Sports, Society and Collective Identity in Contemporary Catalonia*
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CATALAN HISTORICAL REVIEW, 7: 63-75 (2014) Institut d’Estudis Catalans, Barcelona DOI: 10.2436/20.1000.01.98 · ISSN: 2013-407X http://revistes.iec.cat/chr/ Sports, society and collective identity in contemporary Catalonia* Carles Santacana** Universitat de Barcelona Abstract In Catalonia, the introduction of modern sports in the late 19th century was considered tantamount to a quest to modernise society. Clubs organised by civil society played a key role in consolidating sports as both practice and entertainment, and in league with Cata- lanism these clubs sought to put forth Barcelona’s candidacy to host the 1924 Olympics. The Franco dictatorship subjugated all sports activities and strove to eliminate the Catalanist and democratic meaning of organisations like Futbol Club Barcelona. The resumption of democracy rekindled all sports, with the drive for “sports for everyone” and the international recognition of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Keywords: sports, Olympism, Barcelona, Catalonia, Catalanism, club Sports have become one of the defining features of the the field of historiography. The spread of modern sports contemporary world. Ever since the earliest episodes is a far-reaching process entailing the expansion around which served as the harbinger of modernity in mid-19th the entire planet of a highly determined pattern of physi- century England, their expansion has run parallel to the cal activity laden with social values ranging from the growth and dissemination of what Norbert Elias defined equality of individuals to fair play and competitiveness. as a “civilising process”. In fact, this renowned British so- Thus, the phenomenon of sports is a fundamental charac- ciologist and Eric Dunning provided a detailed explana- teristic when analysing society. This cultural homogeni- tion of the role that sports played in this process,1 a topic sation started very slowly among a minority in the late that has also been researched by authors like Pierre Ar- 19th century and gradually gained momentum all over naud, Richard Holt, Stefano Pivato and many others in the world in the second half of the century. It is a process in which the patterns that emerged from Britain interact- ed with the cultural and social underpinnings of each re- * In this article we strive to report on the most important studies on con- temporary Catalan sports. In the end notes, we mention the titles that have gion, with differing outcomes. Sometimes ancient prac- served as the basis of this report’s main arguments. However, in addition to tices became sports that coexisted alongside their these publications, we would also like to cite books on certain topics that we counterparts with British roots, such as in the Basque cannot cover in this article due to space limitations or because they refer to specific sports. These latter titles include the book by Joaquim Molas. Country or Japan, where there is a distinction between Passió i mite de l’esport. Diputació de Barcelona, Barcelona 1986 on the cul- traditional and modern sports. Yet there are also other tural aspects of sports; and the collective work Art i esport a Catalunya. cases in which the British model was transported whole- Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona 1992; as well as M. Lluïsa Berasat- egui, Francesc Fontbona and Carles Santacana. L’esport s’anuncia, sale, as in its Asian colonies. In other places, traditional 1912-2002. Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona 2003. The interrelationship sports and games virtually disappeared, due to either their between sports and urban planning has been examined by Xavier Pujadas weakness or the strength of the new sports. This holds and Carles Santacana. Esport, espai i societat en la formació urbana de Barcelona (1870-1992). Fundació Barcelona Olímpica, Barcelona 1999, true in many places in Europe, among them Catalonia. http://www.fundaciobarcelonaolimpica.es/pdf/catala/beca971cat.pdf. This same topic has been examined more briefly in Xavier Pujadas. “Sport, Space and the Social Construction of the Modern City: The Urban Impact of Sports Involvement in Barcelona (1870-1923)”. The International Journal Sports as a factor in modernity of the History of Sport (2012), pp. 1-18. Regarding the most popular sports, we should cite Antoni Closa, Jaume Rius and Joan Vidal. Un segle de fut- In 19th-century Catalonia, games with traditional roots bol català (1900-2000). Federació Catalana de Futbol, Barcelona 2001 on football, and the three volumes of Lluís Puyalto. El bàsquet a Catalunya. still survived, such as skittles, tip-cat, tug-of-war and cer- Fundació del Bàsquet Català, Barcelona 2000 on basketball. Regarding track tain ball games, along with footraces, nautical races with and field, see the recent work by Xavier Pujadas and Carles Santacana. small boats and animal races.2 The common feature of all Història de l’atletisme a Catalunya. Federació Catalana d’Atletisme, Barce- lona 2012. And for car racing, see, Javier del Arco. Història de of these games is that they were transmitted orally and l’automobilisme a Catalunya. RACC, Barcelona 1990. were deeply embedded in the local culture, rendering ** Contact address: Carles Santacana. Department of Contemporary His- them totally unique. Thus, they were never codified and tory, Faculty of Geography and History, Universitat de Barcelona. Carrer Montalegre, 6-8. 08001 Barcelona. Tel. +34 93.403.78.02. consequently could not spread. They were closely associ- E-mail: [email protected] ated with festivals and had no central organisation or set 001-186 Catala Historical Review 7.indd 63 09/07/2014 8:22:20 64 Cat. Hist. Rev. 7, 2014 Carles Santacana rules. The status of sports in England was quite similar in mally linked to the dispute for the Spanish throne but the 19th century, precisely when change got underway which pitted the defenders of the Old Regime against with the advent of modern sports. The difference is that those who supported pushing for a liberal society), proved the process that started in Great Britain did not take root to be an enormous hindrance to social modernisation. in Catalonia until almost 50 years later. Catalan sports For this reason, the earliest signs of the new sports did not were thus defined as a series of imported practices, main- appear until the last two decades of the 19th century with ly from Great Britain but also to a lesser extent from Ger- the advent of the first gymnasiums, especially in Barcelo- many, France and Switzerland. These sports began to na, the creation of the first clubs (Gymnastics Club of reach Catalonia in the last two decades of the 19th century Tarragona, 1886; Sailing Club) and the impact of the and would come to eclipse all free-time physical activities sports demonstrations at Barcelona’s 1888 Universal Ex- and displace the traditional games, which continued to position. reflect a local mindset. However, we must stress that the introduction of sports It is commonly known that in the late 19th century, the in Catalonia was consciously viewed as yet another way of Anglo-Saxon and Germanic cultures offered two clearly drawing closer to European society, which was associated distinct patterns of cultural and physical education. Brief- with the way to attain social, economic and cultural mo- ly, the emphasis in the British Isles was on outdoor sports, dernity, and largely as the logical correlate of the industri- especially football, rugby and track and field, while the alisation process that the country had been experiencing backbone of sports in the Germanic world was gymnas- since the mid-19th century. In this vein, the first cycling tics, which was less leisurely and practised indoors in groups emerged in the 1880s, as cycling was an enor- gymnasiums. The concepts of play and exercise were also mously appealing sport among the small nuclei of wealthy notably different, and this divide was quite vivid at that citizens, for whom bicycle rides were a sign of social dis- time. Outdoor sports were known as athletic or British tinction. The origins of cycling were crucial to the early sports, which gives a sense of how all the concepts were structure of the first groups of athletes who organised identified and to what extent their British roots coloured themselves into clubs and who also interacted via news- their perception around the world, especially in Europe. letters and magazines. What is more, we should note that To the contrary, German gymnastics were viewed as lack- the practice of bicycling prompted an idea of modernity ing a leisure component and were instead identified with via the bicycle itself, a mechanical apparatus that many a edifying purpose which had emerged from German uni- referred to as a “machine”. In this sense, modernity, tech- versities and was closely associated with the formation of nology and sports thus achieved their utmost expression German nationalism. The distinction between these two yet were seen as strange and snobbish by many of the low- models prompted debates in the countries which were er classes, who had closer ties to traditional life. The observing the advances in sports and gymnastics from the wealthy class also promoted nautical sports, even though outside. As Pierre Arnaud has noted, in France they sig- they were not so clearly clad in the aura of the new. In all nalled the appearance of two clearly distinct pathways or- of these cases, clubs were the societal constructs that re- ganised around sports clubs and gymnastics societies. flected the phenomenon. At first, the majority of clubs The discussion also took on a political dimension which had an elitist social standing in which practising the sport debated the proper approach to physical education class- was equally important as launching the elitist social life es in primary school curricula. In both France and Spain, needed for the emerging bourgeoisie.