The Catalan issue

Some of you might be aware of the rebellion that is going on in Catalonia (currently an autonomous region of Spain) in favour of full independence. There are many reasons why this is happening and there’s much information in the media about some of the economical and social reasons involved. However, there are some more subtle things going on that understandably are more difficult to grasp for the general worldwide population, as they don’t have a deep understanding of the Catalan issue and the way the Spanish deal with it.

Ever since the loss of our political liberty nearly 300 hundred years ago after a defeat against a Coalition of a Spanish-French Army, the aim of the Spanish government has always been to obliterate any trace of difference of the Catalan people by all means necessary (including violence).

Can you imagine which of these traces is the most distinctive? Well, language, of course. The Catalan language is a millenarian Latin-derived language spoken by 10 million people. Curiously, and as a reminder of the medieval expansion of the Catalan nation, this language is spoken far beyond what is strictly the “region” of Catalonia today. The other areas are: the Valencia region, the Balearic Islands, a strip of land in the Aragon region, Andorra, the south eastern region of Rousillon (France), and the city of Alghero in Sardinia (Italy).

A subtle way in which Spain has attempted to minimize Catalonia’s cultural and economical influence has been the actions it has carried out to dismantle its foremost witness, the language itself.

The first one is imposing Spanish in all areas and making it difficult for new generations to fully use the Catalan language. This has been somewhat overcome in Catalonia itself by establishing Catalan as the language of communication in the schools. That is not the case in the rest of territories where Catalan language is spoken.


This not being enough, the principle applied is “if you want to weaken a language, make it look smaller than it really is”. Therefore, following this principle, from now on, you, Americans don’t speak English anymore: you speak American. It sounds ridiculous (even if appealing to some of you), but that is exactly what is happening today in the Valencia region. Spanish-oriented politicians there claim -against all linguistic consensus worldwide– that they speak a completely different language than Catalan, e.g. Valencian, and they are trying to come out with a new grammar.

In the Balearic Islands, there are some political movements aiming to do something similar and now they are trying to minimize the use of Catalan language in the schools even though more than 90% want to use it and despite the fact that this goes against the general opinion of the educational professional body.

Nonetheless, recently this frantic struggle reached the height of absurdity. Could you conceive another subtle way to dismantle a language? There is one: simply eliminate its name altogether. Aragon’s region has decided to name the Catalan spoken in the strip of land neighbouring Catalonia something equivalent to “Aragon’s Language Spoken in the Western Area” (LAPAO in its Spanish acronym). Let’s be imaginative. Could you envision a government in Canada passing a law asserting that the Québécois no longer speak French but rather a so-called “Latin Language Spoken in Québec” (LLASIQ) in order to deny any French roots of that region? What would the Québécois and its cultural ally, France, say about that?

The Catalan government and academics are complaining about that decision but nobody listens outside because we, Catalan speakers, don’t count on any State (beside Andorra) to defend Catalan culture as a whole. If Catalonia were a State (as France on the Quebec issue), we could make our voice heard worldwide before such absurdity.

This is just another example among many others of why many of us, the Catalans, want to attain the statehood for our country.

Xevi Aldeguer
Physician, Head of Department of Gastroenterology.
Hospital Doctor Josep Trueta of Girona.