Dawn

Dawn

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Cataluña; Sr Pujol; Galician Celticness; My Galician assimilation; & The Spanish people.

Cataluña: As this autonomous region/nation again gets ready to decide whether it wants to secede from the Spanish union, it's time to recall the comment of the early 19th century chronicler, Richard Ford: No province of the unamalgamating bundle which forms the monarchy of Spain hangs more loosely to the crown than Cataluña, this classical country of revolt, which is ever ready to fly off. Plus ça change.

The most revered Catalan politician of the post-Franco years is/was Sr JordiPujol, who used to be called simply El President. Nowadays, he's more (in)famous for the huge fortune he amassed while in power and for which the Tax Office is seeking an explanation, as they knew nothing about it. 'Just an inheritance from my clever father', says Pujol, to an incredulous Spain. Feet of clay. Ozymandias. BTW - I think it was the aggrieved, hell-hath-no-fury wife of one of Pujol's sons who tipped off the authorities as to the family's secret pile. It seems the sins of the father have certainly been visited on the (welcoming) sons.

I've not said anything disparaging recently about the Galician claim to Celtic-ness. So here's another quote from Giles Trimlett's Ghosts of Spain: Galicians are probably not real Celts but would like to be. Many, thanks to some self-interested tinkering with history by 19th century Galician Romanticists, are fully convinced they are. "Most of the Celticism found by local historians in Galicia is utter claptrap", the philosopher Miguel de Unamuno wrote in 1911. Whatever the truth of the Celtic origins - and they don't shout out at you in the physical aspects of the Galicians and or in their language - people like them. Bagpipe players here are as common as in Scotland. As I always add when writing on this subject, it may be tosh but there's nothing wrong with using it as a way of differentiating yourselves from other Spaniards. And it helps tourism. 'Back in the day', Gallego readers used to take serious issue with me on this but they seem to have given up on me now. Which is a shame, as the exchanges were amusing. Those with Cade, even. Though I'm not sure he meant his comments to be funny.

After 15 years of regular attendance, I went up another rung at my favourite tapas bar last night; the owner not only greeted me with a smile but also put his hand on my arm. After another 5 years of taking all my visitors there, I'll probably get a hug. BTW . . . 'hug' is abrazo in Spanish but aperta in Galician(Gallego). My guess is the latter comes from the word apretar, which Google gives as 'to tighten' but the University of Vigo gives as 'to squeeze'. Take your pick.

Finally . . . For all Spanish readers - Tremlett's book ends with the paragraph: Spain still has its own particular set of historical ghosts. They are, above all, what makes this country, as the hated 1960s advertising slogan put it, 'different'. What many Spaniards have not yet learned to do, however, is love the idea of their own difference­. And that is strange. Because it is precisely why so many outsiders, including this anglosaxón, love them so. Amen to that, say I. Amen to that.

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