'I'm from Barcelona': Boundaries and Transformations Between Catalan
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ISSN 1653-2244 INSTITUTIONEN FÖR KULTURANTROPOLOGI OCH ETNOLOGI DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY ‘I’m from Barcelona’: Boundaries and Transformations Between Catalan and Spanish Identities By Liesl Drew 2017 MASTERUPPSATSER I KULTURANTROPOLOGI Nr 71 ‘I’m from Barcelona’1: Boundaries and Transformations Between Catalan and Spanish Identities By Liesl Drew 1 The title refers both to the complexity of introducing oneself when more than one cultural identity is involved, as well as the implication that being from Barcelona entails both Catalan and Spanish cultural associations. Many informants have used this phrase in conversation to summarize these two points and simplify the answer to an otherwise complicated, and often politically charged, question. 1 A correfoc (fire run) of diables (devils) at a traditional summer festival, Festes de Gràcia (Photo credit: Liesl Drew, 2015) ‘I’m from Barcelona’: Boundaries and Transformations Between Catalan and Spanish Identities A Master Thesis by: Liesl Drew Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology | Uppsala University Supervisor: Vladislava Vladimirova June 2017 [email protected] 2 Abstract In the last decade or so, the multiple political factions in Catalonia have adopted pro- independence initiatives in their platforms following the 2008 financial crisis. Catalonia’s position as representing a minority culture in the face of the centralized administration of Madrid presents a contentious history of fighting for the right ‘to be’, culminating in what today is viewed by many as an identity crisis. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Barcelona, this thesis examines how informants construct and transform their socio-cultural identities in the framework of the independence movement in Catalonia. It places informants’ experiences in the theoretical realm of ethnic boundaries, analyzing central issues of Catalan language normalization vis à vis the historical imposition of Spanish as the national language. These themes are broadened in light of the recent upsurge of Catalan secession, and explores identity politics within the background of Spanish and Catalan nationalisms. Key words: identity, Catalonia, Spain, ethnic boundaries, minority language, nationalism 3 Acknowledgements I’d like to begin by thanking my advisor Vladislava Vladimirova for guiding me through a challenging experience, and for heightening my analytical skills significantly. Her counsel has been invaluable. Secondly, I want to thank my informants for their time, stories and friendship that made this thesis possible. In particular, Yuting Chu for leading me to most of my informants in the field, your enduring presence and moral support were and are precious. Third, to my friends and family who have boundless faith in me. To Valeria Melchor Maciel, an inextinguishable light when things seem most bleak, I am most grateful. Fourth, I want to thank my peer Andrés Gómez for tireless encouragement, presence of mind, and unflappable resilience in the face of hysteria. I am thankful for your friendship and cool intellect. Finally, I wish to dedicate this work to the memory of Gigi Bertsch Naggatz, underwater archaeologist, sea turtle conservationist, and second mother. 4 Table of Contents 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................6 1.1 Historical Background..........................................................................................................10 1.2 Outline and Purpose .............................................................................................................14 2 Theoretical Background ...........................................................................................................17 2.1 The Nature of Boundaries ...................................................................................................19 2.2 Language, Nationalism and Ethnicity ..................................................................................21 2.3 Consciousness of Ethnic Boundaries ..................................................................................24 3 Methodology .............................................................................................................................26 3.1 Reflexivity............................................................................................................................27 3.2 Language Course ................................................................................................................28 3.3 Interviews and Limitations .................................................................................................29 3.4 Judging Identity and Storytelling ........................................................................................31 3.5 Ethical Considerations ........................................................................................................34 4 Language ...................................................................................................................................37 4.1 Linguistic Origins of Identity...............................................................................................39 4.2 The Catalan Language ........................................................................................................42 4.3 Being Catalan ......................................................................................................................44 4.4 Being Catalan and Spanish .................................................................................................47 4.5 Language Choice ................................................................................................................50 5 Identity Politics .........................................................................................................................54 5.1 ‘The Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets’ .......................................................................55 5.2 Deconstructing Identity at Home and Abroad ....................................................................57 5.3 Resisting Against What We Are Not ..................................................................................59 5.4 Identity as a Political Struggle for Recognition ..................................................................60 5.5 Promotion to the Point of Exclusion? .................................................................................62 6 Impositions and Their Contestations .....................................................................................68 6.1 Linguistic Immersion: Equilibrating Catalan and Spanish .................................................68 6.2 The Two Catalonias ............................................................................................................72 6.3 Catalonia in the Context of Europe .....................................................................................74 6.4 ‘Whose Side are You on?’ ..................................................................................................75 6.5 Koiné Manifesto ..................................................................................................................77 6.6 ‘Castilian Should be Castile’ ..............................................................................................78 7 Conclusions ...............................................................................................................................82 8 References .................................................................................................................................87 5 1 Introduction Political claims for recognition of cultural minorities and their identities now-a-days are turning towards problematizing the acknowledgement of an individual’s or group’s status precisely because this status is rooted in inequality and oppression. The relevance of the recognition of Catalan identity in Catalonia, including the region’s movement towards self- determination2, is internationally comparable to independence movements in the Québec province of Canada as well as Scotland. As a distinctive community within Spain with its own language, culture, and collective consciousness that dates to the Middle Ages, the Catalan independence movement has in recent years taken up economic aspects following the 2008 financial crisis3. Along with issues such as Catalan language maintenance and its contestation by conservative parties of Spanish parliament, the ‘right to decide’ Catalonia’s political future and the legitimacy of independence are currently debated. Protests erupted in 2010 in response to the rejection of certain articles of the region’s Statute of Autonomy by the Spanish Constitutional Court, which included the status of the Catalan language, the reference to the region as a historical ‘nation’4, the management of its finances, and the implication to establish its own system of justice according to the Catalan Supreme Court. Research Questions The question this thesis seeks to answer then is: what elements and features do the people interviewed in this study see as making someone Catalan or Spanish; and what are the processes through which such meaning is attached to people? In Barcelona, Catalonia, a region where identity is highly politicized, forcing social identities, or “that part of an individual’s self-concept 2 Many referendums on independence have been held, most notably the