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Josep Benet, a Man for Catalonia

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Josep Benet, a Man for Catalonia INTERVIEW JOSEP BENET, A MAN FOR CATALONIA THEHISTORIAN, POLITICIAN AND LAWYER JOSEPBENET 1 MORELL(b. CERVERA, 1920) WAS HONOURED ON 12 DECEMBER199 1 ON THE OCCASION OF HIS SEVENTIETH BIRTHDAY. THEBOOK MISCEL.LANIAD'HOMENATGE A JOSEP BENET,PUBLISHED BY PUBLICACIONSDE L'ABADIA DE MONTSERRAT, WAS PRESENTED AT THE CELEBRATION, WHICH WAS HELD AT THE IL-LUSTRE COL-LEGI D'ADVOCATS DE BARCELONA.JOSEP BENET IS ONE OF THE MOST REPRESENTATIVE CATALANSIN THE STRUGGLE AGAINST THE DICTATORSHIP AND THE RECOVERY OF CATALONIA'SDEMOCRATIC AND NATIONAL LIBERTIES. HIS COURAGEOUS DEFENCE OF OUR CULTURAL IDENTITY AND HIS RECOGNIZED MORAL AUTHORITY MAKE HIM AN EXEMPLARY FIGURE NOT ONLY FOR THE CATALANSBUT FOR ALL THOSE PEOPLES WHO ARE FIGHTING FOR THEIR DIGNITY. JOSEPBENET IS CURRENTLY DIRECTOR OF THE CENTREDIHISTORIA CONTEMPO&NIA DE CATAL UNYA. INTERVIEW osep Benet is a key figure for -1n 1939, as a young man, you and a to provoke World War ZI seemed inde- understanding the character of few others carried on a dangerous strug- structible; the danger was absolute. Lcontemporary Catalonia. Since gle for the survival of Catalonia. the end of the Spanish Civil War, 1936- -Following the defeat as a consequence -When did the first contacts take place 1939, we find him involved in al1 the of the military occupation by General with a joint plural opposition, other acts of opposition to the Franco dicta- Franco's troops, a policy of cultural ge- than individual moves? torship. A dictatorship which, amongst nocide was followed in Catalonia. Gen- -Most of the intellectual and even tech- its undisguised objectives, apart from eral Franco's régime initially was totali- nical formations in Catalonia went into defending a society of privileges in the tarian, established on the basis of the exile: to France, to many American Spanish state in a country which was totalitarian régimes of the time, Nazism countries and especially to Mexico. This considerably backward as regards the and Fascism. Democratic liberties were is something that will leave its mark on rest of Europe, was set on making ag- lost here as in the rest of Spain. Interna- the history of Catalonia for a long time, gressive Spanish nationalism the basis tional aid allowed the Franco régime an because most of these people died in of the cultural genocide of the Catalan unconditional victory. You have to re- exile. The Catalan language -which was language and culture. member that the régimes that were later banned in al1 public use- found refuge in INTERVIEW Josep Benet these countries, mainly in the publica- -0f course. On one hand what we did tion of books, magazines and news- was to join in the open fight of the allies papers. against Fascism, of the resistance against the information services, and on -Before the military uprising, Catalonia the other, later on, to take advantage of was a country that had almost been nor- EXlLl I MORT these contacts to publicize the case of malized culturally. Catalonia. -Yes, you could say that. As regards DEL press, radio, translation, etc., it would be PRESIDENT COMPANYS -You were a key figure in this work. true to say that the Catalan world was -Perhaps so, because my work as a law- that of a flourishing culture. Which yer allowed it. At that time I was secre- makes this policy of cultural genocide tary to Fklix Millet, one of the people even worse. with most international contacts. Re- When World War 11 started, people who member that in the forties the only news- were active inside Catalonia in spite of papers available came from Nazi-Fascist the brutal repression of those years states. A newspaper as unrevolutionary shared in the general idea that the Cata- as La Croix was banned. You can im- lan problem was the sume as al1 those looked to Northern Europe for its agine the rest. others who were fighting for democratic model? We had to pass out information on what freedom. That's why so many people ac- -From the very beginning, Catalonia was happening inside the country and tive in the Resistance were arrested and has always looked towards Europe. This bring in newspapers from outside so that sent to Nazi concentration camps, where has been so in al1 spheres. If we think of people wouldn't come to accept what was thousands of them were to die. In other the art world, its centre was Paris, and happening as normal. words, Catalanism didn't restrict itself not Madrid, obviously. The great names to this count6, it joined in democracy's in Catalan painting mude themselves -As a broad-minded Republican Catho- fight against Nazi-Fascism. known in Paris. Picasso, Miró, Casas, lic, you were constantly trying to bring Nonell, etc. are proof that they went to together the working-classes and the -Has the Catalan national issue always Paris for consecration, the cultural cap- Church, which gradually grew away manifested itself pacifically, by the way ital of the world at that time. The sume from the Franco régime. of integration? goes for literature. -Yes. We wanted to publicize the case of -This has been a characteristic of its Catalonia. We attended the Internatio- entire history. Political Catalanism, -Without formal or democratic liber- nal Congresses whenever we could. For which was born more than a hundred ties, how did Catalonia manage to example, I went to the talks organised by years ago, has always shown solidarity maintain a modern cultural level, with Florence City Council. At the sume time, for those peoples who demand theirfree- hostility from the state on top of every- we found out what was happening in the dom. With Greece, for example, when thing else? world of ideas and told our people about Crete was fighting to free-itselffrom the - Very often through translations, and it. Al1 these international contacts mude Turkish yoke, this provoked hostility on later thanks to visits to Europe. A lot of for contacts between members of al1 the the part of Spanish nationalism, but also peoplefrom the world of Catalan culture parties. But we had great difficultyget- the fact that in Europe people realised had never been to Madrid, but had ting to the Vatican and giving them di- that there was a very important national strong links with Paris, where they went rect information about what Franco's problem in Spain, and that unless it was insearch of more open-minded intellec- dictatorship was and what its attitude solved there couldn't be a normal situa- tual positions. You have to bear in mind was towards the Catalans. We were boy- tion in the Spanish state. This was al- that the participation of Catalan volun- cotted by Spanish prelates who were on ready obvious to Le Journal de Génkve teers in World War I was for the sume Franco's side, and who from the state a hundred years ago, when it said that reason. In the French army, with the secretariat prevented our reports from another European issue was that of Belgian information services. Catalan- getting through. We got round this cen- Catalonia. The Catalan question has al- ism has always wanted to be present on sorship by means of the press. A Cata- ways been present to a greater or lesser the international scene. lan, Monsignor Bonet, said to us, "the extent in the international context. Pope reads Le Monde every day". After -1s this behind its contacts with the in- that, a lot of our efforts were directed at -Has historical Catalanism always ternational press? making sure this newspaper reported on INTERVIEW our situation. We avoided the Church -What was the Assemblea de Catalu- being used against Catalonia. Zn al1 nya? these years, not one Catalan bishop was -Zt was another sign of the rime, a move- appointed the bishops that were appoin- ment with special characteristics. Tak- ted were not only outsiders, they were ing part were clandestine organisations also Francoists. It was essential then to along with organisations that were tol- consolidate our contacts with the leading erated and others that were totally legal journalists of the international press. like the Professional Associations. It was Which we did, to explain the truth about exemplary; it allowed this coexistente the situation in Catalonia and Spain that later showed itself in Catalan poli- and to activate communications and tics, and at the sume time it was a politi- open up ideas. cal training ground. Zt was also a mani- festation of the Catalan people's jight -The younger generations have always against the Franco régime to recover de- presented you as the link between the mocratic liberties and once more retrieve Republican period and the period of the Catalan autonomy stolen as a result recovery of democracy and autonomy. of the civil war. Without this great move- -Those of us who did what we did was -What kind of country is this that cre- ment, the political transition in Spain because of what we had lived through. ates a parallel country to the official would have been different. When Fran- There were very few of us left in the one, from Catalan schooling to clandes- co died, the Assemblea de Catalunya sixties; a lot of people had died because tine cutural institutions? alone was able to mobilize thousands of the repression or exile. So we had to -Catalan was forbidden, but we needed of people. This gave Catalonia a lot of form the bridge, so that people would teachers, educators, etc., and al1 this was political weight at the beginning of the know about the past and have an idea of done clandestinely.
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