12th of October: Columbus Day (Día de la Hispanidad)

If a week ago I was writing about the Spanish Constitution day, the heated debate about the independence of Catalonia which is going on in the last days, calls to my mind another national feast. The Columbus Day (Día de la Hispanidad) was celebrated on the 12th of October, just a couple of weeks after my arrival. As it was created to celebrate the communion between all the people sharing the common language which is known as Spanish or, to be precise, Castilian, it can be easily understood why it sparks controversies in Catalonia. Needless to say, a good number of Catalans think (and some of them even write, as the picture shows) that there is nothing to celebrate on a day which they regard as the symbol of the Spanish oppression.

Little (or nothing) did I know about this special day when I planned my first visit to Barcelona, right on the 12th of October. I found out a bit more about it when, having informed my colleagues about my intentions, I was warned to steer clear of Plaza de Catalunya, where massive demonstrations, not always completely pacific, usually take place on Columbus Day. A little disheartened, I decided to arrange my plans so as to cross Plaza de Catalunya quite early in the morning, hoping to avoid possible troubles.

Fortunately enough, it worked. It was not 10 o' clock yet when I reached the square, finding just a few dozens of people watched by a handful of policemen, who seemed to have the situation under control. At first, I found some difficulties in understanding the role which the few people in the square were going to play in the demonstration: some of them carried a Catalan flag, some of them a Spanish one, some others both of them. Finally, I saw a t-shirt which made it quite clear, on which it was written "Som 47 milions" (Catalan for "There are 47 million of us"). A heart-warming scene in which people with a Spanish flag posed with others with a Catalan one removed any shadows of doubt: it was going to be a demonstration of the so-called españolistas, that is of those among the Catalans who are in favor of the union with Spain.

Following my sightseeing tour, I did not return to the square until 3 o' clock in the afternoon, when everything was already over. However, watching the news on television that evening I came to know that a massive demonstration called "Somos Catalunya, Somos Espanya" (We are Catalonia, we are Spain) had indeed taken place, involving a large number of people. About the attendance, as obviously about the intent, there was utter disagreement between the españolistas (according to whom 100, 000 people attended) and the independentistas (which stuck to a more modest 60, 000).

As far as I am concerned, I may say that, apart from ideally coinciding with Columbus (after all, my first exploration of Barcelona happened on the same day of his landing to America), I was pleased to witness the first fragment of a demonstration whose purpose, a pacific coexistence of Catalonia and Spain, I could not but appreciate. This conclusion would obviously lead me to discuss the issue of the claim for independence. However, the importance (and the complexity) of the question demands a space on its own in this blog.

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