fissurer le carcan de la censure au prix de nombreuses mises sous séquestre, jugements, suspensions et condamnations. Après deux années troublées entre 1976 et 1978 où les menaces d’attentats contre les rédactions sont de plus en plus oppressantes, l’avènement de la démocratie est le point de départ d’un nouveau type d’humour plus général et incarné par El Jueves, et basé sur des faits de société ou d’actualité. De par leur style particulier et les thèmes qu’elles abordent, ces revues satiriques marquent profondément la société et le moment politique dans lequel elles évoluent. Leur impact est toujours perceptible aujourd’hui puisqu’El Jueves continue d’être publiée en 2017
The purpose of this thesis is to provide both an overview and an analysis of the satirical journals published during the last years of Francoism and the Democratic Transition. Indeed, the country underwent many dramatic political and social changes between 1970 and 1982, which objectively represents a relatively short, extremely eventful period in the history of Spain and Catalonia. As concerns the press, the coming into effect of the Ley de Prensa e Imprenta in March 1966 marked an inflection point by suppressing prior censorship and paving the way for much more critical and irreverent publications, such as Mata Ratos, Barrabás or Por Favor, at the beginning of the 1970’s. Very much in debt to Catalan satirical tradition (e.g. Xut!, El Be Negre or ¡Cu-Cut!), the publications of the time were also influenced by the French, American, and English press (Hara Kiri, Charlie Hebdo, National Lampoon, Punch, etc.). Gradually, they succeeded in breaking the straitjacket of censorship at the cost of numerous confiscations, trials, suspensions and condemnations. Following two troubled years between 1976 and 1978, when editorial offices were subject to increasingly oppressive threats of attack, the advent of democracy was the starting point of a new, more general type of humor embodied by El Jueves and based on societal and current events. Due to their specific style and to the themes they dealt with, these satirical journals made a deep mark on society and on the political period. Their impact has endured, since El Jueves is still published in 2017

La integración de Cataluña en la monarquía francesa en 1641 abrió un período de convivencia entre dos mundos políticos. Para Francia, la incorporación de la nueva provincia tiene lugar en una sociedad enamorada del heroísmo. El reinado de Luis XIII parece ser la culminación de un proceso de reformulación del paradigma heroico: un modelo político y un referente ético nobiliario. La Guerra de España llevó la cultura heroica a su clímax. En particular, la proclamación del rey como soberano de Cataluña abre nuevos horizontes a este mundo imaginario, que moviliza también a los antiguos referentes mesiánicos. La historia de la compañía catalana producida por el séquito real ofrece una nueva perspectiva sobre la construcción de la imagen de Luis XIII. El horizonte catalán "completa" la construcción de su perfil heroico, y sirve de apoteosis, valorando el hecho de una muerte "sacrificial" como consecuencia de la presencia real en la sede de Perpiñán. Los virreyes se convertirán también en el centro de una narrativa heroica, protagonistas de una verdadera "epopeya catalana". Las luces y sombras de esta heroica experiencia política aparecen en el destino a veces trágico de estos representantes del rey, que deben hacer frente, además de a los retos militares y políticos de su cargo, a los equilibrios de poder en la corte. Por el lado catalán, la llegada de Luis XIII forma parte de la dinámica "revolucionaria" que se inició en 1640, cuando los líderes de la revuelta, que querían ser fieles al rey Felipe IV, formularon una historia capaz de domar acontecimientos que a veces se les escapaban. El horizonte de una providencial "restauración" de Cataluña está cerca. El "momento" republicano parece imposible de encontrar aquí, entre la interrupción formal de la jurisdicción de un rey y la aclamación del otro. A partir de entonces, un discurso providencial de restauración de la provincia se desarrolló a través de la realeza encarnada por un nuevo príncipe "mesías". La imagen del rey se convierte en un ideal sobre el que se proyectan expectativas políticas y por el que los propios líderes de la "revuelta" buscan justificarse. El rey se perdió la visita a Barcelona, justo antes de su muerte. El funeral real servirá para cristalizar esta historia y ofrecerá, a través de la imagen del rey "sacrificado" y "canonizado", un emblema del régimen francés en Cataluña.
L’intégration de la Catalogne dans la monarchie française, en 1641, ouvre une période de coexistence de deux univers politiques. Pour la France l’incorporation de la nouvelle province intervient dans une société éprise d’héroïsme. Le règne de Louis XIII apparaît comme la culmination d’un processus de reformulation du paradigme héroïque: modèle politique et référent étique nobiliaire. La guerre espagnole porte la culture héroïque à son paroxysme. Singulièrement la proclamation du roi comme souverain de Catalogne ouvre des nouveaux horizons à cet imaginaire mobilisant aussi des référents messianiques anciens. Le récit de l’entreprise catalane produit par l’entourage royal offre un nouveau regard sur la construction de l’image de Louis XIII. L’horizon catalan «achève» la construction de son profil héroïque, et lui sert d’apothéose, valorisant le fait d’une mort «sacrificielle» conséquence de la présence royale au siège de Perpignan. Les vice-rois deviendront aussi le centre d’un récit héroïque, protagonistes d’une vraie «épopée catalane». Les lumières et les ombres de cette expérience héroïque du politique apparaissent dans le destin, parfois tragique, de ces représentants du roi, qui doivent faire face, outre aux défis militaires et politiques relevant de sa charge, aux equilibres de pouvoir à la cour. Du côté catalan l’avénement de Louis XIII s’inscrit dans la dynamique «révolutionnaire» entamée en 1640. Le meneurs de la révolte, qui se veulent fidèles au roi, Philippe IV, formuleront un récit capable d’apprivoiser des événements parfois leur échappant. L’horizon d’une «restauration» providentielle de Catalogne intervient. Le «moment» républicain semble ici introuvable, entre l’interruption formelle de la juridiction d’un roi et l’acclamation de l’autre. Des lors se développe un discours providentiel de restauration de la province à travers la royauté incarnée par un nouveau prince «messie». L’image du roi devient un idéal sur lequel l’on projette les attentes politiques et par lequel les propres dirigeants de la «révolte» cherchent à se justifier. La visite manquée du roi à Barcelone, précédée de peu à sa mort. Les funérailles royales serviront à la cristallisation de ce récit, et offriront par l’image du roi «sacrifié» et «canonisé», un emblème pour le régime français en Catalogne.
The integration of Catalonia into the French Monarchy, in 1641, opens a period of coexistence of two political universes. In France, The incorporation of the new province arrives in a social context under the influence of an strong culture of heroism. Under Louis XIII’s reign culmines a processus of reformulation of the heroic paradigm: a political model of gouvernement and an ethical referent for the French nobility. The heroic culture is taken to its paroxysm when the Spanish war begins. Specially the proclamation of the king as sovereign of Catalonia opens new horizons for this imaginary, mobilizing also old messianic referents. The narrative of the catalan entreprise developed by the royal entourage offers a new perspective of the Louis XIII’s image making processus. The catalan completes the built of the king’s heroical profile, and serves to make his apotheosis, emphasizing the fact of a sacrificial death as a consequence of the royal presence in the Perpignan’s siege. Vice-rois become the center of an heroical narrative also. They are protagonists of a true «catalan epic». The lights and darkness of this heroical experience of Politics, appear throw the destiny, sometimes tragic, of these king’s agents (and images). They have to face, besides the military and political challenges, to the power’s struggles at court. By the catalan side, the accession of king Louis XIII has to be considered in the «revolutionary» context of 1640. The leaders of the revolt, who revendique to be loyal to their king, Philip IV, build a narrative able to tame serious adverse events, that sometimes escape to their control. The horizon of a providential «restauration» of Catalonia appears in this narrative. Republican time seems here «introuvable», between the broken of one king’s jurisdiction and the other king proclamation. Since then a providential propaganda speech about the restauration of the Principality throw a royalty incarnated by a new prince «messiah». The new king’s figure becomes one idealized image where Catalans look to project their political expectatives. Also a way for the catalan leaders to justify himself. The failed royal visit to Barcelone precedes for little the king’s death. The royal funerals serves to the crystallization of these narratives: they offer the image of an «sacrificed» king, who is also a saint. He becomes the real emblem of the franco-catalan regime.

Defence date: 23 June 2006
Examining board: Giovanni Federico ; Jaime Reis (supervisor) ; Roberto Romano ; Carles Sudrià
PDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digitised archive of EUI PhD theses completed between 2013 and 2017

AbstractIn recent years, there has been a renewed interest in anarchism from both social movements and critical academic circles. When tracing the genealogy of anarchist perspectives since the nineteenth century, radical geographers have pointed out the importance of the anarchist movement in Spain, and particularly in the city of Barcelona. During the 1960s and 1970s, authors like Murray Bookchin shared an interest in social ecology with a militant passion to vindicate the historical significance of Spanish anarchism and the achievements of anarcho-syndicalist collectives in the 1936 revolution. Before interest in these perspectives faded among critical geographers in the 1980s and 1990s, the experience of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) was key to the research on the relation between social anarchism and the environment. In the context of the emergence of political ecology and environmental history in Spain during the 1990s, I examine the scholarship on human ecology and Iberian anarchism, first developed by Eduard Masjuan in the journal Ecología Política. Masjuan’s doctoral research, supervised by Joan Martínez-Alier, delved into the rich debates on urbanism and birth control that took place in anarchist circles from Catalonia to Latin America between 1860 and 1937. Masjuan’s research constitutes an essential reference to explore the depth of the environmental dimensions of Spanish anarchism during these years and has informed degrowth discussions on population and the collective ethics of self-limitation. Despite the impact of Masjuan’s research, I argue that the environmental history and political ecology of the 1936 revolution is still to be written. I show some examples of work to date, from urban water management under anarcho-syndicalist principles to collectivised urban agriculture. Finally, I point out that, while not always acknowledged, the influence of anarchist practices can also be found in the research on today’s social movements carried out at the Barcelona school of political ecology and ecological economics.

This essay explores the factors that shaped the introduction and dissemination of Dostoevsky’s works in the Catalan cultural sphere, focussing on several different stages of the author’s translations into Catalan. In the late 1800s, Russian literature was largely unknown in Catalonia; interest grew due to the public’s fascination with Russian political movements and the fin de siècle avant-garde, as well as the agitational political climate in Spain. The Catalan intelligentsia typically accessed new aesthetic forms through French publications, including Russian literature: the first translations from Russian to Catalan were thus made through French. However, surprisingly, Dostoevsky’s works entered the Catalan literary world through German translations, with his first translator, Juli Gay, using German texts as source material for his Catalan versions of ‘An Honest Thief’ and ‘The Landlady’ in 1892. This resulted in less stylistic distortion from the original than in other language versions translated from French. In the early 1900s, other works by Dostoevsky were translated into Catalan using French pivot texts; the first direct translations were published in 1929, namely Crime and Punishment by Andreu Nin and The Eternal Husband by Francesc Payarols, two of the most prominent names in Russian-Catalan translation history. During Franco’s dictatorship, literature and cultural expressions in Catalan were banned, reducing new translations. In recent decades, the number and quality of direct translations of Dostoevsky into Catalan have grown, though some major works still await translation.

Catalonia’s long history offers an especially rich base on which to construct the idea of a Catalan nation. These features include the emergence of a distinct Catalan language, a cultural and social distinctiveness that has persisted over many centuries, during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the emergence of various forms of pre-modernity as well as economic and political dominance of the western Mediterranean, subsequent economic and social decline, cultural and political oppression under the Bourbon kings of Spain, and an economic and cultural renaissance during the nineteenth century. Catalan intellectuals had more than enough material to formulate a compelling idea of a Catalan nation.

This concluding chapter identifies three layers to the story of the Bellpuig historians: the Middle Ages, the Bourbon ascendancy, and modern reifications of Catalonia’s political and cultural identity. This involves how historians study the Middle Ages—the archival and historiographic contributions of the scholarly circles of the eighteenth century—but also how contemporary observers deal with the period of Bourbon rule over Catalonia, specifically the paradox that what is often presented as the nadir of Catalan culture coincided with the reception of Enlightenment ideas and the first acceleration of the modern Catalan economy. Since Jaume Caresmar’s era, efforts to assimilate Catalonia into a centralized Spain have been met with advocacy of cultural pluralism within the Spanish state, although recently, many in Catalonia have abandoned this idea in favor of a demand for an independent polity. Catalan nationalist movements evoke past constitutional and cultural accomplishments and the struggle against a Castilian-dominated unified Spain. Bourbon centralization has therefore been retrospectively likened to twentieth- and twenty-first-century attempts at cultural homogenization. Such a connection to modern concerns has the advantage of underlining that the study of medieval sources and history was not an antiquarian pursuit.

This chapter looks at the discovery of Muriel Rukeyser's major unpublished work, Savage Coast, which was her first text to receive critical condemnation by editors and friends. The chapter shows that Savage Coast was also a narrative of an experience that was deeply transformational, engendering a lifetime commitment to advocacy for refugees and against all forms of fascism. It also chronicles her travel to Spain for the British magazine Life and Letters To-day to report on the People's Olympiad (July 19–26, 1936), an alternative to Hitler's Berlin Games, and how she witnessed the outbreak of civil war. The chapter investigates how Rukeyser's experience as a witness to both the military coup and the revolutionary response in Catalonia proved pivotal, noting that she would write about Spain and its war, revolution, exiled, and dead for over forty years after, creating a radical and interconnected twentieth-century textual history. The chapter concludes by narrating how the story of Spain, fully developed in the unfinished autobiographical novel Savage Coast, was rejected by her editor in 1937.

The Latin poem Seditio Catalaunica, still unedited and lacking studies and translation, is a clear example of the anti-Catalan mentality typical of the Reapers´ War in 17th-century Spain. In this poem, kept in a 17th-century MS held at the Biblioteca de la Real Academia de la Historia, Madrid, we can find clear references to Catalonia´s and Catalans´ guilt in the war, as well as accusation of treason and sedition. The epic poem, composed of over 1,200 Latin hexameters, is accompanied by five brief that insist on the same idea. This accusation of sedition has also served in recent times to try in a court of law pro-independence Catalan leaders in 2019, so that we can analyze this poem as a precedent of Spanish politics with regard to Catalonia.

This study examined Y-chromosome variation in 1614 mestizo Mexican males from different geographic regions to delineate the indigenous and colonial history of Mexico. The findings reveal a great diversity of paternal lineages within Mexican males, as well as a limited number of shared haplotypes among them. Native American haplogroups Q-L54 and Q-M3 were observed at varying frequencies in mestizos, and haplogroups of African origin were found at very low frequencies. On the other hand, we noted a significant genetic contribution from Spanish populations, in particular those from the Andalusian, Catalonian, and Basque regions of the Iberian Peninsula. In addition, we identified genetic contributions from Sephardic Jewish, North African, and Middle Eastern males to the mestizo Y-chromosome diversity, as well as genetic influences from the circum-Mediterranean regions of Spain. The results of this analysis provide new insights into the genetic landscape of the Mexican population and reveal important details about the sources of its genetic richness.