March 2014

Eng

lish

Cul

ture

Clu

b.

All

the

new

s ab

out

the

ECC

lub

on p

ages

54-

57

Language warsBattle lines are drawn as the status of Catalan comesunder attack in Valencia, Aragon and the Balearics

Mar

ch 2

014

- N

º 03

73

3 e

uros

8 4 3 7 0 0 6 1 4 8 4 0 5

1 4 0 9 6

PUBLICITAT

8695

36-1

0862

46®

March 2014 • CATALONIA TODAY • 3

MARCH 2014 - Nº 0373

OPINIONMatthew Tree: Mind and what matters............................5

Martin Kirby: Lights, music, action ......................................7

Barney Griffiths: Reverse culture shock..............................9

Roger Fatjó: Will international firms flee Catalo-nia? ........................................................................................................ 38

Brett Hetherington: To screen, or not to screen?... 39

Neil Stokes: Woman and machine in perfectharmony............................................................................................. 62

CATALANS ABROADAlbert Mercader, Cape Town............................................... 12

MY SPACEMireia Vidal, student and fashion designer................. 14

OUT & ABOUTNicole Millar: Delays .................................................................. 16

EUROPE-WORLDAdrià’s creativity............................................................................ 17

What happened: February ..................................................... 18

INTERVIEWCarolina Castellanos, Unesco heritage consultant . 30

Rachel Hurd-Wood, UK actor............................................... 34

FEATURESPhoto competition ...................................................................... 20

Politics of language..................................................................... 24

Screen debut for Origins............................................................. 32

Sweating socialism ...................................................................... 36

FOOD & DRINKAnna Vicens: Wine route through Penedès ................ 40

Interview with Nandu Jubany.............................................. 41

The other Adrià brother........................................................... 42

ARTTechnique and virtuosity......................................................... 44

Josep-Lluís González: On lust ............................................... 46

BOOKSLand of hunger.............................................................................. 48

THE NETAll eyes on the Earth................................................................... 50

Time for a change? ..................................................................... 51

THE EYEGermà Capdevila: A French medallist that speaksCatalan................................................................................................ 52

ECCLUBSpin Doctors back in town .................................................... 54

The White Tiger............................................................................. 56

ENTERTAINMENTWord pool, sudokus, quizzes, etc...................................... 59

Contact us: [email protected] us: facebook.com/cataloniatodayFollow us: @cataloniatoday (Twitter)http://www.cataloniatoday.cat

CONTENTS

24-29 FEATURE

Tongue-tied CatalanThe backlash against Catalan that beganfollowing the Transition in Valencia, theBalearic Islands and Aragon has picked uppace with the recent backing of the PP

46-47 ART

Catalonia’s cultural sinsA new series by Josep-Lluís Gonzálezexamines thepanorama ofculture in Cataloniastarting with howlust is portrayed inthe classics

34 INTERVIEW

A new dawn for AlbaBritish actor Rachel Hurd-Wood on herleading role in the film Segon Origen

44-45 ART

Tapiró redeemedThree exhibitions attempt to recover thework of the 19th century Orientalist

his month’s main feature looks atradical legislation negatively affect-

ing the standardisation and unity of theCatalan language in regions close to Cata-lonia, such as Valencia or Aragon. Suchpolitically motivated attacks against Cata-lan have sadly become common. Sincethe sentence by the Tribunal Constitu-cional against the Estatut (statute of au-tonomy) approved by referendum, therehave been continuos legal challenges toCatalonia’s linguistic model in Spanishcourts. The policy of so-called linguisticimmersion, which aims to guarantee thelinguistic competence of the population

T in both of Catalonia’s official languages(Catalan and Spanish) is seriouslythreatened by decisions that force the pre-dominance of Spanish within the system.This creates a serious threat of dividing thepopulation along linguistic lines, whilediminishing linguistic equal opportu-nities. This issue is quickly becoming oneof the most striking aspects in the rela-tionship between Catalonia and Spain.

We also have two novelties: a newseries by Josep-Lluís González, reflectingon Catalonia’s cultural landscape, whilePere Gifra begins a series on womentravellers in Catalan lands. Enjoy!

Catalan language, a political target

FROM THE EDITORMARCELA TOPOR [email protected]

Published by CATALONIA TODAY SL. Carrer Santa Eugènia, 42, Girona 17005 Tel. +34 972 18 64 00 / www.cataloniatoday.cat /[email protected]: +34 972 18 64 38 [email protected] Subscriptions: +34 902 456 000 [email protected] Letters to theeditor: [email protected] Editor: Marcela Topor. Chief editor: Miquel Berga. Advertising Manager: M.Àngels Ribas. Staff and Contributors: Neil Stokes, Matthew Tree, Martin Kirby, Terry Parris, Nicole Millar, Pere Gifra, Barney Griffiths, Anna Vicens, BrettHetherington, Joe Hogan (text editor). Consultant editor: Germà Capdevila. Design: Jordi Molins - Florentí Morante.Deposit Nº GI-322-2004 Printed by Rotimprès. Catalonia Today SL has a co-operation agreement with Grup El Punt on the use of content.

4 • CATALONIATODAY • March 2014

ADVERTISEMENT

8695

36-1

0858

44V


OPINION

bertament is a new Catalan umbrellaorganisation for just about everyoneinvolved in the field of mental

health, from psychologists, psychiatrists andpsychiatric nurses through to patients and pa-tients’ families. As its name (which means’openly’) suggests, Obertament is dedicated toremoving the stigma still so often attached tomental illness. Last month, two members ofthe organisation set up a meeting in a café tosee if I could contribute to their new mediacampaign (presumably tipped off by one of thehalf dozen or so readers of my autobiography,in which I mentioned that I’d been classifiedas mentally ill myself).

As we talked, the period leading up to mydiagnosis came back to me with disarmingclarity: at age 14, I became convinced that aseries of events at once disgusting, dreadfuland terrifying (albeit thoroughly unlikely)were about to happen to me at any moment. Iwoke up – and went to sleep – with these fearsfor the next six years, taking care to hide themfrom friends and family, convinced that I wasthe only person on the planet who couldpossibly be plagued by such weird and persist-ent fearfulness (relieved only by regular doses

O of alcohol, the one medication available to me,and which I even began to consume on thewalk to school). To cut a long purgatory short,one night, at age 20, an unwonted halluci-nation (of hooded figures about to kill me)finally made me realise that this particularparty had to stop. For the first time in my life Iasked to see a psychiatrist, who, after our inter-view, promptly informed me that I had an ob-sessive neurosis (now called an obsessive-com-pulsive disorder). He could have knocked medown with a feather: for years I had been need-lessly hiding something perfectly diagnosable.Indeed, all that occultation had made the dis-order more difficult to dislodge than usual, tothe extent that even today, though I’ve rid my-self of the symptoms for decades, I still occa-sionally take anxiolytics. Which were rattlingaround in my pocket as I told the visitors fromObertament that I would be only too happy tohelp them to prevent other people from beingas ashamed as I had been about whatever men-tal disorder they might be suffering. We shookhands and they left the café. The past beingstill very much present after our talk, I im-mediately ordered myself a large glass of whitewine. And a second one after that.

LONG-TERM RESIDENTMATTHEW TREE [email protected]

Mind and what matters

He couldhaveknocked medown with afeather: foryears I hadbeen need-lessly hidingsomethingperfectlydiagnostic-able.

Lluí

s R

om

ero


ADVERTISEMENT

8428

89-1

0857

23V


OPINION

hope to be talking to some Barcelonamovers and shakers in the comingmonths, if they can spare the time be-

tween their global networking – Utah in Janu-ary, Berlin last month, Cannes in May, Venicein the summer, Toronto in September, oh andlet’s not forget Sitges in October.

These destinations among others give aclue to their speciality. Have a guess. Alright,maybe Utah doesn’t help, so I’ll explain it isthe setting for Robert Redford’s hugely signifi-cant Sundance Film Festival.

My work has been undergoing an un-planned but fascinating metamorphosis inthe past five years, from writing books toscreenplays. A film company took an interestin my novel Moon Daisy and, subsequently, Ico-wrote the script. Now I’m well and trulyhooked. I always have a book project some-where in the snowstorm of paper on my desk,but most of my energy goes into writing forscreen now.

I’ll tell you in detail at a later date why I’mgoing to have these talks, but for the momentI just want to flag how, as the world rapidlyawakens to Catalan identity, culture and cre-ativity, film is playing a fundamental role.

I didn’t appreciate fully until recently justhow significant this country’s film industry isbecoming and what potential it has.

For example, did you know that 65 Catalanaudio-visual companies were represented theBerlin Film festival in February? Or that Cata-lan production accounts for 40 per cent of thewhole Spanish film industry?

What strikes me is the breadth of influence.We have the vital, powerful Catalan settingsfor films like Pa Negre and Bruc and so manymore –delve and you will find an extraordi-nary wealth of accomplishments –but increas-ingly there is a world view too.

Catalan companies are regularly involvedbeyond the borders (Woody Allen’s acclaimedMidnight in Paris for example) and top direc-tors and producers are dipping into to thewealth of talent and locations here.

I take my hat off to everyone involved, tothe Generalitat , Barcelona City Council andthe film commission they founded, to allfunders, to the companies themselves, largeand small, including TV3, for having the fore-sight to recognise how fundamental cinemaand audio visual productions are to the futureof this country.

Film showcases all that Catalonia has tooffer, oiling the giant economic engine of tou-

I rism – tourism of the low-impact, sensitivekind – that champions the natural, artistic,architectural and historical wealth here.

And it does something equally significant.It is a global medium that can touch every-one, and what is happening here reinforcesCatalonia and Barcelona on the cultural worldmap, a place and people deserving of recogni-tion and who are neither introverted nor nar-row.

HEADING FOR THE HILLSMARTIN KIRBY [email protected]

Lights, music, action

Did youknow that65 Catalanaudio-visualcompanieswere repre-sented theBerlin Filmfestival inFebruary?Or thatCatalanproductionaccounts for40 per centof the wholeSpanish filmindustry? Ll

uís

Ro

mer

o


ADVERTISEMENT

8695

36-1

0863

29w

®


s it possible to suffer culture shock at yourown culture? I wasn’t sure until now, butafter taking my wife and son to Man-

chester to see their English family last wee-kend I can positively state that, yes, you can.

I wasn’t shocked at the freezing rain anddraughty hallways. The grimy trains and tiredold pavements patchworked in a millionshades of grey. The miserable rust-stained of-fice buildings in the environs of Piccadillystation. The scalding water from the hot tap,or the suffocating atmosphere of over-heatedrooms and old carpets.

No, I grew up with all of that. No cultureshock there. The shock was the result of acouple of incidents which took place in quicksuccession while I was explaining to my wifethat Manchester’s saving grace was not thefact that it was, as it so boldly proclaims in thecity centre, a nuclear-free city (are any citiesnot nuclear-free? Are there nuclear-friendlycities?), but rather its people. Salt of the earth.Friendly, welcoming, great sense of humour;not unlike the man she’d married.

We were returning from the city centre bytrain and the conductor, i.e. ticket collector,entered the carriage. There were quite a few ofus in there, including a gangly young man ina tracksuit lounging nonchalantly a few rowsbehind us. When asked for his ticket, he of-fered his credit card (sorry, a credit card, inhindsight it may well not have been his),which the machine didn’t accept. "You’ll have

I to get off at the next station and buy a ticket,"said the conductor. "What, and wait for thenext train?" His tone was slightly aggressive,so I gave my wife a reassuring smile; Man-chester people are nice. But from there it de-scended into the sort of abuse and threaten-ing behaviour that I thought only prisonyards were known for. The youth got off justbefore security arrived, and it must be saidthat the conductor handled the situationreally well, but just as I was formulating thewords "isolated incident", he told a manwho’d offered to back up his story if heneeded a witness, "Don’t worry, it happens allthe time".

When we got off the train, a young womanon the platform was screaming hysterically attwo terrified young girls, aged five or six, ac-cusing them of some heinous crime along thelines of having played too loudly on the train.I turned to my wife and said, "Must be theirolder sister", hoping with all my heart, withall the faith I had in my people, for there to beat least a tenuous reason for such aggressiontowards small children. But no, as the adultwoman’s face suddenly became all too clear inthe platform light, she uttered those well-known maternal words, "Wait ’til I get youhome and tell your dad about this".

What could I say to my wife? Nothing.There was nowhere to hide; this was my cul-ture in the raw. Manchester people aren’t al-ways nice.

THE CULTURAL TIGHTROPEBARNEY GRIFFITHS [email protected]

Reverse culture shock

Lluís Romero

I wasn’tshocked atthe freezingrain anddraughtyhallways.The grimytrains andtired oldpavementspatch-worked in amillionshades ofgrey.

OPINION


ADVERTISEMENT

8695

36-1

0834

97®

A new TV networkfor a new country

n a future Catalan nation apublic television network

that is both cultivated and edu-cational as well as being freefor all Catalans will berequired. It will have to be anetwork that is radically differ-ent from the overblown andclientelist one of our neigh-bours, which represents an un-sustainable expense for acountry with a liberal, ratherthan interventionist, economy.It will have to be a networkwith documentaries, classicseries, debates and films of in-terest to the whole nation. I amreferring to a model such as thePublic Broadcasting System(PBS) in the United States.There, the PBS is privately fi-nanced and its adverts onlymake reference to companysponsors, which in general arelarge American multinationalsinterested in creating goodwillamong the viewers. Cataloniaalready possesses the necessarybusiness fabric to sustain apublic TV network, whichcould be funded through tax-deductible donations. The costof such a network would beless than a tenth of TV3’sbudget and would be a type ofCanal 33 that is exclusivelycultural and educational. PBS

I

does not broadcast any trivialprogrammes or soap operas,which are expensive to pro-duce, and it only broadcastsminority sports that cannot befound on the US’s commercialchannels, such as European

football. I think that, if wehave to start again, it is betterto do it well and avoid the er-rors of the past.

JOSEP MARRASÉ SÁNCHEZSitges (Garraf)

New Yorkhe Three Kings broughtme a book called New

York, by Edward Rutherfurd,about the history of the cityfrom the first Dutch settlers tothe attack on the Twin Towers.It surprised me to see that thedesire of the Americans to gainindependence from the BritishEmpire has certain similaritieswith our own process towardsindependence from the Casti-lian Empire. On the one hand,there were the moderates, themagnates who had grown richfrom trade with the British,and on the other, the majorityof the middle classes: the pa-triots. The future for the mod-erates was ruin, while for thepatriots, faith in themselvesand in the country. The empiresurrendered and the Treaty ofParis was signed. The futurewas then that of the UnitedStates of America, an entrepre-neurial nation. The future ofour independence will not de-pend on Europe but on ourfaith in ourselves and in ourwork and values. Europe willreceive our cultural and econ-omic contribution, but it willbe Europe who will come to us,as we will be too tempting aninvestment.

JOAN MARTORELL I BARBERÀMatadepera

T

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [email protected] Today reserves the right to edit readers’ letters.

he other day I went to a restaurant with some friends andwe had a really great meal. However the servings were so

abundant that we couldn’t finish the second course, which wasmeat, let alone the bread. We also ordered two wine bottles andthe second one was hardly touched. After paying the bill, someof us wondered if it would be unpolite to ask the waiter to packsome of the leftover food to take it home, as well as the wine.Some of us agreed, others replied that it would be embarrassingand cheap to do that so in the end we left both the food andthe unfinished wine on the table. I have friends from othercountries who do that all the time, and I must say I find it sen-sible. Does it make sense to just waste good food and wine? Is itsustainable? Only thinking that there are people starving in somany parts of the planet...What is your opinion? What do youdo in this situation? SILVIA PÉREZ. Manresa.

T

LETTER OF THE MONTH

What to do with leftover foodor wine from restaurants?


OPINION

CARTOON OF THE MONTH Sally Poulson

Africa’s mostmulticultural city

hy did you leave Catalonia?–I did postgraduate studies in London and I was lucky

enough to find a job as soon as I finished. I was sure that Iwould eventually move back to Barcelona, but after more thantwo decades, I’m still working and living abroad.

Why did you choose South Africa?–Well, it wasn’t really my choice. A post in Cape Town came upin the company I work for, and my boss convinced me to go forit. I felt I was ready for a change. I had never visited South Africabefore, and knew nothing about it, besides Mandela and rugby,but I said "yes".

How long have you lived there?–It’s now been three and a half years, and counting...

Are you happy working there?–Well, I found the working environment pretty similar to Lon-don. People are a bit more friendly, though. I started feeling athome quite quickly.

What do you think is the best thing about living there?–Cape Town is a big, beautiful city. It is probably the mostmulticultural city in Africa. There are expats from all around theglobe living here. The weather is very similar to Barcelona. CapeTown has a Mediterranean climate with little rain, with 11hours of sun in the summer.

What would you most like to change?–Distances! You have to drive for hours to go anywhere. We Eu-ropeans are not used to such distances. Everything is quite closein Europe. On the other hand, there are still big inequalities inthis country that need to be addressed.

What do you miss most from home?–The food. I miss Catalan embotits and my granny’s traditionalcooking. Local cuisine is very good, but also very different fromour tastes.

What do you take with you as a present from your newhome when you go back to Barcelona?–I always try to smuggle in some boerewors (farmhouse sausages)but they often have to stay in customs at the airport in Barce-lona!

W

ALBERT MERCADEROriginally from Barcelona, after several years inLondon, Albert’s employers offered him a post inSouth Africa, and he took them up on the offer.

CATALANS ABROAD

What do you consider the high-lights for a brief visit?–There is a very good reason to visitCape Town this year. The city is thecurrent World Design Capital, andthere are a lot of activities scheduled.I would recommend the performancesof several artists in District Six, anarea where over 60,000 inhabitantswere forcibly removed during the1970s by the apartheid regime, whichis still undeveloped land. The DistrictSix Museum is also a must.

Can you recommend a place tohave lunch with friends?–You will probably find the best sea-food restaurants in the world here.There are many places offering linefish (fish of the day) prepared as thechef’s speciality. A must is the snoekand also the kingklip which are realSouth African treats.

When is the best time of year toplan a visit? –Anytime. You may find it too hot inthe summer, but even in January orFebruary (summer down here) youwill enjoy it.

What is the best kept secret aboutthe area?–I love to watch the sunset over theocean. The sunsets from Signal Hillare beautiful and only a short drivefrom the city centre. A bit furthernorth of town, Blouberg Beach is oneof the best opportunities to take inthe awesome views of Table Mountainand the City Bowl.

Some suggestions


ireia defines her style as "a bit peculiar, elegant, openand colourful". She may only be 17, but she has very

clear ideas about her future: "I’ve always wanted to be a fashiondesigner," she declares. Her first collection, inspired by the1950s pin-up style, presented last year l in Girona, was a com-plete success. She is already preparing her next collection, duefor April, and next year she plans to go and study at the world’sbest fashion school in Antwerp. Mireia showed us around herworkshop, in her house in Girona.1. Sewing machine: the object that I treasure most. My firstsewing machine was a present for my 12th birthday. I’m veryfond of it, we have spent many years together and done manykilometres of sewing. I spend most weekends sewing and alsoevery day after class. I need to work at least 1 to 2 hours a day; itis my passion. I guess it comes from both sides of my family;both my grandma and my great grandmother were seam-stresses. When I was a child I used to design the dresses for mydolls and my grandma would sew them for me.2. Tape measure: I use it for everything and it helps me get theright size, which is essential.3. Apron: I once had to design an apron for a school project.Mine were so successful that I decided to sell them. At first theyhad simple patterns, but later I added pockets, accessories, and Ipersonalised them to demand. With the money I made, Ibought sewing machines and fabrics.4. Notebook: it’s where all my collections start. I always haveone on my bedside table, in my backpack, as you never knowwhen inspiration will come. I’m always drawing designs for newclothes. Many new ideas come to me while sleeping and alsowhen my mind is relaxed, often after kite surfing, which I do allyear round.5. Fabrics: in the same way that the patterns need to be welldone, the fabrics need to be of good quality, as it’s the most vis-ible part of a garment. I buy them in Barcelona, sometimes mymum and I go to Paris and when I go on holidays I am alwayson the lookout for new fabrics. I like extravagant, abstract pat-terns best; for my new collection I’ve used a lot of feathers andsynthetic leather – I don’t like working with natural leather – imi-tation cat fur, and also velvet and satin. My creationsare unique items; I don’rt repeat garments. I also likehaute couture and don’t do prêt-a-porter, but I under-stand that it is more affordable and easier to earn yourliving from ready-to-wear clothes. I suppose I have analternative fashion style, as I like quirky stuff, though I’malways aware of the latest trends in fashion without fol-low it. I create my own style.6. Agenda: I have a busy timetable: after class, I studyEnglish and Dutch, so I need to organise my agenda.7. Threads: the connection between the machine andfabric. I buy them at my local haberdashery and I usuallyuse the same colour as the fabric, so you only see them inembroideries, when I use more colourful ones.8. Scissors: it’s what I use to cut the fabric and make thegarment look neater. I use big ones, which are special forfabrics.

M

Mireia VidalMARCELA [email protected]

Student and fashion designer

1

4

Photo: MANEL LLADÓ

MY SPACE


3

8

2

5

7

6


A HOME OF MY OWN

here is another flag flying from the roofof the house. A Scottish one. Together

the two flags look great!The boys have had their 'topping out'

dinner at our local restaurant Can Boix. I leftthe boys to it, better as a boys-only night Ithink, but understand it was a great eveningand nice to get together and get to knowsome of the guys working on the house alittle better.

On the outside of the house the old swim-ming pool is no longer, it took them a matterof hours to knock it in and fill it over. We cannow picture and mark-out the size and shapeof the patio. It was amazing how close to thehouse that pool actually was. They are nowable to prepare the levels directly outside thefront of the house and a new area has beencreated just to one side with enough roomfor one car to be parked. That will be great forunloading shopping, babies and everythingelse.

At the back of the house a wall is going upon the border of our land, not too high as wedon’t want to disturb the view of the fieldsand woodland out the back. This will be agreat outside eating area in the hottermonths as very little sun reaches here.

T

BUILDING A HOUSE IN CATALONIA

Delays

Nicole Millar [email protected]

We have been testing outside lighting thatwill be on the walls and in the floor. Whichhas been quite easy as we were given somegood recommendations from the electri-cian. These will go on both downstairs patiosand upstairs on the terrace to light up theoutside wall.

Two separate quotes from swimming poolcompanies have come back as different asnight and day, so this makes decision veryeasy! Gosh, they are an expensive thing tohave built!

Tiles for the bathrooms haven’t been laidyet even though we have had a rainy day.Clearly not enough rain but we think he willstart this week. One of the chimneys is fin-ished, it is gorgeous as is everything done tothis house. Our builder really is an artist! Thedownstairs floor is finished with the layer ofconcrete on top of the under-floor heating,exactly like upstairs. It makes everythinglook much cleaner and oddly, a lot bigger.

On all of the downstairs windows we arehaving the traditional metal bars put on forsecurity and we have chosen a colour thatmatches the window frame and saw a samplethis month. A great match of colour , darkerthan you normal see on houses in this area

but it is going to work really well and marryeverything in together.

The builders have looked at the originaloutside BBQ area that was built with thehouse and it isn’t good. Instead of keeping itwe are going to have to start all over again.This is something we are going to thinkabout later on, probably after we havemoved in. It isn’t an important right now.

And so I end this update with yet morenews of a delay…Yep, that’s right. I can’tquite believe it either. Just this evening wehad an architects meeting and the companysupplying our wooden floor were there.What no one had realised or what theyhadn’t told us was that before laying thefloor they take up to three weeks to measurethe different temperatures in the house,from the hottest it will get to and the coldestit could possibly get to and based on thosetemperatures they will choose the type ofrisen that they use. This then prevents warp-ing. At the end of the day it is a good thingthat their attention to detail is so good. Andreally what is three weeks on top of every-thing we have been waiting for?

(To be continued...)


INTERNATIONAL

Adrià's creativityThe Drawing Centerof New York recentlyhosted an exhibitionabout chef FerranAdrià’s creativity,including drawingsand writings

rett Littman, executive di-rector of The Drawing

Center of New York, visitedCatalonia a few years ago withhis wife and managed to get a re-servation at Ferran Adrià’s ElBulli restaurant. Littman dis-covered that the celebratedCatalan chef was always hold-ing a notebook, takingnotes and drawingsketches. After talkingwith Adrià, Littman dis-covered that there was awhole universe of pic-tures and notes express-ing the creativity andprocesses that Adrià fol-lows to come up withnew dishes.

Littman then spentthe following two yearstrying to convince Adriàto hold an exhibition inhis New York art centre.The Catalan refusedonce and again, citingthe "null artistic qualityof my drawings". How-ever, Littman event-ually convinced himthat it was not about ar-tistic quality but aboutthe creative processthrough drawings andsketches that have led to theworld’s best cuisine.

Ferran Adrià: Notes on Creati-vity was finally presented lastmonth in New York, where itstayed until February 28 beforemoving to Boston. The exhibi-tion boasts a wide selection ofmore than half a million docu-

BGERMÀ CAPDEVILA

ments, from diagrams to elabor-ate pyramids that expressAdrià’s theories on the nature ofcreativity.

"I’m not here as someone whodraws", explained the Catalanchef at the opening, adding,"these drawings are how I visual-ise the future".

"I think the debate aboutwhether or not chefs are artistsor if Ferran’s drawings are art-works is a bit irrelevant," saysLittma. "He is one of the mostprofound thinkers of the past 20years in gastronomy, and his ap-proach uses vocabulary fromother disciplines. My hope is

that anyone in a creative fieldcan come here and understandhow, through knowledge, re-search, self-reflection and docu-mentation, one can create aground for creativity that allowsfor chaos, mistakes, experimen-tation and eventually to radicalinnovation".

The Drawing Center of New York and images of the exhibition / CATALONIA TODAY

IN THE NEWS

Cabré’s "I confess"to be translatedinto 20 languages

Jaume Cabré’s latest novel, Jo con-fesso (I confess), which was recentlyawarded he Courier InternationalPrize for Best foreign book, is to betranslated into 20 languages over thecoming months. The work has alreadybeen published in nine languages andwill be available in English in 2015.Jaume Cabré, who was born in Barce-lona in 1947, has been praised inter-nationally for his novels that delveinto the human condition and reflecton mankind’s propensity for evil. He isprobably the living Catalan writerwith the greatest international projec-

tion. In "I confess", a multi-layerednovel starting in Barcelona in the1950s, the main character, Adrià Ardè-vol, investigates his family’s past andwealth, going all the way back to thevery origins of evil, to the Spanish In-quisition, the Franco dictatorship andNazi Germany’s exterminationcamps. The intricate novel portrays anearthly hell, stressing the inhumanityof mankind and covering the lastseven centuries of Western Europe’shistory. Cabré was awarded the PremiCiutat de Barcelona a la Projecció In-ternacional given by the Catalan capi-tal’s city council. "I confess" has beenpraised as "a novel of novels" and amasterpiece of European literature bymany literary critics.

63% will back Catalanindependence,poll shows

An experimental poll by the CEOpolling centre, based on 1,830 inter-views on 10 different future scenarios,showed wide support for Catalan inde-pendence. Interviewees were askedwhether they would vote for indepen-dence from Spain or not depending ondifferent scenarios, such as stayingwithin the European Union through atransitory agreement, being automati-cally expelled from the EU and havinga greater amount of economic re-sources, among other possibilities. Forall scenarios, independence is the clearwinner but the results do vary from

Students from London’s Saint Philomena high-schoolvisit Catalonia Today’s headquarters in Girona

ast month, Catalonia Today andEl PuntAvui received the visit of

British students and tutors from Lon-don’s Saint Philomena high-school.After visiting the modernist build-ing, La Farinera, one of the emble-

L matic works of local architect, RafaelMasó, our guests were shown themain production processes of maga-zines and newspapers.

As the only magazine that pub-lishes Catalan news in English, Cata-

lonia Today regularly receives visitsfrom schools and university studentsinterested in learning about journal-ism and the process of producingnews. For further information writeto [email protected].

Wha

t ha

pp

ened

Feb

ruar

y


CATALONIA / EUROPE

WHAT THE FOREIGN PRESS SAYS ABOUT CATALONIA

Hello, Dali! Spain’s Bad Boy Is Back

Postcard from... Barcelona

hat’s old in Catalonia, but asnew as tomorrow’s headlines?

Not the Greek ruins at Empúries or Gi-rona’s Roman road, the Via Augusta.Certainly not the vineyards, long culti-vated for "cava" wine; or Catalonia’srugged coastline, the Costa Brava,whose sandy coves are among theMediterranean Sea’s most inviting.What’s old and new is the enigmaticSpanish painter Salvador Dali (1904-1989), who made the sorry mistake ofbeing born before his time. If you don’tknow Dali, he’s the Catalonian-born

W

t is World Cup year, and that can meanonly two things: crushing disappoint-

ment for England fans and taxi driverseverywhere displaying faux patriotism byattaching plastic St George’s crosses totheir cabs. Flags are on display in Barce-lona all the time, where nationalist fer-vour runs deep. Many —and a growingnumber if activists are to be believed—want independence for Catalonia fromthe rest of Spain, and the Catalan flaghangs from many buildings in whatwould be the capital of a new state. Butdon’t expect them to be waved wildly if,

I

Catalan Leader Says Spain CannotBlock Independence Vote

pain cannot block a non-bindingvote on Catalan independence that

could become the basis for negotiationson Catalonia’s future, the president of thenortheastern region said in an interviewpublished on Sunday.

"If I call a consultation, not to declarethe independence of Catalonia nor tobreak with the Spanish state, but to know

S

artist who installed a huge broken eggon his house, and who painted The Per-sistence of Memory, a Surrealistic pic-ture of bizarrely drooping clocks.Theaverage museum visitor didn’t under-stand it, until the critics explained thatit meant dream time is elastic. But whatonce struck most viewers as an inaccur-ate picture of odd pocket watches isnow understood as a clue to its creator’sinner life. And as Dali’s art has foundfresh admirers, so has he.

The Huffington Post, Feb 14, 2014http://ves.cat/i8Zz

the opinion of the citizens of this country,a knee-jerk anti-democratic responsefrom Spain would be pretty bad and dis-graceful in the view of the entire world,"Artur Mas told La Vanguardia, Catalonia’sleading newspaper.

The New York TImes, Feb 02, 2014.http://ves.cat/i81Z

like at the last World Cup, Spain triumphs.Despite a squad packed with players fromBarcelona Football Club, Catalans aresnooty when it comes to the nationalteam. "If Spain wins, so what? You’ll cer-tainly not see people celebrating in thestreets here," said one. Catalans have theirown language and traditions, but for nowthe Spanish government won’t allowthem a referendum, even though the re-gional government in Barcelona hasagreed a November date.

The Independent, Feb 13, 2014http://ves.cat/i8X1

one case to the other, ranging from 62.7%to 45.4% support. Furthermore, the op-position to independence also changessignificantly ranging from 22.5% to37.6%. Nevertheless, in general, the inde-pendence option consistently came outon top and the highest opposition to in-dependence was never higher than theweakest support for independence. In ad-dition, the poll included a question thatdoes not foresee any specific scenario.Answering the simple question "if the [in-dependence] referendum is finally orga-nised, what would you vote?" 53.5% saidthey would vote "yes", 28.7% would say"no", 9.4% would abstain and 8.4% wouldcast a blank ballot paper.

Catalonia approvesits first InternationalProtection Plan for refu-gees

The Catalan government has approvedthe International Protection Plan of Cata-lonia, which aims to protect people forcedto leave their country due to persecution.It is the first time Catalonia has had itsown legal instrument to face the issue ofasylum seekers, displaced people andhuman trafficking victims. This new toolestablishes the principles, measures andfunding to host and offer protection topeople forced to flee their countries due toa grounded fear of persecution for reasonsof race, religion, nationality, politicalopinion, membership of a social group,gender or sexual orientation. Amongother things, the programme encouragesissuing new proposals to improve thelegal status of these people, offer thembetter training, keep them better in-formed and improve the reception, theintegration or the participation processtowards a coordinated resettlement in theevent of mass arrivals of displaced people.The right of asylum, despite being the ex-clusive jurisdiction of the Spanish gov-ernment, allows Catalonia to intervenewithin its own areas of jurisdiction. TheSpanish legal framework explicitly statesthat regional governments can managethe services and programmes specificallytargeting asylum seekers. Sharing man-agement responsibilities regarding inter-national protection between the differentlevels of government is a necessity, ac-knowledged as such by the Treaty on theFunctioning of the European Union.


FEATURE


PhotographyCompetitionCOOKINGThe photos received this monthwere again lovely, and a lot of themwere from popular celebrations ofparties with friends gatheredaround the table with some tastydishes to enjoy.

Next month’s theme is FUNNY, sodon’t miss the opportunity to win adigital photo frame while havinglots of fun sending us your bestfunny pictures. As usual atphoto@cataloniatoday, beforeMarch 18.

his picture was taken this winter during aweekend at a countryside fair. It is a large

barbecue set up especially for this celebration.It was a huge success, with a long queue ofcustomers waiting for their turn to taste thedelicious meat and sausages.

T

The winning photo:Popular barbecueby Albert Vilaró(Calonge)


Carles Solé (Girona). The first calçotada of the year

Carles Solé. Cooking fish in a restaurant in the volcanic region of Lanzarote


FEATURE

Joan Torres Nalda (Olot). Olives and wine, to help yourself while cooking

Claudia Vinyals(Roses). Servinga large paelladish for a groupof 50, near thesea.


uring the current man-date of autonomous gov-

ernments, the authorities in Val-encia, the Balearic Isles and Ara-gon have all introduced legis-lation to block the standard-isation and unity of the Catalanlanguage. The so-called 'blaver-isme' movement, led by groups –some on the far right – againstrecognition of the unity of Cata-lan began in the Valencia region

DDAVID MARÍN

Politics of languageCatalan is againstthe ropes due toradical linguisticlegislation

at the end of the 1970s.Although this tendency cur-

rently has no dedicated politicalrepresentation (the Unión Val-enciana was dissolved in 2011,throwing its support behind the

Partido Popular, or PP), its mess-age has spread to neighbouringareas through a network of smallbut well coordinated groupswho have managed to influencea number of legislative ini-tiatives. Among them is the clos-ing down of the TV3 trans-mitters in Valencia and the dis-mantling of the region’s publicradio and television networks,not to forget the educational re-forms relegating the status of

Catalan by the Bauzá govern-ment in the Balearic Islands and,above all, the approval of newlinguistic legislation in Aragonthat replaces Catalan with a newdesignation, Lapao (lengua ara-gonesa propia del área oriental),as the name for the local lan-guage spoken in the towns ofFranja de Ponent.

The Aragon initiative is the la-test of these measures and, inMay, the linguistic legislation


www.catalunya

volviureen

llibertat.ca

t

introduced by the PP and PAR(Partido Aragonés) parties willbe a year old. Until last spring,however, the presence and legit-imacy of Catalan in Franja de Po-nent had never been called intoquestion by local institutions,although it had been largely ig-nored by officialdom, as seenfrom the fact that the statutegoverning Aragonese autonomydoes not allow for any officiallanguage other than Spanish. At

best, certain local institutionshave on occasion timidly ad-mitted the existence of Catalanbut without according it any of-ficial status or guaranteeing anyrights for its speakers.

The new PP/PAR legislationhas now changed all of that, re-moving the term Catalan andtaking control of the variantsEastern Aragonese (which usedto be Catalan) and Northern Ara-gonese (which used to be Arago-

nese) by setting up a new lin-guistic academy to do the job oflinguistic standardisation inplace of the Acadèmia Ara-gonesa del Català, created byprevious legislation.

Up until this new legislationcame into effect last year, the PPhad never explicitly shown itselfin favour of any form of lin-guistic secession, unlike a smallgroup which had a presence inFranja de Ponent and, despite its

Anti-Catalan demonstrators protest in Valencia, which, along withthe Balearic Islands and Aragon, has seen the biggest rise in the

so-called BLAVERSIME movement. / ARCHIVE

A network ofsmall, wellcoordinatedgroups haveinfluenced anumber oflegislativeinitiatives



size, had a significant mediaclout in Zaragoza and occa-sionally in Madrid: the Feder-ación de Asociaciones Cultu-rales del Aragón Oriental(Facao), which functionedunder the slogan "No HablamosCatalán". However, from 2000onwards, this group began tohave increasing influence overthe PAR, despite the latter hav-ing always represented a rangeof different opinions on the lin-

guistic issue.Facao first appeared on the

scene at the same time as the lin-guistic debates relating to therevision of Aragon’s statue of au-tonomy in 1996. That year wasthe first time that the term East-ern Aragonse was used to refer tothe variant of Catalan spoken inFranja de Ponent, when it wasused by two representatives ofFacao who appeared in the de-bates. The same thing happened

in 2002, when Roberto Bayod, atreasury employee and his-torian, represented the so-calledAsociación Cultural del BajoAragón, part of the Facao move-ment. Bayod not only deniedthat Catalan was the languagespoken in Fraga, but he also de-nied that it was the languagespoken in Lleida, in Catalonia it-self: "In Lleida, a language verysimilar to Eastern Aragonese isspoken because Catalan only

The PP/PARlegislation hasremoved theterm Catalanand takencontrol of thevariantsEasternAragonese

www.catalunya

volviureen

llibertat.ca

tFEATURE


starts at Tàrrega: people fromLleida barely understand Cata-lan. As far as Tàrrega they speak alanguage similar to Eastern Ara-gonese," said Bayod, accordingto the official diary of the Arago-nese Corts, the regional parlia-ment, on February 14, 2002. Ayear earlier, Bayod explained theorigins of Eastern Aragonese in aletter to the then culture min-ister, Javier Callizo. According toBayod, he first came across the

language in the 1980s whilestudying in Madrid, thanks tophilologist Manuel Criado deVal, a specialist in medievalSpanish who nevertheless hadnever published anything onthe Catalan or Aragonese lan-guages. However, it was herethat the variant of Catalan de-fended by Facao was born,which would eventually lead in2013 to the Aragonese govern-ment turning it into law.

PP backing boostssurvival of blavers

D.M.

aís Valencià is probablythe area where anti-Cata-

lan sentiment is at its most in-tense. This is not a new phe-nomenon, but after the Transi-tion it began to gain momen-tum to the point that it at-tained its own label: blaver-isme. In only a decade, theblavers attained the status of apopular movement based onthe principle of linguistic andcultural secession and the de-velopment of a national iden-tity through gaining influencein political institutions andcivic and cultural bodies. Al-though blaverisme still existson the political fringe, it hasreceived a boost in recenttimes with the absorption ofits regionalist discourse by thePartido Popular (PP).

There are a number of or-ganisations that keep the orig-inal spirit of blaversime alivetoday, thanks to collaboration

Pwith the PP. One of these 'cul-tural' associations is Lo RatPenat (LRP). The PP has beenable to maintain control overbodies such as LRP in partthrough generous subsidies.For example, Lo Rat Penat, pre-sided over by the formerUnión Valenciana leader,Enric Esteve, last year received178,000 euros (80,000 fromthe Generalitat, 50,000 fromthe Diputació and 48,000from the Ajuntament de Val-ència). Although complete fig-ures do not exist, the munici-pal group, Compromís, somemonths ago claimed that Val-encia’s PP government hadpaid out to the LRP a total of1.6 million euros, 1.5 millionof which came after the pass-ing of the law that created thenew version of the AcadèmiaValenciana de la Llengua,which the LRP had previouslycriticised as being "an instru-ment of Catalan nationalism".

Rightwing supporters on Valencia’s national day. / ARCHIVE

A demonstration in favour of Catalan in Perpingan. While inCatalunya del Nord legislation does not question the unity of thelanguage, it is under constant pressure from French. / ARCHIVE

ÒSCAR PALAU

he question of linguisticunity is more relevant to

Spanish than Catalan, especiallyconsidering the large gap be-tween the linguistic model de-fended by the Real Academia Es-pañola (RAE) and the many va-rieties of the language spoken inSpain and especially in LatinAmerica. Yet, as Hispanic philol-ogist Silvia Senz points out,today "nothing is being done toestablish a working differen-tiation in the case of Spanish". Amajor reason for this is due to alack of scientific support for therecognition of languages orig-inating in dialects of the lan-guage of Cervantes.

At the same time, the politicalwill to recognise any linguisticvariation in Spanish is also lack-ing. This is in contrast to the con-tinual efforts of the PartidoPopular to force the division ofCatalan. This effort reached ab-surd levels with the recent recog-nition of Lapao (Lengua Ara-gonesa Propia del Aragón Orien-tal) in Franja de Ponent, or theattempt to establish Iber originsfor the Catalan dialect spoken inPaís Valencià, which even theAcadèmia Valenciana de la Llen-gua rejects.

Yet, it is not surprising giventhe power of languages as politi-cal tools. While the linguisticunity of the Països Catalans is de-monised by Spanish national-ism, Hispanic linguistic unity

T

Despite numerous linguistic variations inSpain and Latin America, questioning theunity of the Spanish language remainsfirmly off the political agenda

Linguisticunity?

must never be questioned andthose who do so are silenced fortheir temerity.

'Few fractures'In June, during the presentationfor the VI Congreso Interna-cional de la Lengua Española,Spain’s culture minister, José Ig-nacio Wert called Spanish a lan-guage with "few fractures" that"unites all the countries where itis spoken". Wert went on to referto Spanish as "a legacy that mustbe preserved" and he stressed theneed for "children capable oftruly appreciating all of the rich-ness of Spanish".

Despite being systematicallysidelined by institutions andmedia, attempts to question theunity of Spanish have been fre-quent, especially in LatinAmerica. Between 1844 and1927, for example, a number ofcountries adopted their own lin-guistic standards based on thereforming proposals of theVenezuelan grammarian,Andrés Bello. The so-called "Chi-lean orthography", which beganin Chile, also spread to othercountries, such as Argentina,Colombia, Equador, Venezuelaand Nicaragua.

"The narrative maintained bybodies such as the RAE and sup-porters of pan-Hispanism hasbeen completely adulterated,"laments Senz, who goes on tocite a later failed attempt at lin-guistic secession during the

Unease in Latin America about Spanish linguistic imperialismled scores of writers, intellectuals and academics to present amanifesto "For idiomatic sovereignty" in the VI Congreso Inter-nacional de la Lengua Española. The signatories insisted that di-versity is the victim of "standardisation and regulatory deci-sions" from the RAE’s "traditional centralist spirit". The protes-tors called for a joint effort between the 21 Spanish-speakingstates of Latin America to create a Borges Institute free of Mad-rid’s influence and under local control. In response, the RAE de-scribed itself as "uneasy" about the rebellious attitude that itsaid would only "fracture" the effort to strengthen Spanish.

Rebellion against the RAE


FEATURE

Perón regime in Argentina.While it is true that the reformattempt led to the acceptance ofpopular written forms, the RAEcontinues to resist linguistic dif-ferentiation.

Curiously, Spain is the placewith the most theories of lin-guistic secession. The most seri-ous is the promulgation of Anda-lusian as a language, descended

directly from Latin under the in-fluence of Arabic. Andalusiannow has its own dictionary andlinguistic standards, thanks tothe Hunta d’Ehkritoreh n’An-dalú, a body that organises bian-nual conferences as well as con-voking regular poetry eventsand literary prizes. Withoutgoing so far as to talk about it as acompletely different language,some academics, such as JuanCarlos Moreno Cabrera from theUniversidad Autónoma de Mad-rid, have denounced "Spanishlinguistic manipulation" basedon a "pan-Hispanic" ideologythat has undermined dialectalvariations.

Another theory concerns Ex-tremaduran, the language of Ex-tremadura. In this case, the lan-guage is internationally recog-nised as a dialect of Astur-Leo-nese, the official denominationfor the group of linguistic vari-ations spoken in the north ofCastilla y León, Asturias andCantabria.

However, the fact that overthe centuries, Extremaduran hasbecome mixed with CastilianSpanish, despite their differentroots, has fed confusion aboutwhether the language is a cor-rupted version of Spanish, a va-riety of Astur-Leonese or a lan-guage in itself.

Yet another example that castsdoubt on the idea of the unity ofpeninsular Spanish is Murcian, alanguage that is believed to goback to the aftermath of the Visi-goth invasions and which laterabsorbed elements of Arabic,Castilian Spanish, Aragoneseand Catalan. Spoken in thewhole of Murcia as well as insome areas of Alicante, Albacete,Almeria, Granada and Jaén,Murican also now has its ownlexicography and literature, andis the subject of literary prizes aswell as enjoying a free trans-lation service.

The attempt at maintaining the unity of the Spanish languagealso has economic implications for Spanish-speaking countries.According to studies carried out by the Cervantes Institute andthe Telefónica Foundation, business related to Spanish, such asthat in the cultural and publishing industries, makes up some16% of Spain’s GDP. In Latin America, too, the language isclosely tied to economic colonialism, as can be seen from ini-tiatives by the Cervantes Institute and the Telefónica Foun-dation, in which agreements with local linguistic academies de-pend on accepting sponsorship from multinational Spanishcompanies, such as Iberia, BBVA, Banco Santander or Repsol.

Language and economics

Congresses of the Spanishlanguage, such as this one heldin Valladolid in 2001, havealways acted as forums forsupporters of pan-Hispanism./ EL PUNT AVUI



INTERVIEW

Defenceof worldheritage

MARTA MONEDERO

ith contagious enthusi-asm, Carolina Castella-

nos lives and breathes heritage.Her life revolves around all thatdeserves "to be preserved for thefuture generations", as she putsit. Castellanos was born inMexico City in 1968, a year inwhich the world was convulsedby revolutions, she notes with asmile. Castellanos spends morethan half of each year away fromMexico, analysing which con-servation projects should beprioritised and which deserveinclusion on the World HeritageSite list of Unesco, for whom sheworks as a consultant.

Society, heritage and devel-opment increasingly seem togo together.

–The idea is to make all threeincreasingly related, which wassomething included in the finalstatement of the UniversalForum of Cultures held in Balilast November. Culture has to gohand-in-hand with sustainabledevelopment – that is key. As isthe need for countries to adhereto this and work together withUnesco.

What should be done whendevelopment clashes withconservation?

–In those rare cases in which

W

A Unesco heritage consultant talks aboutthe challenges faced in attempting topreserve the world’s great historical sites

there is a clash, internationalagreements side with the conser-vation of places looking to be in-cluded in the world heritage list,although that does not meanthat this always has to be done.Sometimes, development agen-das trump conservation. Thisissue is part of the interesting de-bate about what type of culturewe want and will be an elementto consider when the Millen-nium Development Goals are re-viewed in 2015 with the inten-tion of promoting greater equal-ity around the world.

Yet many of the currentMillennium DevelopmentGoals have not been fulfilled.

–More than compliance, whatneeds to be looked at is the levelof progress in education, health,equality, and so on. The key willnot be so much about fulfillingthe goals, but rather the progresstowards them and identifyingthe new phenomena that can af-fect them, such as heritage.

For example, the destruc-tion of Aleppo because of thewar in Syria?

–In those cases we can talk ofheritage as a hostage to conflict.While the destruction of sites isnothing new, there are placeswhose symbolic identity is beingdestroyed. It’s not for techni-

cians like myself to appraise con-flicts, but rather to see what canbe done to protect at-risk areas.

And what can be done?–Well, provide tools to Syrian

professionals so that they canapply the best prevention me-thods possible. Some actions canbe as simple as providing sand-bags to protect buildings. Lastyear, Unesco added six Syrianenclaves to its list of endangeredsites; not all of them had been

physically damaged, but all ofthem were at risk. Just like thechildren, Aleppo’s old quarter isone of the innocent victims ofthe destruction.

Why did jihadis in Malidestroy the mausoleums inTombouctou, which wereUnesco World Heritage Sites?

–Some say that the Islamistsdestroyed them because theywere on the Unesco list of at-risksites, but the reality is that they


had already decided to so. In thiscase, it must be remembered thatthe value of the heritage is notonly material, but is also relatedto historical memory and whatthat generates. In Mali, recoverywill surely have a lot to do withthe persistence of memory.

What are the criteria formaking these decisions? Iseach case different?

–You have to know what’sbeen lost and its relevance. For

example, the reconstruction ofthe Gingerbread Houses in Haitimay not seem a priority com-pared with the humanitariancrisis caused by the earthquake,but they have symbolic value.Here, heritage played a role in re-establishing social cohesion andtourism.

As a heritage consultant,

do you act as a rescue profes-sional for at-risk sites?

–I work for the world heritagesystem and I like to think we al-ways try to be proactive thanksto the support of countries, gov-ernment agencies and Unesco.We try to create tools that allowus to manage change, ratherthan simply putting out fires,though that is something wealso do.

Are the requirements to beon Unesco’s heritage listmore demanding now?

–Yes, and it also requires evermore involvement from states.Nevertheless, to preserve a siteyou not only need Unesco recog-nition but also people to believein it and want to preserve it. Un-esco recognition is an advantagefor tourism but world heritagecities have to, for example, miti-gate the effects of climatechange. Management systemshave to consider the factors ofeconomic, atmospheric, cultu-ral and, obviously, social sus-tainability. The process of re-covering a site cannot be done ina year but if it is done well, it gen-erates social cohesion.

A large but vulnerable siteOne site that Castellanos advises Unesco on is Chan Chan. Thelargest pre-Columbian city in South America, Chan Chan inPeru, became a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1986, the sameyear it was designated an at-risk heritage site. Chan Chan,which was once the capital of the Chimor kingdom, is the ob-ject of a preservation project that Castellanos calls "innovative".According to the consultant, Chan Chan had the first manage-ment plan of its size of any archaeological site in the Americansub-continent: "In 1994, talk of social inclusion and cohesion inthe process of managing archaeological heritage soundedstrange," she says.

Carolina Castellanos The worldheritage consultant was recentlyin Barcelona to give a seminaron heritage management./ALBERT SALAMÉ

'We createtools that allowus to managechange, ratherthan just putout fires’

Screendebut forOrigins

GEMMA BUSQUETS

t is a book that has influencednumerous teenagers (and is

recommended reading in Cata-lan secondary schools), whilemany older people will re-member the TV3 series based onthe novel from 1985, adapted fortelevision by Ricard Reguant andthe Catalan TV channel’s firstever foray into large-scale fictio-nal production. Mecanoscrit delsegon origen (Manuscript of theSecond Origin, although so farthere is no official English trans-lation) is not only one of the firstscience fiction novels to appearin Catalan, but has becomesomething of a classic of liter-ature for young people as well asa huge success for its author, Ma-nuel de Pedrolo, despite theauthor claiming that it wasnever one of his books that heever had much fondness for.Nevertheless, this year is the40th anniversary of the novel’spublication, which coincideswith the production of a filmversion of the tale to be titled,Segon origen (Second Origin).

The film is a personal project –and after more than four years ofhard work and dedication it isalso a labour of love – of journal-ist and producer, Carles Porta.Porta once worked as a special

I

Forty years since it was first published, thesci-fi classic Mecanoscrit del segon origenis about to become a full-length feature film

correspondent for TV3 in con-flict areas, such as Bosnia, andnow owns his own productioncompany, Antàrtida Produc-cions. Finally, after a wholeseries of setbacks and strugglesfor the project, filming of thisAnglo-Catalan co-production isnow in its first stages of produc-tion, with camera tests, scriptread-throughs and rehearsals setto begin by the end of February.Actual filming is scheduled totake place between April and theend of the year, with the specialeffects the responsibility of UKcompany, Lipsync Post (GreatExpectations and We Need toTalk about Kevin).

One of the major setbacks thatthe project had to overcome wasthe death of the film’s originaldirector, Bigas Luna, last April.The legendary Catalan film-maker had already attemptedbut failed to bring Pedrolo’snovel to the big screen some 25years ago, and, in March 2012,Luna told TVE that Mecanoscritdel segon origen "is a feasiblestory, which makes it a fascinat-ing reflection on what couldhappen."

The film will now be directedby Porta himself, although theplans to film it in 3D have beendropped due to a limited budget

of 7.3 million euros, 30% ofwhich is funding from the UK.The project also includes the in-volvement of the TV3 and TVEtelevision channels, the InstitutCatalà de les Empreses Culturals,the Diputació de Lleida, theAjuntament de Lleida and theMinisterio de Cultura, alongwith a number of sponsors.

English actor, 23-year old Ra-chel Hurd-Wood, has beenchosen to play the main char-

acter, Alba, with the other maincharacter, Didac, played byAndrés Batista, as a small boy,and Ibrahim Mané, later in thestory. The film will be shot inLleida, where Hurd-Wood is al-ready doing a crash course inCatalan.

An updated classicAlthough the cinematic adap-tation of Mecanoscrit del segonorigen intends to stay faithful to


CINEMA

Pedrolo’s text, the story hasnaturally been updated for ourtimes. The story’s main char-acters are Alba, a 14-year old girl,and Didac, a 9-year old boy. Albaand Didac are the only two survi-vors of a devastating alien attackon planet Earth, and the twochildren are left to adapt to aworld left in ruins, with the re-sponsibility of becoming a neworigin of human life on the pla-net falling on their shoulders.

Despite being written four de-cades ago, the basis of the story issurprisingly modern. Pedrolotackles a number of contempor-ary issues, such as racism. At thestart of the story, for example,Didac, who is black, is throwninto a river by his persecutorsand Alba jumps in to save him atthe precise moment that the

aliens unleash their world-des-troying attack.

Beyond its post-apocalyptictheme, the novel raises the ques-tion of what a new type of hu-manity might be like, as well asplaying with the idea of how twopeople – and children at that –might survive alone in a worldthat has suddenly become hos-tile. In some ways, the story res-embles the 1960s sci-fi classic ofBritish literature, The Day of theTriffids, which also deals withbeleaguered humanity attempt-ing to survive in a world invadedby hostile beings.

Yet, the title chosen for thisfilm, Second Origin, suggeststhat it will not only be abouthow the main characters suc-ceed or fail to survive in achanged world, but that sometype of new, unknown futureawaits. With political change inthe air on a national level, uncer-tainty about what the worldmight be like on the other side ofthe global economic crisis, whilethe planet goes through a dra-matic process of climate change,now might just be the right timeto make this film.

Pedrolo,with the Catalan causeDespite his popularity, Manuel de Pedrolo (1918-1990) onlydid one televised interview during his life. That was back in1983, when he was interviewed by Joaquim Maria Puyal on theprogramme, Vostè pregunta, on TVE’s Catalan channel. Pe-drolo only agreed to the interview after he was assured that hecould talk about anything he liked, and the subject he chose totalk about was the independence of Catalonia. During his ca-reer, Pedrolo proved to be entirely committed to the Catalancause, and it is this facet of the author – one of the most prolificin contemporary Catalan literature – that is the subject of a newdocumentary being prepared by Zeba Produccions.

A publicity shot for the film,showing the movie’s maincharacters. / ANTÀRTIDAPRODUCCIONS

'It is not onlythe first sci-finovel to appearin Catalan, buta classic ofliterature'


fter the success of TomTykwer’s Perfume: The

Story of a Murderer, UK actor Ra-chel Hurd-Wood returns toCatalonia for Carles Porta’s up-coming film, Segon origen. Cur-rently in Lleida, where the film isin development, she spoke to usabout her character and thechallenge of learning Catalan.

Your second film in Catalo-nia. A coincidence?

–I think so, but it’s quite funnybecause when I was 15 I was inBarcelona but I didn’t visit toomuch because I just wanted tosleep, and I told my mum Iwould return when I am older. Ifeel lucky to have the chance to

AMARCELA TOPOR

RACHEL HURD-WOOD/ UK Actor

'My priority is tomake Alba brilliant'The British actor talks about Carles Porta’s upcoming filmSegon Origen in which she plays the lead role of Alba

see it all again as an adult not justas a stroppy teenager.

The film is a Catalan-Eng-lish-Belgian production butyou have lines in Catalan.

–I speak both English andCatalan in the film. Catalan isquite difficult but I have a reallygood teacher, and Ibrahim Mané(Dídac) is very helpful as well.

What has attracted youmost about the project?

–I was really drawn to the storyand to Alba, I thought it was areally beautiful, artistic andpassionate script, it has a lot ofheart and soul in it and you don’tfind that very much.

What did you like mostabout Alba?

–The fact that there’s room toexplore a lot with the characterand be very creative because it’ssuch an incredible bunch ofthings that happen and thewhole psychology behind it.

Why do you think thebook it’s based on is still sorelevant?

–I think that’s because it is notspecific to a particular time andthe story concentrates on the re-lationship between Alba andDídac and that many people canrelate to it, especially youngpeople. It can be a metaphor ofmany things, but the flexibilityof being open to interpretationis what keeps it fresh, becausepeople can view it in the way

that they want.What about the relation-

ship between Alba andDídac?

–It really shifts and evolves alot throughout the film. WithAlba there’s a big change, witheverything she goes throughshe’s like a different person fromthe beginning to the end, butstill with the same big heart.

What is your vision of her?–She is initially frustrated by

things, then she gets a wake-upcall when the catastrophehappens, having to assumeleadership because she’s older,but it doesn’t necessarily comeeasily to her. What I really wantto examine with this character isthe idea that it is not always soeasy for someone, in a terribleevent like this, to take the leadand become the hero. It dependson the person, but not everyoneis built to act like a survival ex-pert in a situation like this. Albainitially doesn’t know what todo, she struggles and finds itreally terrifying, dramatic andscary. How she finds her way iswhat is really interesting.

What is it like workingwith Carles Porta?

–With Carles Porta everyone’son board for making the char-acter as realistic as possible sothat people can identify with itand say "Yes, I’d be like that, Iwould do the same if I was her."Carles Porta is a really amazingdirector with a great vision and Itrust him one hundred per cent.

What is the biggest chal-lenge in this film?

–Learning Catalan, new skills,practical stuff for new stunts. Butfor me the biggest challenge ismaking sure the way I do my jobas an actress is to the best of myability and to be the best actressthat I can for this role. I hope Ican do justice to this importantcharacter in Catalan literature.I’m pouring my heart and soulinto making Alba brilliant.

Rachel during a rehearsal breakat Magical studios in Lleida,where she is learning Catalanfor her role in Segon Origen./DAVID MARIN


INTERVIEW

El Punt Avui reaches accord with Canal Catalàto broadcast TV content with firstprogrammes planned for end of this quarter

XEVI XIRGO

l Punt/Avui have reached anagreement with Canal

Català that provides the mediagroup – which includes the ElPunt and Avui newspapers, thesports daily El 9, as well as otherpublications, such as Presència,L’Econòmic and CataloniaToday – with the chance to setup its own television channel.The first programmes are set forthe end of this quarter, provid-ing readers with televised con-tent while significantly increas-ing the group’s online offering.

The agreement, signed by theEl Punt/Avui group’s president,Joaquim Vidal i Perpinyà, andthe owner of Canal Català, Ni-cola Pedrazzoli, comes into ef-fect on March 1, with the firstprogrammes expected to appearwithin weeks. All that is neededfor the television channel to

E

Punt Avui on the box

start broadcasting is the greenlight from the Consell de l’Au-diovisual de Catalunya.

The Canal Català TV networkcurrently covers about 50% ofCatalonia, providing program-ming to some 80% of thecountry’s population.

El Punt/Avui sees this agree-ment as the next step in its stra-tegy to consolidate its positionwithin the ever-changing pan-orama of today’s media, as wellas boosting its aspirations to be-come Catalonia’s foremostmedia group. The incorporation

of televised content into thegroup’s repertoire is expected tobe particularly positive in ex-panding the group’s digitaloffer, especially for the El Punt/Avui and El 9 websites, as thenew televised material, some ofwhich will be broadcast live, willbe made available to readers andsubscribers of the group’s digitaleditions.

The board of Hermes Co-municacions, the media group’scontrolling company, expressedgreat satisfaction in response tonews of the agreement and hasappointed board member, JoanVall, and vice president, LídiaVidal, to head the new project.

El Punt Avui Televisió willfocus on news, taking its leadfrom the content chosen by thetwo editors of the El Punt Avuiand El 9 newspapers, Xevi Xirgoand Emili Gispert.

El Punt Avui Televisió will focus primarily on news, based on thecontent produced by the media group’s different publications.Nevertheless the channel will offer viewers news in a variety offormats, from interviews to commentary to debates. Althoughthe programming will initially focus on the evening and night-time slots, there will be content televised throughout the day,with an hourly news bulletin that will cover everything fromcurrent affairs to sport and economy.

News in all its forms all day

Joan Vall, Joaquim Vidal, Nicola Pedrazzoli, Lídia Vidal (below). Standing, Emili Gispert, Eduard Vidal, Esteve Colomer, Xevi Xirgo. / M. L.


MEDIA


FEATURE

he 15,000 people filling thePalau Blaugrana on the even-

ing of June 22 1976 gave off an airof optimism and hope. On stage,an enormous, 10-metre highbanner, with red lettering on awhite background, read: "A daywill come when work willtriumph". Among Catalan flags,red carnations, raised fists, partyflags and battle cries for a numberof hours men and women believedin the slogan: "Let us win freedom".The gathering showed a collectiveenthusiasm that, as the hourspassed with sermons by the party’sleading figures, such as Biel Moll,Maria Aurèlia Campmany, EliasLópez, Jordi Llimona, Josep An-dreu i Abelló and Anna Torrent,the temperature inside rose totropical levels and Joan Colominesshouted to the crowd: "We aresweating socialism". It was alightening-bolt moment in whichthe assembled felt the convictionthat a definitive break had beenmade with the dictatorship andfreedom would never desert them.

It was a glorious night, but alsojust one step on the long march ofCatalan socialism towards unity.The debate began about how to ex-ercise political action, a long-standing controversy that hadcome into focus in May 1976when, while the Front Obrer deConvergència Socialista de Catalu-nya worked on preparing the PSC’sCongrés Constituent, Reagrupa-ment Socialista and Democràtic de

T

Thirty five years since its founding, the Partit dels Socialistes deCatalunya currently finds itself trapped by a series ofinternal contradictions that threaten its political survival

'Sweatingsocialism'

PAU LANAO Catalunya, (RSDC), under theleadership of Josep Pallach andHeribert Barrera, decided tochange the party’s name to the Par-tit Socialista de Catalunya.

Both the RSDC and the CSC(Convergència Socialista de Cata-

lunya) were founded in 1974, assplinter groups of the MovimentSocialista de Catalunya (MSC),which was simultaneously estab-lished in Toulouse, Mexico and, se-cretly, in Catalonia in January1945.

The first of these parties, led byJosep Pallach, brought together ac-tivists in the European social de-mocrat model and included theBloc Popular de Lleida, EsquerraRepublicana de Catalunya (ERC)and leftwing socialist Christians,such as Josep Verde Aldea, placingthe party on the right wing of theMSC.

As for Convergència Socialistade Catalunya, led by Joan Raven-tós, it represented the so-calledMarxist radicals, which began withthe support of the Moviment perl’Autogestió i el Socialisme, Recon-strucció Socialista, activists fromForces Socialistes Federals, theFront Obrer de Catalunya and in-dependents from the Assembleade Catalunya, and later it wouldbring on board the Grup d’Inde-pendents pel Socialisme, the PartitPopular de Catalunya (PPC) (ofCatalanist Joan Colomines), theSecretariat Polític of POUM, theTendència Socialista of PSC_R, theComoreristes of PSUC and historicfigures of republicanism, such asJosep Andreu i Abelló. On Nov-ember 1, 1976, the PSC-Congréswas born.

Despite attempts to bring thetwo factions closer together, fromhere on, Catalan socialism wouldprogress with two heads. In Janu-ary 1977, Josep Pallach died of aheart attack and was succeeded byJosep Verde Aldea, who chose topresent himself for the constituentelections together with JordiPujol’s CDC and Esquerra Demo-cràtica of Cendrós and Trias Fargas,a coalition dubbed the Pacte De-mocràtic, which was in direct com-petition with the PSC-Congrès, al-lied to the Catalan federation ofthe PSOE as Socialistes de Catalu-nya.

The results of the electionshowed, as El Mundo newspaperput it, that Catalonia was socialist,

with the Pacte winning 11 de-puties, of which four representedthe PSC_r, and Socialistes de Cata-lunya gaining 15 seats, amongwhich were Eduardo Martín Tovaland Ernest Lluch, which allowedthem to form a bloc in the Madridparliament.

It was an exercise in federalismthat provided the definitive im-petus for a process of unificationthat bore fruit on July 16, 1978,with the merging of threebranches to form the Partit dels So-cialistes de Catalunya (PSC), agrouping of solid foundations towhich PSOE added the immigrantvote and international allies in theform of funding from Germanyand France, while the PSC_C repre-sented the progressive urbanmiddle classes and PSC_R exertedan influence over rural areas.

The defender of federalismworking for the national interests

It was aglorious night,but also justone step on thelong march ofCatalansocialismtowards unity


of Catalonia within the frameworkof a democratic Spain, the PSCcame across as an unbeatablepolitical machine, which it provedby winning the first three munici-pal elections as well as the Spanishparliament. However, this did notlast and it failed, against all prog-noses, in the Catalan parliamen-tary elections of 1980, when JoanRaventós lost the chance to be-come the first president of the re-stored Generalitat to Jordi Pujoland his CDC party, which hadmade an alliance with Unió Demo-cràtica and had the support of ERCthat had formerly belonged to theRSDC.

However, in the elections of1982, which gave Felipe González -the man favoured by the UnitedStates to implement the modern-isation of Spain - an absolute ma-jority, leading Alfonso Guerra tocomment: "Spain, Spain, not even

your mother will recognise you",the PSC played a crucial role inhelping to transform the Spanishstate.

The until-then mayor of Barce-lona, Narcís Serra, was appointeddefence minister, a post thatbrought with it the reform of theFrancoist armed forces, while Er-nest Lluch, the economist who in1977 had put himself forward asthe head of the electoral list for Gi-rona, was charged with turninghealth into a universal right for allSpaniards.

The 14 years of socialist rule inSpain, however, did not translateinto an assault on the Generalitat.Perhaps that was because the so-cialist candidate until 1994, Rai-mon Obiols, lacked the charismato take on such an irate Catalan asPujol. Perhaps it was the improvi-sation – in 1995 while Pascual Ma-ragall left the mayoralty of Barce-

lona to take refuge in Rome, Joa-quim Nadal, the mayor of Girona,was put forward as the candidate.Perhaps it was the corruption casesthat had implicated key party fig-ures, such as Carlos Navarro andJosep Maria Sala, that marred theimage of a party that began to losemunicipal strongholds and popu-lar support, until Maragall re-turned, like Moses parting the sea,to take on CiU in the fight for theGeneralitat.

Maragall managed it on the sec-ond attempt, in 2003, although todo so PSC had to ally with ERC andICV in the Tinell Pact, which con-demned the PPC to the shadows.As a new form of governing was at-tempted, the cliché about how se-quels are never as good proved tobe true.

When illness separated Maragallfrom political power, the attemptto attract the immigrant vote

brought in José Montilla, a goodadministrator who lacked char-isma, who, despite losing five seats,was invested as president on Nov-ember 24, 2006.

On that day, the PSC’s downfallbegan. Despite showing itself to bean efficient, hard-working govern-ment, the squabbling betweenmembers of the coalition, the fai-lure of Madrid to deliver on itscommitments, the questioning ofthe Estatut in the Tribunal Consti-tucional all contributed to capsis-ing a vessel that had become accus-tomed to power. Today, under theorders of Pere Navarro, formermayor of Terrassa, the party hasnot only lost such importantstrongholds as Barcelona or Gi-rona, but has become slavishlyobedient to a PSOE that haschanged its conception of federal-ism, providing a threat that couldlead to its definitive fracture.

The great gathering at Palau Blaugrana on June 22, 1976,marked the beginning of the PSC / ARCHIVE


OPINION

ost people answer the questionof international firms leavingan independent Catalonia in

purely economic terms. Yet, large firmsnever act in the same way as run-of-the-mill companies. To answer the question,we must first recognise how internationalcompanies act and, more importantly,how they think.

To cover the entire world, large com-panies define different trade regions ac-cording to geographical factors, such aspopulation market size or logistics, amongothers. These regions sometimes match upwith political areas (countries) but in somecases they do not.

Thus, we can find zones, such as EasternEuropean countries, Benelux or Scandina-vian countries, or Iberian ones. Yes, Iberia.If we focus on the Iberian region, we realisethat many international firms considerSpain, Portugal and Andorra as a whole.There are nearly 9,000 subsidiaries inSpain, with more than 3,000 based in Cata-lonia. As a recent survey by an inter-national consulting firm states, some 16%

M of subsidiaries based in Spain feature thename 'IBERIA'.

So, it is common to see subsidiariesbased in Spain dealing with Portugueseand Andorran markets as well. Customersare coded in the ERP software of the com-pany according to their country, and thesystem automatically applies the VATrules, delivery terms, logistics, and everyadministrative issue. Therefore, for thestaff, countries are just a centre code forranking their clients, and therefore bordersmake no sense at all. In case the companywants to deliver in the market as a 'localcompany' they just need to set up a fiscaladdress for invoicing purposes, while thebusiness is managed in the subsidiary.

So, how would an international firm actin the case of secession? The answer is assimple as "open a new centre code".

The company will not move all theirstructure away from the Iberian area, justbecause of a legal or fiscal change, which ishow any secession of Catalonia would beconsidered internally. They would have nodesire to face reallocating costs, nor to

change their workforce which knows thebusiness and the company procedures. So,most international firms would continueto work as before and would just open anew centre code for the new country,whether the subsidiary was in Barcelona orMadrid, for example.

As far as international businesses areconcerned, one advantage of Catalan se-cession would be that most large firmswould open a new subsidiary in bothcountries. Therefore, those which werebased in Catalonia would open new sub-sidiaries in other parts of Spain, and viceversa. Some of them would be just fiscaladdresses, as mentioned above, but largecompanies would invest in new offices andstaff and thus generate business and em-ployment in both countries.

Of course, in the long term, companyheadquarters would have to decide if theexisting location is the optimal one for de-livering to the Iberian zone. But again, thecriteria would not be the borders, but thegeographical factors of population, marketsize, or logistics among others.

TRIBUNEROGER FATJÓ Member of the Economy Section of the Catalan National Assembly (ANC)

Will international firms flee Catalonia?

erfection could be said to be the "indfatigable pursuit of the unattainable".

Yet we go on trying.We strive for perfection in our relation-

ships, in partnerships and marriage, in art,architecture, writing …

Even writers who have sold millions of'best sellers', or musicians, who have wonGrammy Awards – Silver or Golden – oftenlament that the initial idea or compositionnever quite achieved the excellence thatthey had imagined, or heard, in theirminds.

P Perfectionists are likely to be subject tostress or strain as they paint their muralson walls, or prepare the wood-be-perfectwedding flower arrangements. Most fallshort of hitting the bull’s-eye in archery, orin rifle-shooting, landing slightly to theleft or right of the central target … but theurge for perfection continues, as tantalis-ing as a Willow-o’-the-Wisp on a foggynight, ever leading us forward.

Jan Struther (1901-1952), an Englishwriter, wrote "She saw every personal rela-tionship as a pair of intersecting circles …

probably perfection is reached when thearea of the two outer crescents, added to-gether, is exactly equal to that of the leaf-shaped piece in the middle. On paper theremust be some neat mathematical formulafor arriving at this – in life, none!".

Yet there is perfection, but it tends to besomething seen or experienced, notachieved: the delicate tracings on a but-terfly’s wing, the patterned colours on acat’s fur, a sunset in flaming glory, or arainbow after rain. This is perfection, butunfortunately, nothing to do with us!

GALLERYTERRY PARRIS writer

Perfection

VERBA DOCENT, EXEMPLA TRAHUNT GERMÀ CAPDEVILA [email protected]

"The commission considers that the Spanish authorities have a responsibility to look into thecircumstances of this particular incident in Ceuta" Cecilia Malmstrom, EU Home Affairs Commissioner

The images of the Spanish Guardia Civil firing rubber bullets at immigrants who were trying to swim to Spain’s North African enclave,Ceuta, from Morocco, shocked the entire world, not only the European Commission.


s I write this, my son is hating me.Last night I took a computer gameoff him that his mother and I

agreed was violent and told him he wouldnot be getting it back. He is 12 years oldand naturally, he disagreed.

But I am not greatly disturbed by hisfeelings toward me. I know they are tem-porary and I trust in the knowledge thatsometimes parents will be hugely unpopu-lar with our own children...if we are beingmoral, ethical parents – involved parents.

In this part of the world people get a lotright about how children are treated. Oneof the most notable things is how olderchildren are largely both tolerant and evendownright nice to their younger brothersand sisters, as well as to other littler kidsthey are not related to at all. In Mediterra-nean Europe, the family unit is close andsocialising with the extendedfamily of grandparents, cousinsand other blood relatives is a com-mon part of almost everyone’sweekly life. This is in stark contrastto standard Anglo families.

But I would argue that acrossthis stretch of the planet (andprobably in other parts, such asNorth America as well) parents aremuch too concerned with theirchildren’s happiness. This maysound like a harsh, uncaring state-ment, so it needs a bit of expla-nation. To me (and to plenty offull-time philosophers) happinessis a temporary state. It comes andgoes under it’s own invisible steamand can arrive and disappear be-fore we hardly realise it. The morewe desperately look for it or try tomanufacture it, the more it seemsto slip through our fingers.

I’m not advocating that wedon’t do our best to create situ-ations where our kids are likely to

A find enjoyment or fun – quite the contrary.But if we put happiness, which is by its na-ture a short-term sensation, ahead of try-ing to develop a son or daughter with asense of what is right and what is wrong,then we are making a terrible mistake. Ifwe act and speak by instinctively puttingour children’s immediate gratification asthe priority instead of doing what we canso that they are playing and learning inways that are beneficial to them (at least inthe medium or longer term) what is thelogical result? Years later you end up withadults who value getting as many pettypossessions as they can (because material-ism is supposed to create contentment)and to them this is a thousand times moreimportant than having something asbothersome as a conscience, which justgets in the way of fuelling a bigger bank ac-

count.In other words, you have corruption and

you have it on a grand scale. The Mediter-ranean disease.

I accept that the inclination towardshaving happy children is a healthy one. Ijust don’t accept that this injection of hap-piness should always be the most import-ant thing. Faced with the choice of beingstrongly disliked by my son for a period oftime or, on the other hand, turning a blindeye to him exercising disturbing impulsesfor potentially hours on end, I’d chooseunpopularity every time.

Knowing what we now know about howviolent, first-person computer games willdesensitise even adult users (and that iswhy modern military training uses simu-lated war-games) it would be almost acrime to be the indulgent parent.

To screen, or not to screen?

TRIBUNEBRETT HETHERINGTON Journalist and writer. www.bretthetherington.net

First-person computer games can desensitise even adult users./ AFP

"Spain’s government cannot block a non-binding referendum on independence" Artur Mas, President of Catalonia

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has said he will block any referendum proposals. Around 80 % of all Catalans want to be able to vote todecide their future. What’s next?


Wine routethroughPenedès

ANNA VICENS [email protected]

In the morningFIRM: Finca PareraLOCATION: Sant Llorenç d´HortonsThe winemaker, Jordi Parera Barba and hisson, Rubén Parera Renau, who has fol-lowed in his father’s footsteps and is also aqualified oenologist, founded Finca Parerain Sant Llorenç d’Hortons, in Alt Penedès,in 1999.The original philosophy of Finca Parera,which has been faithfully maintained untiltoday, was to encompass the whole rangeof wine production from the planting ofthe vines to the labelling the bottles. At thesame time, the firm only uses organicgrapes to make the highest possible qualitywines.In all, the company has 21 hectares ofvineyard distributed into small plots onwhich more than 10 varieties of grapes arecultivated that all bear the CCPAE organicseal of approval.677 95 58 61.www.fincaparera.com

For lunchCasa NostraLOCATION: Just half an hour from the Pe-nedès wineries, the Casa Nostra restaurantoffers authentic dishes, carefully prepared,with the onus on innovating with tastesand aromas in interesting combinations.Casa Nostra has set lunchtime menu cost-ing 12 euros, as well as a tasting menu withwine matching on Thursdays and Fridaynights and at weekends, costing 36 euros.93 650 06 52.www.restaurantcasanostra.com

In the afternoonFIRM: Celler PardàsLOCATION: TorrelavitThis family winery in Torrelavit, in Alt Pe-nedès was founded by Ramon Parera andJordi Arnan in 1996. From the beginning,the two men have supervised the wholeproduction process, from vineyard to

bottle. A feature of the process used atCeller Pardas is very little interventionwhile the grapes are ripening, whichallows for greater adaptation to the localterrain.The winery also uses modern technologysparingly in order to maximise the poten-tial of the raw material, the grapes. The re-sults are singular wines with tremendouscharacter, which are labelled with the com-pany’s logo, a wild boar. The old countryhouse where the winery is located alsooffers visitors a guest house surrounded bygardens and pine woods.Guided visits for individuals and groupsavailable with reservation.93 899 50 05.www.cellerpardas.com

Vineyards in the Torrelavit area of AltPenedès. / GABRIEL MASSANA

FOOD & WINE


andu’s working life is in-tense: his daily timetable

includes managing his Can Jub-any restaurant, banquets, thekitchen of two hotels, high levelcaterings ...and recording a TVshow. His latest venture is quitesomething. He is leading theteam at Petit Comité, which hasrecently become the restaurantof Barcelona’s Majestic Hotel.

You’ve just started servingbrunch at the Majestic Hotel.

–It is a very complete offer,open to everyone. There is a loton offer for an adult price of 52euros, with champagne in-cluded. There is also a buffet forchildren. Everything is done inthe breakfast area, a really goodspace, which is large and whichwill also have a terrace next year.

You are now in charge ofPetit Comité, opened in 2008by Fermí Puig.

–Since Fermí left two yearsago, it has been closed, and my

Nmission is to bring it to lifeagain. I don’t aim to change hisway of doing things, as he cre-ated a Catalan cuisine restaurantwhich I like.

The Majestic seems yourhome now.

–I do spend a lot of time there.I started working here as a gas-tronomic advisor and now goevery Thursday. On Tuesdays Igo to Andorra, where I am a con-sultant for the Hermitage hotelwith Carles Gaig, who is like anolder brother to me.

You also have two banquethalls, a hotel, and do a lot ofcatering.

–Indeed. In 2010 we finishedrestoring Can Jubany and nowwe have a new productioncentre in Taradell, where we dobanquets, in a thousand squaremetre kitchen where we preparethe catering. And the hotel inSant Julià de Vilatorta is amaz-ing but we haven’t finished pay-ing for it yet. That’s why we need

to work so much.And you’re on TV, too.–Doing the show Menú de cap

de setmana on TV3 takes up an-other day of my week, I am sobusy, but it is worth it. The morepeople know about me, thebetter. And TV also helps mepromote Can Jubany. I still takemy lead from Llucià Ferrer, asI’m still very nervous being infront of the camera.

You make modern Catalancuisine. What about creati-vite cuisine?

–I’ll never be a creative chef.There are very few of them. Aschefs we copy a lot, but that’snot bad. It’s about taking whatsuits you best and doing it in thebest possible way, while addingsome imagination.

Would you like to open arestaurant abroad?

–Right now I couldn’t do any-thing else, though I love travel-ling and discovering new restau-rants. I just got back from New

York, Sao Paolo, Puerto Rico andMiami, on a 12-day holiday.

Quite a sprint! Did you gowith your wife, Anna?

–Yes, she is my support andmy main help in Can Jubany.We have three children and I tryto have dinner with them everyday. Maybe one of them will be-come a chef!

You have said that youused to be a bit of a classclown in school and nowyou teach at Harvard.

–After going to Harvard withFerran Adrià and the FundacióAlícia I told my teacher: "Yousaid I wouldn’t amount to any-thing in life!" We still laughabout it.

What is the advice from astar chef to combat the crisis.

–Never stop doing newthings; one thing leads to an-other. I never stop. Also, adapt tothe times. Four years ago, thebrunch at the Majestic wouldhave been more expensive.

NANDU JUBANY. Chef at Can Jubany and entrepreneur

'Never stop doing new things'M. JOSEP JORDAN

Nandu Jubany at Barcelona’s Majestic Hotel, where he leads the team of the Petit Comité restaurant. / ARCHIVE

lbert Adrià has four differ-ent uniforms – each with

the name of one of his four estab-lishments – which he constantlyhas to change into whenever hegoes to one place or another,which is often. Luckily for him,all four restaurants are not toofar away from each other, in anarea around Paral·lel that, withTickets, 41 graus, Pakta andBodega 1900, has become some-thing of a gourmet’s oasis.

The brother of Ferran Adriàleft off being the pastry chef forhis brother’s el Bulli restaurantsome time ago, and since thenhas been running the group ofrestaurants owned by fivebrothers: "we two and the threeIglesias; we complement eachother well," he says.

In 2010, the Iglesias, owners ofthe Rías de Galícia restaurant,signed up to the ideas of theAdrià brothers. In a time whenhaving a parking attendant atthe entrance of a seafood res-taurant had become excessive,the novel, quality cuisine of-fered by Tickets seemed a goodinvestment. Their faith was re-warded, and other establish-ments followed until there werefive in all, which is why the pro-ject was given the tag 5.0.

In November, a stringent in-spection by the Michelin guideled to the award of two stars: onefor Tickets, for its creative tapasdishes served in a fun, casual am-

A

Ferran Adrià’s younger brother, Albert, is continuing the familytradition of breaking new ground in cuisine with four restaurants inBarcelona

The otherAdrià brother

M. JOSEP JORDAN bience, and one for the avant-garde annex, 41 graus, where upto 16 customers are served cock-tails with dishes from el Bulli. Itis a place that has become popu-lar with gastronomes: "Thepeople who value what we have

done in the world of gastronomygo to 41 graus and it is full of fore-ign visitors, although it is thesmallest of the establishments,"says Adrià. This is soon to be re-medied when new 700-metresquared premises open, stillcombining dining with cock-tails, which will also include acocktail school.

After being part of a culinaryteam that changed the paradigmof contemporary cuisine, Adriàthese days seems exclusively fo-cused on business: "That’s notcompletely true," says Adrià,"but you could say that I am alsofed up with not making much

money." For the pastry chef,carefully thought out diversifi-cation is the way to remain sol-vent: "You need careful planningand a liberal dose of commonsense," he says, adding: "Youlearn; when I opened the first es-tablishment I made a lot of mis-takes, while I haven’t makenearly so many with the latest."

RecognitionHowever, not all the restaurantshave the same profile. La Bodega1900, for example, is the mostfashionable of the establish-ments: "Five years ago, there wasa need for a restaurant likeTickets and today the hottestproposition consists of aperitifsand embotit (cold cuts and curedsausage). Some 90% of cus-tomers are local," says Adrià,who from the beginning wasaware that a lot of the budgetwould go on raw materials: "Iwasn’t wrong," he says, "curedham, sea urchins, oysters... it isthe fresh produce that is expen-sive."

Despite the success of Bodega1900, the restaurant that gets themost reservations is Tickets,with a clientèle made up of 70%foreign visitors. However, itseems as if the magic effect of aMichelin star, which puts restau-rants on the world map, has notbeen the reason for this success,as the restaurant was alreadydoing well: "We weren’t expect-ing it and does not affect us

much on a daily basis, eventhough it is something to cel-ebrate and a great motivation,"says Adrià of the award.

After working at el Bulli, withits three Michelin stars, Adriàknows all about international re-cognition, but insists that hisrole is not to be a creative avant-garde force, but to fight the daily"battle", as he calls it, of makingsure the clientèle gets what itcomes for: "At Tickets we havesome wonderful dishes that Ilove, but which have had to bediverted to Bodega 1900 becausethe customers find them tootraditional," he says. Rather thanoxtail or wild seasonal mush-rooms, the public of Tickets,"come more for what is concep-tually modern: rabbit in sal-morejo, squid cooked in its ink orwok stews," he adds.

Nevertheless, even the mosttraditional recipes need updat-ing: "In the Bodega, which uses alot of fresh produce, people wanteverything to be lighter, and we

'We weren’texpecting aMichelin stareven though itis something tocelebrate and agreatmotivation'


FOOD & WINE

also get vegetarians and, nomatter how much I’d like to turnit into a vermuteria (vermouthbar), people are always asking forchicken sandwiches," he says.

However, what the youngerAdrià brother says he likes mostare his mother’s casserole dishes,despite her having been a hair-dresser rather than a cook: "Overtime, I’ve learnt that what Ireally like is making stews, some-thing I inherited from her. Firstof all, I draw the dish, because Ineed to be able to visualise what Iam going to cook: how to slicethe carrots, the garlic, the onion,how much wine to add, and soon. I then write down the recipe,make some modifications andget on with cooking it," he says.

Adrià speaks passionatelyabout cooking, although he isbest known for revolutionisingthe world of desserts, inventingnew techniques and methodsthat appear in his book, Natura.Although he insists that the cus-tomer is always right and that el

Bulli is all in the past, few believethat he has thrown in the cre-ative towel altogether andsuddenly turned his back on in-genuity and perfectionism. Infact, Adrià’s respect for culinarycreativity can be seen from howmuch pleasure he gets from ap-pearing – albeit in 77th place –on the list of the world’s bestavant-garde establishments pro-duced by Restaurant magazine:"Guides and lists are only badwhen you aren’t in first place,"he jokes.

Ribs arrive from Galicia andare whisked off to the kitchenwhere it will be decided how tocook them, while Adrià speaks inglowing terms of Xisco andDavid, the young chefs who dothe desserts for Tickets and whowill also soon publish a book:"They are untiring workers.Their torró ice cream is amazing,though for me all of that is in thepast," he says. Xisco and Daviddo not agree and claim with ad-miration that it is Adrià who

guides their work. "It is not easyfinding good personnel, buthere I am lucky in that we attractenthusiastic youngsters, drawnby the el Bulli name," he says.

And what about his brother,Ferran? Does he visit much?"When he comes and takes an in-terest in what we are doing, itgives everyone a boost. This is ajoint project, like el Bulli was,even though I am the boss thateveryone sees," he says.He is also a boss who never stops,constantly moving around, andcurrently working on a new pro-ject in Benelux: "I like how thepeople there work, their punc-tuality and efficiency," he says.This new project is about mak-ing complex recipes available,from soya crystals to fruit mer-ingue.

In the long term, he would liketo write film scripts and spendmore time with his child. Fornow, however, his restaurantstake up all his time and soon hewill have to include running

Yauarcan to his schedule, whichwill serve Mexican food, a fa-vourite of his. He says that hemanaged to find the right cheffor Yauarcan some time ago.

Adrià is also a great fan of thegastronomic revolution of Peru-vian chef, Gastón Acurio, as wellas the business acumen of Span-ish American chef, José Andrés.In fact, Adrià thinks that thereare a number of countries outthere with the potential for mov-ing contemporary cuisine to thenext level, including Mexico,Canada and Australia. Theavant-garde never stops evol-ving, though Adrià believesBarcelona’s role in it is still thriv-ing: "We have never been able toeat as well as we do now, with orwithout Michelin stars. Highcuisine has sown seeds that weare now harvesting and newchefs are appearing, extendingwhat is in offer, and that is a goodthing if we want to continue tobe a world tourist power," hesays.

Albert Adrià at the inauguration of the restaurant Tickets inBarcelona / ANDREU PUIG



ART

Three exhibitions inReus and Barcelonaattempt to recoverthe work of awater-colourist whohas fallen intoobscurity in recentyears, Josep Tapiró

CARINA FILELLA

ne of the most celebratedartists of the 19th century

– his paintings sold for the equiv-alent of 300,000 euros in today’smoney – he was also one of theworld’s leading practitioners ofOrientalist painting. However,Josep Tapiró (Reus, 1836-Tan-gier, 1913) "fell into obscurity fora number of reasons", accordingto art historian, Jordi À. Carbon-ell. Now, following the centen-ary of his death, Tapiró’s hometown and the Museu Nacional

O

Technique and vid’Art de Catalunya (MNAC) areputting things right and recover-ing this artist’s legacy with threeexhibitions.

The first of them, in the Museude Reus, is an anthology ofTapiró’s work, with some 50paintings going from hisformative years to the water col-ours he painted in North Africa,where he lived for the last fourdecades of his life. The exhibi-tion also includes personaldocuments and objects.

The second exhibition, which

can be visited in the same Reusgallery from April 9 until May31, focuses on Tapiró’s time inRome, where he lived andworked with his great friend,also from Reus, the artist, MariàFortuny.

Finally, starting on April 16,the MNAC will have an exhibi-tion of the artist’s Orientalistwork, reflecting "the human di-versity of Tangier with masterfultechnique and virtuosity," ac-cording to Carbonell, the cu-rator of all the exhibitions and

ART


rtuosity

Far left: one of Tapiró’s mostrepresentative works, Bride, andleft: the painting, Gnawi, whichrepresents a descendant of theancient slaves who specialised inscaring off demons and curingillnesses. On this page: Museude Reus exhibition; below: thecurator of the three exhibitionsin Reus and Barcelona, Jordi À.Carbonell. / JUDIT FERNÀNDEZ

coordinater of an internationalsymposium dedicated to Tapiródue for May in Reus and Barce-lona.

Tapiró did not paint harems orexotic scenes of the Maghreb,rather his brush captured "thetrue Islamic world," according toCarbonell, which was a world ofbrides, rustic folk, everyday lifeand traditional festivals. Somegood examples of this work arepaintings such as A Berber Brideor A Tangerian Beauty, whichfaithfully reproduce the dress

and customs of the 19th centuryMuslim world, so much so, thatCarbonell calls Tapiró "the besteye witness of pre-colonial Tan-gier". Even at the time this aspectof Tapiró’s work was recognisedand The Times newspaper dedi-cated an entire page to his watercolour, Isawa Festival, referringto the artist as better than theFrenchman, Eugène Delacroix,who was highly-recognised forhis portrayals of North Africa.

Yet, for a newspaper like TheTimes to dedicate so much space

to Tapiró was not unusual. Theartist was extremely successfulin his own lifetime and there wasa large market for his work in theAnglo-Saxon world: "His watercolours triumphed in Englandand he became one of the most-recognised artists in Europe,"says Carbonell. His later fall intoobscurity was largely due to hisself-imposed exile in North Af-rica and that the fact that hispaintings became dispersedaround the world. In fact, the or-ganisers of these exhibitions

have had a tough job bringingtogether so many of the artist’spaintings, most of which arefrom private collections.

Yet another reason for Tapiró’srelative disappearance frompublic awareness was down tothe fact that he was oversha-dowed by the great Orientalistpainter, Marià Fortuny, whoshared his formative years as anartist in Reus and Rome. A smallexample of the connection be-tween the two artists can be seenin the exhibition at the Museu deReus, where paintings by eachman featuring the same subject –a cardinal – are displayed side-by-side: "They shared modelsand themes, but each of themrepresented them in their ownway," says Carbonell, who callsfor a "vindication of Tapiró to en-sure he occupies his place in theannals of art history."

MNACA work MNAC will definitely

have on display is The Holy ManDarcaguy, now undergoing re-storation and a painting that thegallery recently acquired for90,000 euros, part of which waspaid for by the income raisedfrom renting the gallery’s SalaOval to the Indian steel tycoon,Lakshmi Mittel to celebrate therecent wedding of his niece.

The rest of Tapiró’s works to bedisplayed in MNAC have beenlent by the Museo del Prado, aswell as by a number of collectorsand institutions, from New Yorkto Dakar, among others.

"The exhibitions complementeach other: whoever wants tolearn about the painter’s periodin Rome will have to go to Reus,and if they want to rediscover hisTangier work, Barcelona is theplace," says Anna Figueras, direc-tor of the Museu de Reus.

On lustTHE SEVEN CATALAN SINSJOSEP-LLUÍS GONZÁLEZ Educationalist and writer

JOSEP-LLUÍS GONZÁLEZ

e Catalans must havedone something terrible

to experience centuries of ca-lamity. Otherwise, why wouldthe Estatut de Miravet end sobadly? Not to mention whathappened in 1939 or 1714. Oreven what happened in the timeof the Count-Duke Olivares orwhen Martí l’Humà died with-out legitimate descendants.What sin are we guilty of to de-serve such punishment?

Perhaps we are guilty of the ol-dest sin of them all: lust, thatmad, chaotic love that twists ourinnards and overturns ourjudgement? It is claimed that theBorja Pope was boasting whenhe said that God gave man fourcardinal virtues and seven Cata-lan sins and, moreover, that hismouth watered when he pro-nounced the word 'lust'. Whoknows whether it is true, but I be-lieve that those of us who havesavoured lust will agree that itstaste is indeed sweet.

At times, I get the impressionthat sex is a sanctuary for men’ssouls. Or at least that is how itfeels when I read the memorialof grievances of Sant Pere deGraudescales, a 12th-centurytext that speaks of one Desvilar, avillain who kidnapped a youngSolsonès man. When the young-ster tried to escape, the pervertedDesvilar "grasped him by theballs" and was about to murderhim. He had no intention oftempting him carnally butrather, in grasping his privateparts, he showed the power hehad over him, over his essence asa man, over that which defines

W

In this first of a series reflecting on the cultural landscape inCatalonia today, the author defends the relevance of classical culture

us: desire.There is no shortage of old

texts that show the many formsof lust, which is unique, unre-peatable and at the same timeredolent, like an overripe pome-granate that has begun to rot.Ponç Hug, Count of Empúries,exhibited many examples of lustbut here I will merely recall onenight, in bed with a fellow war-rior, "he began to tickle his thighand flank playfully" and endedup touching his manhood. Morefussy was a Ripoll monk in thetime of Alfons el Cast, who pre-ferred the white, turgid papillaeof a female friend, which he laterimmortalised in a Latin song.

The zenith of this great tradi-tion of ours is to be found in thedelicious Mirall del fotre fromthe 14th century. In order thatthe reader not lose his virile forcewhile putting into practice theinfinity of ways to lie with awoman that he describes, theauthor advises rubbing one’smember with a potion made ofcarrot juice, mustard oil and thegrease from ants.

It is in this sense that AlbertRossich had the idea of bringingtogether in a booklet some 40erotic Catalan poems from theBaroque era. There is one inwhich a girl appears sad becauseit has been a while since her Elieshas not "flushed his rod", but shefinally finds a solution by war-ming her body and mind next toa brazier. All alone, if you get mymeaning.

In fact, we can boast of a seriesof writers who have known howto deal with such smut by rarefy-ing and exalting the delectable

torment to which men andwomen are subject. I do not seelust, but love of beauty, for ex-ample, in the exchange of wordsand looks between the Marquisof Monferrat and Curial at themoment they first meet. Inseeing for the first time the shin-ing eyes of the young man, themarquis asks who he serves. Cu-rial, with a touch of pride,answers: "Sir, I am yours." Andthe nobleman, struck by "somuch beauty in his face that na-ture could provide him with nomore", does not hesitate a mo-ment in responding: "and itpleases me that you are mine". Ialso believe that it is love thatJacob Xalabín, in the medievalclassic that bears his name, feelslove for Alí Baixà, a young manof his own age. Apart from shar-ing a room and a bed, the twomen ride, hunt and dance to-gether. In fact, they can do no-thing apart, not even eat.

Josep-LluísGonzálezBorn in Sabadell in 1965,Josep-Lluís graduated inEnglish studies at the Uni-versitat de Barcelona andwent on to finish his doc-torate at Oxford. He spent23 years working in theUnited Kingdom in suchcelebrated schools as EtonCollege and St. Paul’s. In2011, he returned toCatalonia to take up hiscurrent post in the BritishSchool of Barcelona. Hehas published a numberof short stories and is thewinner of different literaryprizes, such as the XXIIIPremi de Narrativa Riberad’Ebre or the XXIV PremiLiterari Vila d’Ascó.

ILLUSTRATION: JOAN OLLER


ART

Personally, I am intrigued bythe short life and mysteriousdeath of Francesc Moner (1463-1492). Having served his lovedone for a long time without re-ceiving the reward he believes hedeserves, he ends up leaving theCardona household and entersthe monastery of Santa Maria deJesús in Lleida. Soon after, hedies, who knows whether by hisown hand, as he had still notreached 30 years of age.

I still feel the warmth of hisamorous flame when, in a letterto a lady, he says that he will doeverything that she demandsapart from "stopping loving youbecause I cannot, I do not knowhow, nor do I wish it". In fact, the15th century, that of the hatedTrastàmara, is full of literary ex-amples that raise the carnal tothe level of love. I cannot im-agine our cultural history with-out Alfons el Magnànim, whoknew how to attract great war-

rior poets, such as Andreu Febrer,translator of The Divine Com-edy, Jordi de Sant Jordi, the Mar-quis of Santillana and AusiàsMarch. I will confess that,merely in thinking of it, I ammoved by the total helplessnessof Jordi de Sant Jordi, the king’scupbearer, who describes in hispoems how he feels shackledand imprisoned by the object ofhis courtly love.

And, without knowing whichcomposition I would choose be-cause they are all so unique, I feelthe need to state that no man orwoman who has been born is ca-pable of loving so profoundly asthe knight March, a great royalfalconer and an even greaterpoet. Even though Joan Marto-rell wrote sensual scenes worthyof the Orient, I would still takethe sublime response that Tirantaddresses to his beloved Diafe-bus when he asks him the causeof his anxiety: "I love" he says

straight, totally and absolutely,with an astonishing innocence. Iimagine all of these knightsdancing with their fellows andtheir ladies in some Gothic pa-lace on the shores of the Mediter-ranean. In particular, that mag-nificent piece, the Baixa dansade Barcelona preserved in themuseum of letters and manu-scripts in Brussels, in which aviol and a recorder make love tothe slow and elegant rhythm of atambori; playful instrumentsand at the same time solemnthat imitate each other and in-tertwine in a delicious game ofmirrors in which there is noprancing, just slow caresses, un-looked for discoveries and pro-longed kisses.

Therefore, it does not seem tome that lust is the sin that his-tory is making us pay for. If someof our forebears have acted likeswine, others have gone furtherand created literature of the best

kind. So, what is the capital sinfor which we can be blamed? Ifyou allow me to be daring for amoment, I would accuse thecountry of the Sin of Forgetting,which is a grave sin indeed! Wevenerate the present lasciv-iously. We are obsessed with la-test trends, the avant-garde,modernity and we pay little heedto cultural tradition, even whenwe know that the nations that donot respect their legacies arecondemned to eternal medi-ocrity.

If you ask an English person tospeak about the 19th century, atonce the novels of Dickens willcome to mind and they will ex-plain to us how urban povertywas, paradoxically, caused by in-dustrialisation. Many Italianswill preen, with good reason,while repeating from memorythe opening lines of Dante’s orBoccaccio’s masterpieces. Andyou will find a good number ofFrench people able to recite aMallarmé sonnet with all its son-ority. Meanwhile, which of ussees the country through theeyes of Ramon Muntaner, RafaelAmat or Narcís Oller? Who canrecite a single verse of AusiàsMarch? Let he who is withoutsin, cast the first stone! We couldgather quite a few stones, butwould there be enough to sup-port the edifice of the newcountry on solid foundations?

Reflecting like this on theverge of independence, I suggestthat the first article of the Cata-lan Constitution that we willsoon have to write should be thefollowing: "It is a right and dutyof all citizens to love their cul-ture lustfully: it is the only riverthat will forever water the land."If I am not mistaken, the head-waters that pass through Mira-vet also depend on the thawingof Cerdanya’s snows. Come,friends, let us set sail and be ca-pable of navigating with one eyeon the horizon, while we keepanother looking back towardsthe highest mountains.



fter supping at Lerida, wecontinued our journey. It

was bright starlight – the atmos-phere soft and balmy; so, yield-ing up my thoughts to the as-sociations of this chivalric land,I passed the night without fa-tigue. There is a charm of ro-mance thrown around every vil-lage, every mountain, tower,and city, awakening enthusiasmand delighting the imagination.When the morning came, amost perilous and dangerousroad was revealed, passing alongthe side of huge mountains, on anarrow shelf, as it were, cut inthem. The sure-footed mules ap-peared to shrink from the edgeof the precipice, and almostclung to the rocky base of thecliff, often rising perpendicu-larly three or four hundred feet.There were no parapets to pro-tect us, as across the pass of the

A

Land of hungerPere Gifra starts a new series on women travellers in Catalan lands with OliviaWalton le Vert’s response to the sight of abject misery on the streets of Igualada

Sierra Morena mountains, and itwas absolutely terrific to lookfrom the window of the dili-gence down into the frightfulabyss below.

These Monserrat mountainsare wild and grand in scenery.For many leagues along theirsummit extends a singular ram-part. It has the appearance ofbeing carved out of granite, incolossal figures, which have theresemblance of castles, oftowers, of turrets, of steeples, ofthe battlements of fortresses.Then comes a portion preciselylike a procession of monks, withcowls drawn over their heads;and enormous statues, and loftypinnacles, hundreds andhundreds of feet in height. Thelegends of the peasants tell thatthis mountain-ridge was thusrent into fantastic forms at themoment of the crucifixion of

Christ. From the top of this curi-ous rampart the view was ofwondrous extent, embracingthe faraway town of Manresaand the Pyrenees. […]

Near the mid-day we de-scended the Monserrat moun-tains, dashing along at a terrificpace. At the town of Igualada webreakfasted. The posada wasdark and gloomy, and was reallythe only inn where we have notbeen well and plenteouslyserved since we came to Spain.After our slight repast I we wentdown a long stairway to con-tinue our journey. At the doorstood "four and twenty beggars,all in a row," imploring charity.When we entered the posada asimilar assemblage had at-tended us, to whom we hadgiven every cent in our purses, sowe were copperless. To escapetheir entreaties, we opened the

door of the diligence andjumped out, concluding toawait there the coming of theother passengers. But thebeggars followed us, and still weheard their plaintive cries. Quitein despair that I had no means torelieve them, my eyes happilyfell upon a large box of choicecrackers, which a kind friendhad insisted we should bringwith us, to use in "time of need."(...) I broke open the box, anddealt out the crackers by dozenson one side, while Octavia gavethem on the other. The miser-able creatures clustered around,with famine most legiblywritten on their wretched andwithered faces. O heavens! howfearful it was to see their gaunthands, so thin and fleshless,they appeared like talons ofbirds of prey, clutching withfrantic haste the bread we gave,

Two portraits of Olivia Walton Le Vert./ ARCHIVE


Octavia Walton Le Vert (1810-1877), best remembered asthe socialite Madame Le Vert,was born near Augusta (Geor-gia) into a quintessentially aris-tocratic family. Her grand-father was one of the signers ofthe Declaration of Indepen-dence and her father served asacting governor for the Floridaterritory. Raised as a southernbelle, she soon displayed aprodigious intellect. She ex-celled in several foreign lan-guages, read widely, tookmusic and art lessons, and alsobecame acquainted with theIndian culture of the southeast.In 1835 she moved with herfamily to Mobile (Alabama),where she married Henry Stra-chey Levert, the son of aFrench physician. Their mar-riage bore five children, onlytwo of which survived child-hood, and also signified heradoption of French customs,exemplified by the Parisian-style literary salon that she heldonce a week at her home. Hersoirées, regularly attended bydistinguished cultural personal-ities, finished abruptly with theoutbreak of the Civil War. Out-spoken against secession andwith close friends both in thenorth and the south, Le Vertwas ostracised by her neigh-bours and even denounced asa Yankee spy. When the warended she was broke, wi-dowed, and had to supportherself by lecturing. Through-out her life Le Vert travelledwidely. In America she met sig-nificant leaders like General La-fayette or President Jackson. InEurope she was received byQueen Victoria, Pope Pius IXand Napoleon III, amongmany others. Her only book,Souvenirs of Travel (1857), re-lates the journeys she made toEurope in 1853 and 1855. Theselected extract contains herimpressions of the town of Ig-ualada as she passed through itwith her husband anddaughter in March of 1855.

OctaviaWaltonLe Vert

while others afar off cried, "Forthe love of God, do not forgetme!"

Quickly the news was carriedto the by-streets and dim alleys,as speedily as though by tele-graph, and hurrying along camecrowds, calling out, "There is akind woman giving bread to thehungry." There were men,women, and children; thecrippled, the blind, the aged,and the young. Their furious ef-forts to reach the diligence wereappalling. Seeing this assem-blage of beggars, all the idlers ofthe town collected around, andthe street was entirely blockedup. We kept on giving out thecrackers until the supply was ex-hausted, but the people stillcoming. Just then the mayoral(driver), finding they would notgive way for him, jumped on hisseat, and slashing his long whip

to the right and left, and urgingthe mules forward by wild cries,dashed through the crowd. Wewaved our hands in adieu tothem. Then from the throng ofbeggars arose loud shouts, "Gowith God! Go, beloved of theVirgin! Joy will come to the goodheart! Peace will never leaveyou! God will bless you! Thesaints will repay you!" Lookingback we saw the maimed handsraised to heaven, and the sight-less eyes turned upward, all in-voking blessings upon us. Allsympathetic hearts can imaginethe emotions that rolled overmy soul, and the gratitude I feltto these poor wretches. Leaningback in the berlina, I wept many,many tears, that for such a trifleblessings like these had beencalled down from the good Godupon me; and long did the re-membrance of that scene linger

around me, as a sweet strain ofmusic. How fervently did we ex-claim, "Thank God! We cannever behold misery like this inour own happy country." Ah! inthat favoured land it is imposs-ible to imagine the sufferings ofour race, from hunger, cold, anddestitution. And yet Spainshould be a land of plenty. Thereare vast fields of wheat, andvineyards, and "sheep upon athousand hills." Still there arelegions of beggars, with star-vation looking out from theirglaring eyes, and sadly visible intheir emaciated forms.

At last we succeeded in steel-ing our hearts towards theyoung beggars; but when thewhite-haired old man, or thetottering old woman, held outtheir aged hands, and said,"Charity for the poor old beg-gar," I could not refuse.

A selection by PERE GIFRA

Octavia Walton Le Vert. Souvenirs of Travel2 vols. (Mobile & New York, 1857), vol. II, pp. 52-55

Old engraving of Montserrat mountains./ ARCHIVE

Two high-res cameras installed on theInternational Space Station feeding backreal-time images of Earth lead the way in newbusiness opportunities from space

All eyes onthe Earth

fter two years of intensework and millions of dol-

lars of investment, last autumntwo high-res cameras arrived onthe International Space Station(ISS), one to take photos and oneto record video, ready for instal-lation on the orbital laboratory.

On December 27, during aneight-hour space walk, the cos-monauts Oleg Kotov and SergueiRiazanski installed the camerasbelonging to the Canadian start-up, UrtheCast, to the exterior ofthe station’s Zvezda module. Un-fortunately, the cameras failedto work correctly and the twocosmonauts were forced to goback outside, remove the devicesand repair them.

A month later, the same cos-monauts once again venturedinto space to attempt to reinstallthe cameras, made by the Ru-therford Appleton Laboratory inOxfordshire in the UK. The ob-jective of the cameras is to offer

AMARTÍ CRESPO

NEW............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

precise images and videos of anextensive area of the Earth be-tween the latitudes of England,in the northern hemisphere, andthose of Chile, in the southernhemisphere. UrtheCast, based inVancouver, will manage theUltra HD data sent back by thecameras via an interactive on-line platform during the ISS’s 16daily orbits of the planet. Ur-

theCast’s plan is to offer two ser-vices: a free service aimed at pri-vate individuals, and a premiumsubscription service for institu-tions and companies.

In the case of the free service,UrtheCast says that the onlything required is registration inorder to access the live videos ofEarth, as well as archived images.As for those signed up to the sub-

scription service, the payingusers will be able to ask UrtheC-ast to focus the cameras on parti-cular areas of the planet betweenthe latitudes 51 and -51, with theuser keeping the rights to the re-sulting images and video. Thisimage service from space isaimed in particular at the agri-cultural industry, urbanplanners as well as media groups

Website of UrtheCast.www.urthecast.com

Website of SkyboxImaging.www.skyboximaging.com

Website of PlanetLabs.www.planet-labs.com


8695

36-1

0790

45w

THE NET

looking for high-res, real-timeimages of, for example, conflictsor natural catastrophes aroundthe world.

With Google Earth as itsmodel, UrtheCast is not the onlystart-up looking to make profitsfrom the observation of the pla-net from space and there are atleast two other companies look-ing to provide similar services.

Both based in San Francisco,Skybox Imaging plans to pro-vide images from its small satel-lite, SkySat-1, while Planet Labsintends to do the same withsome 30 nano-satelliteslaunched into orbit. Technol-ogy continues its march for-ward, and with it, a panoramaof business opportunities areopening up.

An image ofthe Earth’ssurfacecapturedfrom theInternationalSpaceStation./ NASA


lmost all of Europe adheres to themodel of a nine-to-five working day

with only an hour for lunch. Here, however,it is more normal for workers to take a two-hour break in the middle of the day forlunch, extending the working day well intothe evening. The result is that in 2011,people in Spain, Catalans included, spent anaverage of 277 more hours at work than theGermans, which was also well above theaverage in Austria, Finland, the UK andSweden. Paradoxically, despite spendingmore hours at work, productivity was stillhigher in all of the countries mentionedabove. In fact, the statistics suggest that pro-ductivity might even be inversely proportio-nal to the number of hours spent in theworkplace. With this issue in mind, a newinitiative is underway to reform the workingday here so as to "adapt to a more rationaltimetable that is more convenient to every-day needs". The campaign, Ara és l’hora [re-formahoraria.cat], was presented in the SalaMirador of the CCCB [cccb.cat] in Barcelonaon January 29 with the aim of "encouragingdebate and reflection in order to generate awide social and political consensus that willallow for the presentation of specific stra-tegies for a real transformation of the econ-omic and business fabric in the Parlament deCatalunya [parlament.cat], the Generalitatde Catalunya [govern.cat] and local govern-ments". Among the supporters of the cam-paign is Fabian Mohedano [fabianmohed-ano.blogspot.com], Assumpta Baig [assump-tabaig.blogspot.com], Salvador Cardús[www.salvadorcardus.cat], Nuria Chinchilla[blog.iese.edu/nuriachinchilla] and JosepMaria Canyelles [responsabilitatglobal.blog-spot.com].

ATime for a change?

FACTS AND SITESMARTÍ [email protected]

8695

36-1

0835

08®

THE EYE

n the picture, France’s Martin Fourcade competes in the second round shoot in the Men’s Biathlon 15 kmMass Start at the Laura Cross-Country Ski and Biathlon Center during the Sochi Winter Olympics. His gold

medal was not only celebrated in France, but also in Catalonia. Fourcade happens to be from CatalunyaNord, the region of Catalonia that has belonged to France since the Treaty of the Pyrenees and a placewhere the Catalan language and culture are still alive and kicking. It can be said that Catalonia was presentin two delegations at Sochi, the Spanish and the French ones. Catalans would love to compete in the Gameswith their own teams, but in the meantime, they have to console themselves with the triumphs of the Cata-lan sportmen and women representing Spain or France.

I

Rosa Khutor, Russian Federation, February 18, 2014. Photo: AFP

A French medallist that speaks CatalanGERMÀ CAPDEVILA [email protected]


ECClub

THE ENGLISH CULTURE CLUB ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Spin Doctors back in t is not their first gig in theBlack Music Festival, but this

time the Spin Doctors are com-ing to Catalonia with If The RiverWas Whiskey their critically ac-claimed fifth studio album,which has earned the best re-views of their career.

The album the band will pre-sent at La Mirona venue, is a ten-song collection of originalnumbers, described by leadsinger Chris Barron as a "ram-

Ishackle, broken carriage run-ning down a cobblestone hill,with pots and pans, and ascreaming baby."

This is the blues album theband was always meant to make,and their confidence shows, asthey give the songs lots of roomto breathe and let the trackscome alive via the road-testedmusicianship of Chris Barron(vocals), Aaron Comess (drums),Eric Schenkman (guitar) andMark White (bass). With no

overdubs, irreverent lyrics, soul-ful drums and fiery guitar licks,If The River Was Whisky captureslightning in a bottle and furthercements the Spin Doctors’ repu-tation as a live act to be reckonedwith. Perhaps Schenkman putsit best: "We’ve been playing to-gether for 25 years and we’re allbadasses!".

Other artistsSpin Doctors are not the only

band taking part in the 2014 edi-

tion of the Black Music Festival.John Mayall, the godfather ofBritish blues has included thefestival into his 80th Anniver-sary Tour.

Big Sam’s Funky Nation, theband led by Big Sam Williams,will travel to Girona right fromNew Orleans after their concertat the NBA’s All-Star Weekend.

The Exitements, Dr. Calypso,Empty Cage, The Basement andthe Funk Boss Brothers are alsoon the programme.

CATALONIA TODAY


It’s dance time!The Black Music Festival brings someemerging bands worth seeing

ECCLUB BENEFITSMAKE THE MOST OF YOUR CARD

The ExitementsIn early 2010, this sonicwhirlwind emerged inBarcelona, delivering itsRhythm ’n’ Blues and Soul

cocktail, old school style, andastounding audiences in theirown their country and,shortly after, Europe.March 1, 10pm. La Mirona

Big Sam’s Funky NationThe Funky Nation is astellar group of world-classmusicians who meet thechallenges of their funkyband leader. March 14,10pm, La Mirona.

Spin DoctorsThe American alternativerock band will be playing atLa Mirona in Salt on March8, at 10pm, with its originalmembers. Old and new hitswill rock the BMF.

...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

townAs every year, this 2014, CataloniaToday is again a media sponsor ofthe Black Music Festival, and wehave free double tickets for threeconcerts in the festival – for EC-Club members only. See the de-tails on the next page and send anemail to [email protected] to enter the draw. Don’tforget to tell us what concert youwould like to attend.

Free tickets forEcclubbers!


ravind Adiga sets the tonefor this novel by opening

the book – and continuing allthe way through – in the form ofa letter from the main characterto the Chinese premier. It is onlyin the final chapter that we learnwhy this Indian servant-turned-businessman chooses to write tohim in particular.

Early on in the book, I wasreminded of Paul Theroux’scomment about some of VS Nai-paul’s non-fiction just being"page after page of yacking In-dians" but after I got over thesomewhat shrill, hectoring toneof the narrator I warmed to thisbook relatively quickly.

Early on, the main character(ie. the White Tiger, himself)makes the provocative claimsthat Indian "outsourcing com-panies virtually run Americanow" and he argues "the futureof the world lies with the yellowman and the brown man, nowthat our [former] master, thewhite-skinned man has wastedhimself through buggery, mo-bile phone usage and drugabuse."

These are strong words fromsomeone who is initially meekand compliant in his job as a ser-vant/driver for a corrupt busi-nessman. Coming from the so-

A

cial caste of sweet-makers, hisfather is a dignified but "stick-like" rickshaw puller who dies oftuberculosis, like so many of hisfellow human transporters. Hisson, who is not even given aname at birth and is just simplycalled "Munna", or boy, but whois bestowed with the title of"White Tiger" after his teacherasks him what is the rarest cre-ature in the jungle. Soon, he

starts to partly realise his father’sdreams for him to be literate andto make something with his life.As a young man, he is mentallysharp and observes people in ananalytical way – one that is moretypical of a writer or journalist,in truth.

Over time (as well as sensingthe power of books), while driv-ing through Delhi’s pitilessstreets, his curiosity develops

and his resentment mixes withambition and grows. Night afternight he drives his boss, familyand companions to places likeshopping malls and he sees howthey squander their wealth withexpensive whiskey or over-priced jewellery.

At times, his "masters" almosttreat him decently but he isoften mocked or insulted and iseven used as a scapegoat in ahorrific accident. This triggerssomething deep inside him. Thecity "talks to him" and the com-plex character of the WhiteTiger starts to realise that he hassharp teeth and that peoplefrom his station in life are ac-tually capable of rebellion, des-pite servants often being cruel toeach other.

The last time I read such aseemingly authentic account ofthis gritty kind of life was inKenji Nakagami’s "The Cape"but this book goes a great dealfurther. At it’s heart, "The WhiteTiger" is an examination of thehierarchy of power in the capi-tals of excess and is a depictionof the crushing poverty andsmall-mindedness of "The Dark-ness"– India’s rural towns. It is atale of how one man takes a lifein his own hands and brutallymakes the idea of destiny some-thing that only fools accept.

BRETT HETHERINGTON

A novel that tells the story of how a humble driver of a corrupt businessman in India takeshis future into his own hands and realises his potential as 'the rarest creature in the jungle'

The White TigerECCLUB BOOK REVIEW

ECClub86

9536

/992

428®


he master photographer,Josep Burset, recently gave

an ecxiting outdoor photo ses-sion to a bunch of Ecclubbers inMadremanya, near Girona.

Half a day in the countrysidelearning how to take full advan-tage of our reflex cameras, whilealso practising our English. Thesession started with a traditionalrural Catalan breakfast andended with a walking tour, tak-ing photos around the medievaltowns of Sant Martí Vell, Madre-manya and Monells.

Stay tuned to learn the datesof the following sessions we areplanning to run in differentplaces around Catalonia!

T

More photography to comeECCLUB ACTIVITIES..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

CATALONIA TODAY

The success of the first outdoor photo session for Ecclubbers means we will repeat the hit


ADVERTISEMENT


ECClub

PUZZLES BY PAPPOCOM www.sudoku.comSUDOKU

No. 3

788.

Lev

el: E

asy

No

. 378

9. L

evel

: Med

ium

Fill in the grid so that everyrow, every column, and every3x3 box contains the digits 1through 9. Numbers shouldn’tbe repeated in any of the rows.Solutions and computerprogrammes atwww.sudoku.com

C.T.Quotes

“If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.”Oscar Wilde, Irish dramatist, novelist and poet (1854-1900)

"When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends.”(Japanese proverb)

Use this space to do your working out.

JOT SPOT

Check www.elpuntavui.cat, (En-tertainment section) for more in-teractive games

SPOT THE DIFFERENCE

No. 3789No. 3788

SUDOKU

Can you find the six differences between the two drawings? SPOT THE DIFFERENCE by Soler


ECClub

TRENDY

BUTTON

DRESS, COOL

STYLISH

CASUAL, FABRIC

GLOSSY

OUTFIT, TAILORED

Can you find these fashion relatedwords? R Y V R E D C G B A Y Z U T P

T D E R O L I A T D R Z V L E

B N I A G R A B N G I B T D J

E O Q N Z B I E P P F N J I T

P S R C O U R L P L A U S A C

H S M I J T X E H F W C A S Q

S E J R G T R T P D F V O R W

I R M B G O I E Y C J R C O R

L D Y A I N E Z I S R E V O L

Y H T F K A P L H B S T S G T

T E V E E L S I N A R O E Z I

S V O G U E P R R E J A L K F

I Y U F L P E E N K M O A G T

Q U G N I P A D S C T E S F U

B H R E Z T Z F Y K H P Y N O

·····························

VOGUE

KNIT, TREND

HIPPIE, ZIPPER

OVERSIZE

BARGAIN

SLEEVE

BRA, SALES

WORD POOL

Can you spot the mistake?

Sometimes language mistakes have economicconsequences...

THE MISTAKE

Here are eight words that go together in pairs. Can youmatch them appropriately using each one only once.

1...................................................................................................................................................................................................................

2..................................................................................................................................................................................................................

3..................................................................................................................................................................................................................

4..................................................................................................................................................................................................................

MATCHING PAIRS

PITCH WAIST

SLENDER

SHANTY STIFF

BORED DARK

TOWNS

SOLUTIONS and CLUES

WORDPOOLAnswers can be found ver-tically, horizontally and indiagonal. There are forward andbackword words. Some lettersmay be shared.

MATCHING PAIRSSHANTY TOWNSBORED STIFFSLENDER WAISTPITCH DARK

COLLOQUIALCOMMENTS1-c, 2-a, 3-d, 4-c, 5-b, 6-b, 7-d,8-c

VIDEO QUIZVideo 1: a -a-bVideo 2: b-b-b

GET IN TOUCH!We would like to hear fromyou!Email your feed back, com-ments or contributions to us at:[email protected] interest and support andwill be much appreciated.

You can also write to us at:Catalonia TodaySanta Eugènia , 4217005 Girona

Tel. 972 1864 38


Here is a quiz to see whether you picked up themeaning of some of the more colloquial phrases inMartin’s article on page 7 of this month’s magazine.

COLLOQUIAL COMMENTS

1. "movers and shakers"are:a) political agitatorsb) the establishmentc) important people who in-fluence the futured) people of little conse-quence

2. "give a clue" means:a) give an indication aboutsomethingb) creating new genresc) become involvedwith somethingd) look for help or ad-vice

3. "well and trulyhooked" means:a) to be totally con-fusedb) to be upset aboutsomethingc) to reject somethingd) to be incredibly en-thusiastic about some-thing

4. "I want to flag"means:a) He wants to make this anational issueb) he wants to call an end tosomethingc) he wants to make specialreference to somethingd) he wants to avoid some-thing

5. "What strikes me"means:a) what annoys him mostb) what impresses him mostc) what doesn’t interest him at

alld) what he wants to find out

6. "involved across theborders" refers to:a) Catalans living overseasb) Catalans being involved ininternational projectsc) foreign companies workingin Cataloniad) the limits Catalan com-panies have

7. "I take my hat off to"means:a) he needs to relax and thinkabout things clearlyb) he is very surprised aboutsomethingc) he thinks that new ideas areneededd) he is filled with admiration

8. "showcases" means:a) theatricalb) artisticc) promotionald) superficial

VIDEO QUIZ

1.Where was thischurch born?a) Niger b) Nigeria2. How many seatswill the temple inDallas have?a) 1,000 b) 10,0003. It’s growth isbeing fueled by...a) Americansb) African migrants

http://youtu.be/-HVcRCTGE8w

http://youtu.be/3ioD8RJtuQU

Watch the following videos on Youtube andanswer the questions:

1. Which countrieshave more Internetusers? a) Developedb) Developing2. How manypeople have landlinephones?a) 2 in 10 b) 1 in 103. Which countryhave only 1% oflandine phones?a) Senegal b) Kenya

Facebook.com/cataloniatoday


OPINION

t’s a shame that it is still considered sur-prising that a woman should do well in

a motor sport. Yet, in the case of motorcyc-list, Laia Sanz, her gender is not even herleast noteworthy aspect, as can be seenfrom her recent performance in the DakarRally. In the punishing cross-desert race,Sanz managed to exceed all expectations,including her own – she had set herself theaim of finishing in the top 30 – by placing16th overall.

Naturally, the Dakar result is a greatachievement in what some consider a'man’s sport' but Sanz is no stranger to suc-cess on two wheels. Still only 28 years ofage, Sanz has already claimed 15 worldchampionships (13 in trial and two in en-duro) since her first in 2000, and no doubtthere are more to come in the future.

Man or woman, no one reaches the peakof any elite sport without an early start,lots of determination and years of practice,and Sanz is no different. As she explains onher website, she was only four when shefirst rode a motorbike, when she sneakedout on her brother’s Cota 25 trial bike. Itwas the beginning of a love affair with mo-torbikes that has continued until this day.

In the following years, Sanz entered trial

I races until she was winning the female cat-egories with mechanical efficiency. As sheimproved, she steadily rose to the top ofher discipline. For example, between 2000and 2013, Sanz won the Women’s WorldTrial Championship in every consecutiveyear, except 2007, when she placed 2nd.

They say that winning is a habit, and inSanz’s case it could not be more accurate.Just in case anyone might think she was aone trick pony specialising in the disci-pline of trial, in 2010 she made her debutin the Women’s Enduro World Champion-ship, coming third. The following year sheplaced 2nd, and in the past two years haswon the world title outright.

Seeking more challenges, Sanz was giventhe chance to fulfill a childhood dream inbeing admitted into the Dakar Rally and,surprise surprise, in her debut year she wonthe female class (which she has repeatedevery year since). However, perhaps moresignificantly, Sanz came 39th in the overallrankings in her first Dakar, which, as men-tioned above, she has improved on thisyear. Sanz’s first victory in a male categorycame in 1997, she has raced against andbeaten men in their own category manytimes since then, and continues to do so.

ProfileIt seems as if anything that has an engineis primarily associated with men, despitethe female category in motorcycling beingwell established. Nevertheless, one of thehardest barriers to cross in modern sportsin general is for sportswomen to make thatleap into competing on an equal basis withtheir male counterparts. Laia Sanz hasdone that, not only making her one ofCatalonia’s most important sports people,but turning her into an example for sport-women anywhere. What follows are somefacts about this extraordinary motorcyclist.Full name: Laia Sanz Pla-Giribert.Birthplace: Corbera de LlobregatDate of birth: December 11, 1985.Height: 1.78 metres.Weight: 73 kilograms.Motorcycle team: Gas Gas.First race: 1992, at seven years of age.Nº trial world titles: 13 (2000-2013).Nº trial domestic titles:8 (2003-2010.Nº enduro world titles: 2 (2012 & 2013).Nº Dakar Rallies: 4 (2011-2014).Best overall place in Dakar: 16th (2014).Personal website: www.laiasanz.com.

EXTRA TIMENEIL STOKES [email protected]

Woman and machinein perfect harmony

Sanz shows off one of her bikes at her home in Seva, Osona, this year. / ORIOL DURAN

The queens ofthe desert

While she is the most high-profileexample, and only one of four to finish,Laia Sanz is not the only female rider totake on the men this year in the most

challenging endurance race in the world:the Dakar Rally. Sanz’s compatriot, RosaRomero Font, wife of Catalan veteran

Dakar racing driver Nani Roma, also linedup this year on her KTM 450, but sadly

was forced to withdraw in the third stagebecause of technical difficulties. The firstfemale rider to complete the rally was

Swedish motorcyclist, Maria Sandell, in2002. Since then, a small but significantgroup of women have tried their luck,

though as is common in the Dakar, manyhave had to withdraw at one time or

another. Among the female riders whohave participated in the rally in recent

years are Annie Seel, Mirjam Pol, TamsinJones, Tina Meier, Silvia Gianetti, Jenny

Morgan and Ludivine Puy.

DON'T LET YOUR ENGLISH GET RUSTYJoin the new

ECClubEnglish Culture Club

An exclusive club offering activities and resources in English, as well as freesubscription to Catalonia Today magazine and membership in one of our

ECClub Reading Groups

Readings groups in English led by native speakers in selected Abacusstores in Catalonia and Valencia

All in English and for less than 6 euros a monthAnnual Subscription: 69 €.Abacus members and existing subscribers to ELPUNT/AVUI or Catalonia Today: 59 €

1180

76-1

0863

30w

Date post:	05-Apr-2016
Category:	Documents
Upload:	catalonia-today
View:	221 times
Download:	4 times

March 2014

Documents