Homage To Catalonia: Joan Laporta and independence

Think what you like about the Premier League’s overblown self-importance, one thing it hasn’t done is to stray too far into the world of politics. With the exception of old Red Nose brown-nosing New Labour, it has happened the other way round – Tony Blair masquerading as a member of the Toon Army and David Mellor giving the then soon to start League pre-publicity by donning his Chelsea shirt to conceal the absence of his shorts. Populist politico-soccerism has mainly been the preserve of the charming and ever-humorous Silvio Berlusconi. But there is always Joan Laporta.

The former president of Barcelona now fancies himself as the Lionel Messi of Catalan pretensions, striking the goal for independence. Not that his being Messi would get him very far as the player is of course Argentinian. Never mind, Barça can always call on Xavi, Puyol, Busquets, Valdés, Krkic and Piqué as being the real Catalonian thing. And they are; they were all in the squad the last time Catalonia played an international.

Laporta, on the back of his stint as the club’s president, has formed a political party – Catalan Solidarity for Independence – which will take part in upcoming regional government elections. Having added a porn star (shades of Italian politics here as well) to his strike force, Laporta is trusting in a wave of discontent in Catalonia to catapult him into stellar political orbit. It’s unlikely to happen, but the discontent is real enough, much of it stemming from a constitutional ruling in July that Catalonia cannot be a “nation” and thus cannot be self-governing.

Laporta was unashamedly Catalanist during his time as president. He styled Barcelona as a surrogate Catalonian national team and in so doing made it symbolic of Catalonian nationalism and a desire for independence. This overlooked the fact that Catalonia does have a team, albeit one unrecognised by UEFA or FIFA and therefore confined to the playing of friendlies (as is the case with all the autonomous regions of Spain which have their own football teams, including the Balearics), but did not neglect the fact that historically Barça has long been representative of Catalonia. The club’s slogan “més que un club” (more than a club) encapsulates this, and it is one that dates back to Franco’s days – to 1968 to be precise – but has its roots in a time well before this.

Laporta clearly understands his history and the importance of Barça to Catalonian ambitions. And he is using his association with the club, and therefore the fame he derived from being its president, to fuel his own ambitions. Like Berlusconi, however, he is not a million miles away from the hint of scandal. He denies anything untoward, naturally enough, but the current president is keen to establish quite how Barça’s finances came to be as shaky as they are.

Whether Laporta can be taken seriously will be answered come the elections. But what has to be taken seriously is the question that simply won’t go away – that of Catalonian independence. A mark of quite how unsettling this could be occurred in January 2006 when an army general, José Mena, was placed under house arrest for suggesting that there would be military intervention were Catalonia to be granted ever greater autonomy.

In Mallorca, an indication of attitudes to the Catalonian question came in response to the constitutional ruling. While there was political support for self-government across the spectrum, with the notable exception of the Partido Popular (PP), a demonstration in Palma opposing the ruling attracted a mere 300 protesters. Popular support for Catalonia extends to the Barcelona football team, but not to an independent Catalonia. Despite the linguistic connection, historical Catalonian radicalism runs counter to a Mallorcan conservatism. And this is no better seen than in the stance of the PP’s local leader, José Ramón Bauzá. His objections to the use of Catalan do not exclude the islands’ Catalan variants; quite the opposite. What he does take exception to is what he has called the “imposition” of Catalan from Catalonia. In other words he, and this would not be an unpopular sentiment in Mallorca as a whole, is allied firmly with Madrid (and the Spanish state) and not with Barcelona.

We have to see what happens with Laporta’s campaign and in the Catalonian elections. The prediction is that the centrist Convergència i Unió will win. While this party is equivocal on nationalism and so might quieten the independence issue for now, the issue will re-emerge, and the next national elections could prove crucial. It has been claimed that the constitutional ruling against self-government was politically inspired by the PP nationally which opposes Catalonian aspirations. This contrasts with a Zapatero government which has been accused of bending too easily to Catalonian demands, such as in granting extended local powers in 2006.

The Catalonian question will not go away. Maybe one day there will be an independent state. But for many Mallorcans and indeed Spaniards, the most important issue will not be political. It will have to do with football. An officially recognised Catalonia with a core of Barcelona players might take some stopping, bringing an end to Spain’s European and world domination. And who knows, maybe President Laporta will be there to cheer as team manager Carles Puyol raises the cup. For Catalonia.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Party Games: Bauzà’s lapse

The Partido Popular in the Balearics are making a video game/puppet version of themselves. It features the party’s leader, José Ramón Bauzà, pronounced Bowser. His number two is Calvia’s mayor Carlos Delgado, Charles Thin, represented by the old Goons’ character – Hercules Grytpype-Thynne, to whom he bears a not totally thin resemblance.

It’s a shame that Bowser is not a chameleon, but the Super Mario turtle – PP Bowser-style – combines in animated villainy with Grytpype-Thynne to make for a real hoot of an educational tool, one for the pupils of the Balearics. The big question is in which language they should be speaking. The preference should be Castilian. But this is too simple. There are also Catalan, Mallorquín, Menorquín, Ibicenco and Formenterense to take into account. The game does get somewhat complicated.

The solution is to make the animation a battle between Bowser and Grytpype, suitably cast as the Castilian-speaking villains, against hordes of Marios or Neddie Seagoons mouthing off in Catalan or versions thereof. But there’s a sub-plot, because we can’t be too sure about Bowser, as he’s prone to turn turtle. One day he says he’s going to kick Catalan into touch, and the next day he says that he hadn’t meant to say that, it was all the result of a “lapse” he had suffered during an early-morning radio interview.

Bowser has pumped out a whole load of oil onto the troubled waters of local language politics. He had done so by suggesting that, were he to become regional president next year, he would get rid of the law of 1986 which had granted Catalan dual-official status, a result of which would be to promote Castilian, together with the local languages, as the tongues of learning in schools – the so-called free selection, but without Catalan. He had done so, and then said he hadn’t meant it, having caused a hell of a stink in the process.

There is a fair old back story to all this.

Bauzà and Delgado were rivals for the leadership of the PP in March, the former winning quite comfortably. Before the leadership election took place, Delgado had some pretty harsh words for his rival, accusing him of having no credibility when it came to the language issue and of being opposed to free selection of language.

Delgado, on the other hand, is an advocate of free selection. He is unashamedly pro-Castilian and anti-Catalan, stating that Castilian is his “mother tongue”.

But since the leadership election, things have moved on. Firstly, Bauzà created something of a stir by making Delgado his number two, which didn’t go down a storm with the party’s moderate wing. Secondly, he managed to alienate this moderate wing by being perceived as being too close to the party’s national leader Mariano Rajoy; the insinuations are that he is something of a stooge. Thirdly, he increased this alienation by getting ever closer to Delgado, who is to the right of the party. So much so that, by the end of September, he was being branded a Delgado “clone” and, in an “Ultima Hora” blog, was said to have “adopted the anti-Catalan thesis” of Delgado.

It is against this background, therefore, that Bauzà did the radio interview, one in which he seemed to be following the Delgado line. The impression is of someone prone to vacillation and to misjudgment, which he quickly tried to rectify by claiming a lapse that allowed him to then try and distance himself from Delgado. But if he is capable of one lapse, then what other ones might he have? The words of Delgado regarding his credibility will be haunting him.

Bauzà might hope that when the elections for the regional presidency take place next spring, everyone will have forgotten about all this. It’s most unlikely. Though whether he has dented his chances are questionable. The PP will probably still win, but what confidence might there be in a president who seems far from sure-footed?

He should stick to video games. Bowser’s the one who always steals the game show. And he should be wary of Delgado. Grytpype-Thynne always managed to put one over on the fall-guy.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

A Load More Bull: Catalonia votes to ban bullfighting

The Catalonian parliament voted yesterday to ban bullfighting. There were 68 votes in favour of a ban, 55 against with nine abstentions. The ban will take effect as from 2012. It is not the first time that a region of Spain has imposed a ban, but one in a region as important – for various reasons – as Catalonia is significant.

Though politicians are seeking to deny it, there is more than just a hint of the anti-Spain about the ban. Bullfighting, with all its ceremony and overtones of nobility, is representative of an old Spanish order that persists – one at variance with Catalonian nationalism. One can nuance the ban as a slap in the face for Castile and history, as a political statement as much as one founded on animal rights. It might also have ramifications in other regions of Spain.

“The Diario” has polled members of the Balearic parliament as to their views of a potential ban. Ten were in favour of a ban, ten were against with four abstaining. It is just possible that the islands would follow Catalonia were a motion to be brought before parliament.

The annual bullfight as part of the Sant Jaume fiestas was staged in Alcúdia last Sunday. As with the bullfight in Muro in June, there was a demonstration against it. The numbers were not great, and those participating were generally youthful. This might be taken as a protest of idealistic young people, but there are many local Mallorcans who do not like the bullfight. They would not protest though. To do so would be to make themselves known. It isn’t necessarily a good career move to be seen to be allying oneself with the anti-bullfight brigade.

Rather like the fox-hunting debate in Britain introduced all manner of pros and cons, so the bullfight-ban debate has its. One of them is economic. In Catalonia, it is being said that a ban will result in a cost to each family of 250 euros. How on earth such a figure is arrived at, heaven only knows, but there is an economic downside to the prohibition of bullfighting. Also like fox-hunting, the debate is essentially emotional – you either like the bullfight or you don’t. The president of Catalonia, José Montilla, radical in his calls for Catalonian self-government, voted against the ban as he doesn’t approve of a legal imposition that would deny the bullfight to those who enjoy it, though how his position stacks up against other legislation “imposed” in Catalonia, I’m not quite sure.

However, in Catalonia the impulse for a ban came not from parliament or political parties; it came from the views of Catalonian people. There is a system known as the “iniciativa legislativa popular” which under the constitution allows for mass petitions to be presented as the basis for potential reform of laws. It was such a petition that brought the Catalonian parliament to debate and now outlaw bullfighting. In this respect, therefore, the ban might be said to reflect the will of the people and not be an imposition. In Catalonia, the popular will has worked, and while Catalonia is not like the rest of Spain, alarm bells are ringing that similar petitions might force votes in other regions.

The 180,000 signatories to the petition represent a massive expression of popular will, and President Montilla has said that it is correct to respect this will. The popular will was activist-driven, though it does appear to reflect majority opinion. But to believe that it did not have at least an element of nationalist politics about it would be wrong. Montilla, not exactly temperate in his views after the constitutional tribunal dismissed Catalonian self-government aspirations, has been quick to downplay the vote as an indication of the state of Catalan-Spanish relations. Others will see it as a deliberate waving of a red rag in front of a Spanish bull.

At a more general level, the vote, together with the growing opposition to bullfighting throughout Spain, indicates – once again – the degree to which the country has changed. The apathy and conservatism of a predominantly rural population pre-tourism boom and pre-restoration has given way to an urban awareness, activism and liberalism. The vote may have been about Catalonia versus Spain, but it was also about new versus old Spain.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

One Nation Spaniards: Catalonian self-government

The people of Barcelona and Catalan people in other countries protested yesterday. Their grievance was a constitutional ruling given on Friday in respect of calls for Catalonian self-government. As you might construe from the fact of there being demonstrations, the ruling didn’t look that favourably on the idea. The constitutional tribunal rejected the notion that Catalonia could be a “nation” because the Spanish constitution recognises only the Spanish nation and the Spanish nation as the only entity that can claim sovereignty. The tribunal accepted that one can talk of a nation as one with a cultural, historical, linguistic, sociological and religious reality but that what is important is exclusively the nation in a legal-constitutional sense, one that permits only the Spanish nation.

With anything constitutional, the ruling is pretty arcane. I won’t attempt to explain any more of it, but I will point out that, under the constitution, the rights to autonomy, as in a degree of autonomous government, and respect of language and religion, were all enshrined following the establishment of democracy. Catalonia, like the Balearics, therefore has its own autonomous administration. Self-government is something altogether different.

If you look at the description of the nation above, there is one glaring aspect – linguistic. Language is a key issue for the Catalonians, and the ruling might therefore appear to be contradictory. But it is not the only issue. The Catalonian question is one that goes back centuries, to the joining of Castile and Aragon in the late fifteenth century, and which has passed through periods of repression and prohibition. There is also an issue of money; Catalonia is one of the wealthiest parts of Spain.

The president of Catalonia reckons that the ruling is offensive and has accused it of being politically motivated with the support of the Partido Popular. Though many Catalonian politicians as well as many in the Balearics (all the left plus the Unió Mallorquina and President Antich) may wish for self-government, a question must be to what extent there is popular support. An answer may lie in a symbolic referendum held in the small town of Arenys de Munt last September. Ninety-six per cent of voters supported an independent Catalonia within the European Union..A further answer may lie in the million protesters that took to the streets in Barcelona

The ruling is hardly surprising. Any other, one that might have looked favourably on self-government, would potentially open the floodgates. The Basques would have been following the judgement closely, as probably would many in Andalucia. But were there to be more impetus towards self-government, it would not play well in most of Spain. It wouldn’t necessarily play well in the Balearics, despite what the politicians think (and only 300 people turned up to attend a demo in Palma against the decision). Despite the common(ish) language, Catalonia and the Balearics are two different beasts. One, Catalonia, has traditionally been liberal and even revolutionary; the Balearics are traditionally conservative, albeit that there has been a rise in Catalan radicalism. There is also an issue between the two over financing. Don’t expect any serious calls for a greater Catalan state any time soon.

What must though be a concern is the fact that the Zapatero administration has been highly accommodating towards Catalonia, partly because it has needed its support, evidenced by the powers over taxation and law permitted in 2006 and now challenged by the PP, which led to the constitutional ruling. The next elections could be a turning-point for Spain if this ruling garners real popular support for independence and a rejection of Madrid rule and also if, as we must presume would be likely, the Partido Popular were to win the next election.

We might just have experienced a very important moment in Spain’s history. Yet, all of this should be seen against the backdrop of something that is happening today. It may have escaped your attention but Spain are in the World Cup final. Strangely enough, there are times when nationalism – Spanish nationalism – assumes command, alongside the Barcelona-biased Spanish team.

Some things are more important than others.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Political Balls – Carlos Delgado and the politics of language

Carlos Delgado. Get used to the name. You might be hearing quite a bit more of him. Some of you may already know the name. He has been mentioned here before. And who he? Delgado is the mayor of Calvià (Magaluf etc.). He is also a candidate for presidency of the Balearics Partido Popular (the conservative party), and were he to become leader, he could well also become president of the regional government.

Delgado is something of a controversial character. No, he’s not mired in corruption scandals, but he is one of the main protagonists in the politics of language and is – essentially – pro-Castilian, a position that many in his party would also hold. For pro-Castilian, you can read – were you minded to – anti-Catalan. Delgado has made repeated pronouncements on the language issue, and in a feature from the “Diario” the headline starkly states that he could enter the region’s administration “without knowing Catalan”. For a Mallorcan politician, this is a heck of an admission. If Delgado were to be the PP’s candidate for president, you can bet your life that the election is likely to be sidetracked down the emotional language line. There are more important matters.

One area of the so-called “Catalan imposition” that Delgado would backtrack on (backtrack, sidetrack, we all get off track) is the Catalan requirement for public-sector workers, such as those in the medical service. It was this, more than anything, that gave rise to a demonstration in Palma last spring against the imposition.

There are many who will support Delgado for this reason alone, but there are many, even PP voters, who might find his own lack of Catalan a drawback. They wouldn’t be wrong. However much many might agree that Catalan has encroached too far into public administration and other aspects of Mallorcan life and society, it is the case that it holds joint official status alongside Castilian. An argument, and not an inaccurate one, is that Castilian’s joint official status has been undermined, but the duality of language is a fact. A president of the Balearics should be a Catalan speaker. If nothing else, it is a matter of respect.

The current leader of the PP, José Ramón Bauzá, has also not been unknown for making pronouncements against Catalan. The language issue, he has been quoted as saying, has been “perverted” by the current administration, but he believes, as seemingly also does Delgado, that school textbooks should be freely available in the local dialects of the four Balearic islands. Doesn’t sound like a strong pro-Castilian line (indeed it sounds rather contradictory), but one thing you can be sure of, especially if Delgado were to come to power, would be that the main language of teaching would become a major issue.

This is all a not insignificant social and political issue in Mallorca, one cannot downplay it, but the worry is that it might assume far more prominence than matters of real importance, the economy for example. If all the corruption were not enough, politics in Mallorca may be about to take its collective eye further off the ball.

Palm beetle
On the march. On the wing might be more appropriate. The African beetle that is threatening to devastate palm trees in Pollensa has arrived in Alcúdia. Gardeners are being told by the town hall to only trim branches. Cutting right back lets off the pheromones that attract the beetle. Though there has been spraying in Pollensa, it is largely ineffective.

Palms come at a price. They may be very attractive, but they are also expensive to maintain. And even more expensive if they have to be cut down as a consequence of the beetle.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

O Valencia

There has been yet another demonstration. On Sunday. Not in Mallorca, but in Valencia. It was a demonstration against corruption. 

As with the pro-Catalan march in Palma earlier this year, so there were again wild fluctuations in the numbers said to have been on the march. Something over 2,000, according to the police; 70,000, according to the organisers. How numbers can differ to that extent, heaven only knows.

The demonstration centred on the so-called Gürtel corruption case that has been rumbling on for several months. The background to the case was considered to be sub judice, so there was little factual reporting. But it has now all come into the open. It concerns a businessman called Francisco Correa who is alleged to have paid the Partido Popular party for favours. This was in Madrid, but the case has spread to Valencia where the regional president, Francisco Camps (also Partido Popular), is said to have accepted gifts of shoes and suits. There is quite a bit more to this, but it’s not for here to go into it all.

While this may be viewed as just another case of alleged corruption, the fact that people have taken to the streets does make it rather different. It can be argued that the march was politically motivated, whipped up by the left-wing in Valencia, and there may well be some truth in this. However, the fact of there being a demonstration against corruption adds weight to a growing discontent directed towards the political class and also some elements of business. One might also place this in the context of the 19.3% unemployment rate that exists in Spain – the highest in the Eurozone. 

In Mallorca, various prominent politicians have been implicated in cases currently under investigation. These include the former regional president (Jaume Matas, Partido Popular) and the former leader of the Unió Mallorquina, Maria Antònia Munar, now the president of the Balearic parliament. 

With all this in mind, it was put to me on Sunday that the anti-Camps demo in Valencia is representative of a move which signals that people have simply had enough. The person who made this point then also went on to decry various practices by employers that fall into the category of fraud, about which employees can do little or nothing. 

It is hard not to conclude that corruption, at different levels of society, is endemic. Many people would believe that all politicians are in it in order to line their pockets in some way. With such a mistrust of the political class, and of business, it is hard not to also conclude that the practice of democracy is partly illusory. There is more than an echo of the corrupt system of the “cacique” which emerged in the nineteenth century when Spanish sham democracy, with the collusion of a generally apathetic populace, was driven by the local political boss who delivered the results required and operated by a system of favours. 

But the populace is no longer apathetic. It is educated and informed. It may have had enough, but there was a possibly instructive comment attached to a piece elsewhere about the Valencia march, which said, in effect, that while the demonstrators may have been voicing their repugnance at corruption, many of them would have gone back and looked at ways of fiddling their VAT. That, though, says it all. When political leaders, businesspeople and also occasionally some in the police get up to wrongdoing, it sets the tone. And so society at all levels is riven with something rotten at its heart.

Catalonian football team

Valencia is a Catalan-speaking region. It is not in Catalonia, but it shares a common language even if there is, as ever, a regional dialect – Valencian. But were you aware that Catalonia has a football team? Johann Cruyff, once a player and coach at Barcelona, has become its new coach. The team plays only friendlies as it is not recognised by FIFA or UEFA. Its most recent match was a 2-1 defeat of Colombia. Perhaps the most intriguing point about this team is that, unlike most things Catalan being banned during the Franco era, it was allowed to play, even competing against a Spanish national side and beating it (as well as being thrashed 6-0).

It would seem that all the regions of Spain can field teams, so long as they play only friendlies. The Balearics, from what I can see, has only played once, losing to Malta. Catalonia has tried, in vain, to be admitted to UEFA, arguing that if Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland can field sides in competitions, then so should it. God, if all the Spanish regions suddenly popped up with teams, qualifying rounds would take years. And the chances of Wales and the rest ever qualifying again would be even more remote than they are now.

The Columbus Industry

This is the thing about Columbus that appeared in “Talk Of The North” this week, the piece to which I referred on 16 October (Chris and Yasmin). I was thinking of reproducing another thing that went into TOTN – about the Ternelles carry-on – as it had, what I thought, a pretty good gag in the final paragraph which mysteriously didn’t appear. But as I’ve done enough on that subject already, you’ll never know the gag.

 

Anyway, here’s the Columbus industry:

 

Christopher Columbus, Cristóbal Colón, Cristofol Colom, Cristoforo Colombo – take your pick. There is a Columbus industry in Spain, one dedicated to proving that the discoverer of the Americas did not come from Genoa. There is also a lot riding on Columbus not being Italian. So synonymous is he with Spain that the “Día de la Hispanidad” coincides with the day on which he made landfall at what he called San Salvador on 12 October, 1492. In the variants of his name, he is celebrated by streets, such as Cristofol Colom in Alcúdia old town; in Porto Colom he has been claimed as one of their own. DNA tests on those with the Colom or Colón surname have sought to prove his Spanishness or maybe his Catalan or even Mallorcan origins.

 

The traditional historical view of Columbus is that he came from Genoa, but there has long been sufficient mystery as to his background that his birthplace has been the subject of fierce and patriotic debate, and no more so than in Spain where the patronage of the Catholic Kings resulted in his discovery of the New World and heralded Spain’s Golden Age. National pride, akin to Spain winning the Euros, would flow from it actually being proven that C.C. was a Spaniard all along, or you might think it would were it not for his tarnished image or that he was in fact Catalan.

 

Nevertheless, Genoa is usually accepted as being his place of birth, and the Genoese were merchant traders and familiar to the Spanish court of the late fifteenth century. In itself, it would have been no surprise had he, from Genoa, been hanging around in the general area of Isabel and Ferdinand. But the Columbus mystery remains and has largely centred on how he spoke and on how he wrote. The only real agreement is that his language has been hard to pinpoint. One argument is that he learnt a corrupted form of Castilian while in Lisbon some years before his first voyage. (His wife, indisputably, was Portuguese.) That he appeared never to write in Italian may have been due to the fact that his Genoese dialect, if this was indeed his “native” tongue, was a spoken and not a written language. 

 

In seeking to resolve the Columbus mystery, a new book by Estelle Irizarry, emeritus professor of Spanish literature at the University of Georgetown in Washington, argues that Columbus was in fact of Catalan origin and that he spoke Catalan before he could speak Castilian. In “The DNA Of The Writings Of Columbus”, Irizarry places Columbus as having come from Catalan-speaking Aragon, itself of symbolic importance to Mallorcans as this was the kingdom of the “conquistador”, Jaume I.

 

Intriguingly, Irizarry has identified characteristics of linguistic use which point to Columbus possibly having been descended from the Jewish-Spanish race persecuted from the fourteenth century. The language of the Sephardic Jews in Spain was Ladino, a mix of primarily Hebrew and Spanish. Though Irizarry has identified use of Ladino by Columbus, she implies that there was also a variant – Ladino-Catalan – and that this usage indicates a Catalan origin. Sephardic Jews were to be found across Spain, but they were certainly prominent in Aragon and Catalonia, and even in Palma.

 

Claims of Jewish or Catalan lineage or birth are nothing new in the Columbus mystery. But if Irizarry has indeed managed, via a study of linguistics, to unravel the mystery and to establish a Catalan origin, how well would this all sit with Columbus and the Día de la Hispanidad? Not very well where more radical Catalan voices might be concerned, one would imagine. The Columbus industry, moreover, has scarred the reputation of the discoverer, which might make those who would claim “ownership” of him pause and consider him in terms of current-day political correctness. Not only was he a lousy administrator, he has been blamed for the wiping-out of the indigenous Taino indians. The Tainos may have bequeathed us certain words – hammock, hurricane, barbecue, for example – but they survived as a separate race for only a short period once Columbus had colonised La Española.

 

Yet for all this, how does it square with the fact that Columbus did have Genoese connections? With the fact this brothers came from Genoa to join him on voyages? Or with the generally held view that his father, Domenico, is meant to have originated from the village of Moconesi near to Genoa? Or that he himself once clearly stated that he was born in Genoa, despite his frequently being attributed with having said that he came from nothing?

 

Columbus, it is said, sought to hide his origins because they were humble. His father, if indeed Domenico was his father, was a mere weaver. It might be construed that he was ambiguous as to his background because of a possible Jewishness, even if it was not unknown for “conversos” from the Jewish faith to rise to positions of importance at the time of his voyages. But it is not inconceivable that he acquired what was a polyglot tongue. His time in Lisbon may be more significant than previously thought, as Portugal, prior to expelling Jews at the very end of the fifteenth century, had become something of a refuge for Sephardic Jews leaving Spain in the years before the final expulsion order of 1492. If it is true that Columbus acquired his Castilian in Lisbon, then might it be that this was influenced by Ladino? Columbus was clearly exposed to the Jewish community in Lisbon. In his will, he referred to the Jew who guarded the gate to the Jewish quarter. This all said, it is the Catalan element in Professor Irizarry’s findings that is the wild card.

 

The Columbus mystery and the Columbus industry will continue. There’s too much riding on them for his origins to be finally and irrefutably laid to rest. 

Captain, I Said What

Let’s say you are Welsh. At Cardiff airport two policemen come up to you and ask you, in English, to produce your papers. You comply with the demand, but reply in Welsh. One of the policemen insists that you speak English. You do so, but the policeman then says that you must speak in a clearer fashion, to which you ask what he said. The police then, behind closed doors, attack you, hitting you on the head, in the mouth and the stomach and then charge you. 

 

This, in essence, but substituting Catalan for Welsh and Castilian for English, is what is alleged to have happened to one Iván Cortés at Palma airport on 7 August. The police were Guardia Civil officers. The case has been taken up by the Obra Cultural Balear (OCB), an organisation that defends and promotes the use of Catalan. It has obtained a meeting with the director general of the island’s Guardia to ask that “aggression” towards Catalan speakers ceases, the Cortés incident being the springboard for this request.   

 

Cortés was allowed to make his journey, to London as it happens, where he was seen by a doctor whose report would appear to confirm injuries. The OCB adds that security cameras at Palma airport could also confirm what is alleged to have taken place. 

 

This incident first came to light at the start of this month. A report in “The Diario” (3 September) listed what I have above. It also carried a photo from a press conference of Cortés, together with Tomeu Martí, the co-ordinator for the OCB. Cortés would probably be in his twenties. He has long dark hair and a beard with a longish, thin goatie. He has a dark complexion, suggesting mixed race or possibly one particular race.

 

Accusations against police happen everywhere, not always with justification. One has to bear in mind that the incident took place a few days after the Palmanova bombing. The police would have been on high alert, though one thing one can probably say is that Cortés does not look like how one might expect an ETA terrorist to appear. A question might be, however, why the officers demanded to see his papers in the first place. They are within their rights to do so, but the question might still be raised.

 

Guardia officers speak Castilian. Only Castilian. It is not the first time that one has heard of an incident, assuming the Cortés one to be accurate, in which there has been something of an issue with someone speaking Catalan. Guardia officers speak Castilian because it is the language of the state. And the Guardia is very closely associated with the state, the Spanish state. It is a defender of the state. Whether that means that it should be a defender of one language is another matter. In Mallorca, Catalan and Castilian enjoy joint official status.

 

One does not of course have the other side of the story. Nevertheless, an alleged attack on a defenceless man, whose only apparent “crime” was to speak Catalan and to seek clarification of what was being asked of him, is deserving of investigation, especially as it involves the schism of language and regionalism. There is, though, more to all this. Go back a bit. That other name. Tomeu Martí. Remember him? Probably not. Remember the “Acampallengua”, the pro-Catalan gathering in Sa Pobla in late May? Remember that a senior figure in the OCB was arrested for “disobedience” by the Guardia? That was Martí. He was recently fined for refusing a request to show his papers, the cause of his arrest. Why he was asked to do so, I am unsure. But asked he was. 

 

The OCB is not a party, but it has links to the political establishment locally. You may recall that back in December there was the campaign to speak Catalan over a coffee in the local bar. The OCB was behind that. It followed hard on the heels of the campaign to promote wider use of Catalan in bars and restaurants, one funded at a not insignificant cost by the Council of Mallorca. Both campaigns were innocent enough, but the “Acampallengua” did have an undercurrent of youth radicalisation, and then there was the demonstration in Palma during the summer in favour of Catalan (and indeed another in support of Castilian).

 

The Cortés case cannot be seen just as an isolated incident of possible police aggression. It has to be seen in a wider political and social context. At a press conference held two days ago to announce that request for a meeting with the Guardia, a representative of the republican left in the Balearics shared the platform with Martí, and a link was made to the fact that José Bono, president of the national congress of deputies, had been prohibited from speaking Catalan in the congress. Moreover, Martí has accused the Balearics delegate to the central government, Ramón Socias, of a failure to respond to “acts of discrimination against Catalan”. 

 

If it hasn’t already been, the Guardia risks being dragged into some murky political waters, some, given its past reputation, it would do well to avoid. As a defender of the state, the whole state, it should not become the clarion call for political opportunism and polarisation in Mallorca, which this has the danger of becoming, and with the forces of the law set against elements of the political establishment, themselves supported by elements of a spot of “agitprop”.

 

 

* To see the original “Diario” article and photo, go here: http://www.diariodemallorca.es/mallorca/2009/09/03/joven-afirma-agentes-guardia-civil-le-agredieron-hablar-catalan/499821.html

Suspicious Minds

Right, let’s get back to something resembling normality – after a fashion. Or maybe not. The tension post-Palmanova was reflected on Saturday by the closure of roads around the Lago Menor in Puerto Alcúdia when a “suspicious package” was discovered. Nothing came of it of course. As ever after incidents anything looks like it might be packed with explosives. A problem is that there are any number of things that might qualify as suspicious – bags of rubbish discarded or all the stuff that just gets left out either for rubbish collection or for people to help themselves to. You could fill a house with what gets plonked on the street. Fridges, televisions, stereos, paintings, doors, drawers, entire patio suites of furniture (in need of restoration), old boilers in cardboard boxes. You name it, you can find it if you drive around long enough. And some of it could well fall into the “suspicious” category, especially suitcases. As for an old boiler, God knows what you could pack into that – a nuclear warhead probably. Reacting to a potentially suspicious bag or some such in the street does rather suggest too heightened a level of paranoia. If someone were of a mind to plant something, there are fairly obvious places to put them – like all the different rubbish containers.

 

And if not suspicious packages, then try the suspicious looking people. One review I read referred to someone that the reviewer thought he or she had seen on “Crimewatch”. Let’s face it, there are some on the loose who should be. Anyway, now we are being told that the ETA terrorists may have had contacts with radical, pro-Catalan youth groups on Mallorca. Indeed the police have in fact previously intercepted correspondence. There is no particular evidence that such a connection existed in respect of Palmanova, but it is one that naturally the police and Guardia are interested in examining, especially as they try to make sense of how a cell might have been able to exist on Mallorca for several weeks and to reconnoitre its targets. It might come as a surprise to learn that there are such groups. Mallorca is hardly a hotbed of revolutionary fervour, but there is a growing Catalan radicalisation. Any such association that may be proved would not help the cause of legitimate and honourable Catalan promotion.

Firestarter

A second fire at Bellevue. Following the incident earlier this month in the Minerva 1 block, there was another, this time in Minerva 2. The fire originated in a lift shaft. Word is that the first fire also originated in a lift and not the laundry-room. Seems a bit of a coincidence. Whatever the situation regarding the alarms, one cannot help but be a little sympathetic. Bellevue gets it in the neck for all sorts of reasons, but if it has a problem with some deliberate fire-starting then that’s not its fault. Of course, they may not have been deliberate. But the circumstances seem too similar for the conclusion not to be drawn.

It should be stressed that, notwithstanding some distressing reports left on internet sites following the first fire, there have not been serious casualties as a result of either fire. But what if there had been? Or worse. God knows what impact that would have had on Alcúdia, to say nothing of the effects on the hotel and its directors. The tour operators might have been unnerved as well.

Without going into the circumstances of the incidents, and saying again that there should be sympathy for the hotel, what they do is once again to highlight the significance of Bellevue. The hotel is vast. Its vastness is what leads to so much comment on the internet – good and bad. It is also, for a not insignificant number of tourists, synonymous with Alcúdia. Rightly or wrongly (and it is wrong), that is the reality, and you can read it for yourselves if you are minded to trawl through all those sites – which I have. It is for this reason that the hotel needs to be far more aware of its PR and of its obligations to the town. Does anyone there take any notice of those sites? And if so, what do they do about it?

Catalan music festival
There is to be another Catalan festival. This one will take place on Saturday in Pollensa. It is the tenth “Trobada de Músics per la Llengua” (meeting of musicians for the language). The event takes its name from an organisation devoted to the promotion and recognition of music in the Catalan language and artists – DJs, bands etc. – who perform in the language. Unlike the “Acampallengua” event in Sa Pobla, about which it was possible to express some disquiet as to the political overtones of a Catalan festival aimed largely at a youth audience, there should be no such concern with this. Quite the contrary, except among those who are determined to oppose manifestations of Catalan promotion. This is about music in a certain language in the same way that Scottish, Irish and Welsh artists perform in their own languages. Does anyone seriously suggest that they shouldn’t? Probably.

(More information on the “Trobada de Músics per la Llengua” is on the WHAT’S ON BLOG – http://www.wotzupnorth.blogspot.com.)

Playa de Muro’s market
The market in Playa de Muro is now taking place on Mondays in the late afternoons and evenings. Hats off for some common sense. When the market was shifted from a Saturday, it was in the hope of generating more traffic, given that Saturday is a big transfer day. It was always going to be a forlorn hope. By definition, Playa de Muro exists because of its beach, and that is where most tourists go, rather than to a market that, in any event, lacks a certain something because of its unauthentic nature, in other words it is not staged in an old town or a market square such as Puerto Pollensa’s. Despite its lack of atmosphere, the move to the evenings is positive. It will be more likely to get tourists out of their all-inclusive bunkers and hopefully generate more business not just for the market traders but also for the shops and restaurants. Yep, good.

(For a previous piece on Playa de Muro’s market, see 21 August 2008: Things That Make You Go Hmm …)