Catalunya

Election Day

~ Kate Wilson ~ 1 Comment

Today was voting day in the Catalan elections – for the Catalan parliament. I don’t have a vote but went along to see what happens at the voting station. It was a beautiful autumn day

The streets were empty because it was a Sunday perhaps to make sure more people are free to vote and also no need to close schools for the day. ( I know that is part of the fun in the UK but here there are already so many days of fiesta)
I am just beginning to get my head round the political parties – they all have very long names which end up being acronymised. CiU  PSC ERC PPC and the lengthy ICV- EUiA and many more smaller ones.
The streets have been festooned with posters of the leaders and their slogans.


 At the polling station there is a long table with all the possible parties to vote for.
Each paper lists the candidates for one party only.The voter takes a list – only one – and puts it in an envelope then drops that in a box. You vote for a party – the list names all the candidates in one party and the ones at the top are the leaders who will definitely get elected.

At the moment it looks like CiU have won the most votes but without a majority. So they can decide to govern an a minority or form an alliance. Artur Mas will be president and so I’ll be seeing a lot more of him on TV. Sorry there is no photo – I don’t know what happened to it as I’m sure I took one.
There are 3 possible coalition partners. Thanks to this web site for helping me understand it all a bit better – in English. Now to watch the discussion about coalitions – that will be a good way to learn more. Here there are so many levels of connection and separation – there is the question of independence as well as the obvious differences between left and right.

Is it safe?

~ Kate Wilson ~ 1 Comment

Collecting mushrooms – I never understood why my partner called it ‘catching mushrooms’ until we started to do it regularly. It is not as if the mushrooms actually hide from you, nor do they run away, but is not very easy to find them in the quantities that you dream of. It is like a hunt. In Gerona they describe it this way – ‘Caçar bolets’
You go to the woods. There are pine trees – because mushrooms like to grow under pines along with other trees like these cork oaks (alsina surera)which look very naked where the outer bark has been removed to make stoppers for wine bottles Sometimes there are other animalsThere are paths which look tempting but to find the elusive mushroom you must dive into the undergrowth, crackle through brambles, clamber over fallen branches and use your intuition, or your nose or something very specialist which I seem to lack. The mushrooms that you see are often not the ones you want to collect. But sometimes they are – like these Apagallums.
This one is closed when it opens it is like thisThey are so called after the candle snuffers which ‘apaga’ the’ llum’ – turn off the light. Sometimes you find a gem. This is a RovellóUsually where there is one there are more…..but on this occasion there were not!
We had enough to eat though and survived the feast without any ill effects.Mushrooms have lovely names whether they are edible or not.
Peu de Rata Groc – Yellow Rat’s Foot
Llengua de Gat – Cat’s Tongue
Trompetes de la Mort – Trumpets of Death
Rossinyol – Nightingale
And of course you need a beautiful basket to catch them in

What’s in a Name?

~ Kate Wilson ~ 3 Comments

 

Prada de Conflent (Prades) is also famous for being the town which sheltered Pau Casals the world famous cellist who was also known as Pablo Casals. Many Catalan people were obliged to use the Spanish version of their names and it is important to realise that this name changing is political and not just a personal choice.

Is the language we know as Spanish, the only Spanish language?  Or is it better called Castillian in order to differentiate it from Catalan and Galician or Basque?   It is actually the language of Castille even though it has come to be the language spoken all over Spain.

If I write Catalunya I am using the Catalan spelling. If I write Cataluña I am using the Spanish spelling.

My partner’s name is Josep shortened to Pep. But in Spanish this would be Jose or Pepe.  He is used to it and doesn’t react but I notice when friends in the UK call him Pepe.

There are a lot of possible mistakes if you don’t understand the background and the history.

Of course it is possible to be over sensitive – I no longer get upset if someone calls me English but I do give a gentle reminder that Scotland is part of the UK not a subsection of England.  But sometimes I don’t bother.I came to live here with a very minimal knowledge about the history of Catalunya.  I make many mistakes and put my foot in it all the time, but it is wonderful to learn about what has happened here, how people feel about their country and language and to find new ways to expand my understanding.

It is worth knowing if you visit this region that Catalan people do not consider themselves Spanish. The language of Catalunya is Catalan and that the language commonly known as Spanish is actually Castilian or Castellano.  Spain has four official languages – Castellano, Català, Gallego(Galician) and Euskera(Basque) You can see it is a bit complicated!To return to Pau Casals – he refused to return to Catalunya while Franco was in power and this sadly meant he never lived to see the return of democracy nor was able to come back in his lifetime.

I found this wonderful recording of his music.

And here he is playing El Cant dels Ocells (the song of the birds) a popular Catalan song

Not Spain Not France but Catalunya

~ Kate Wilson ~ 4 Comments

I wrote about our trip to the hot sulphur bathes at St Thomas in Catalunya Nord but I want to add a few photos `and some more information about this region. Before living here I had never heard of Catalunya Nord. Looking at a map I would have thought the area, sometimes known as Rosselló (Roussillion), and which includes Perpinyà (Perpignan), was in France…..and officially it is but it is also an area claimed by Catalans as part of Catalunya. In 1659 this part of the region was handed over to France as part of the Treaty of the Pyranees. This may seem like a long time ago but an important factor in this is that Català is still spoken here although French is the official language. I felt aware of the Catalan influence here but I also noticed that most people were speaking French. As always, there has been a history of repression of Català – Louis XIV forbade its use in official documents in 1700, it was banned in schools until the 1950s and it was only in 2007 that the Pyranees-Orientale Council proclaimed Català as one of the languages of the department, alongside French and Occitan, to try and promote it in public life and education.
In the market in Prada there was a stall which proclaimed its Catalan identity – we bought some very delicious potatoesThe area is dominated by the mountain called Canigó (Canigou), 2785m We set out to climb to the top but after van problems (not accustomed to climbing so high over 20 km of unmade up road), and the arrival of a thick sheet of mist just as we neared the topwe turned back and will have to go another day to feel the high that rewards you at the summit.This is one of the mountain villages that dot the landscape. Now I knew I wasn’t in ‘Spain’ as it is not surrounded by a horrible ‘urbanisation’ like so many places on this side of the border. Perhaps France has stronger rural protection laws or at least has not had the history of Francoist encouragement of unregulated development.

Bains de St Thomas

~ Kate Wilson ~ 1 Comment

 

We went in the van to Catalunya Nord last week so called as it is widely seen as being a part of Catalunya although officially it is on the French side of the Pyrenees. Past clamp downs on the language mean that only the old and the young now speak Catalan there but it is now taught in schools. The highlight – for me – was our afternoon in the hot sulphur bathes of St Thomas. Being a great fan of indulgent lazing about I always head for these places if they are available and luckily for me there are lots of centres – Balnearis – to try out. Some are closer to home and I will write about them as I gradually work my way around them!Set in the mountains it is the perfect way to relax after a long walk up one of the highest mountains in the region – Canigó.