200 Miscellanea Catalonian Journal of Ethnology December 2019 No. 44
Manuel Delgado Romina Martínez Sarai Ruíz Algueró Martín UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA López Graduate in Graduate in Social and UNIVERSITY OF History of Art, with Cultural Anthropology, BARCELONA a postgraduate Master of Arts in Graduate qualification in Social Ethnography and in Social Psychology and a Anthropology and Anthropology doctorate in Anthropology from the predoctoral researcher at the University and University of Barcelona. Professor at of Barcelona. Currently a PhD student predoctoral researcher at the University of Barcelona. on the Society and Culture programme: University of Barcelona. She Postgraduate studies at the EPHE Anthropology at the University of Barcelona. is a member of the GRECS School of Religious Science at Sorbonne Member of the GRECS research group research group on exclusion and University in Paris. Professor of Social on exclusion social control. She has social control. The focus of her Anthropology at the UB and co-ordinator participated as a researcher for R + D research is immigrant women of the GRECS research group on exclusion AFFRIC and R + D TRANSAFRICA, who she in the Trinitat neighbourhood in and social control since 1986. does field work with in Senegal. Barcelona.
The correbous in Horta de Sant Joan (2018). MIREIA CLUA
“Hands off our bulls!” Bullfighting festivals in the Terres de l’Ebre and the heritage of the offended “Hands off our bulls!” Miscellanea 201
“When I use a word”, Humpty Dumpty disappearance of most of the traditional bull- Paraules clau: correbous, said in rather a scornful tone, “it means fighting festivals or correbous, of which few Terres de l’Ebre, patrimoni, just what I choose it to mean — neither remained due in part to the legal offensive identitat, festes tradicionals. more nor less.” at the end of the eighties, but above all, to Palabras clave: correbous, a lack of agreement among local people on Terres de l’Ebre, patrimonio, “The question is,” said Alice, “whether identidad, fiestas tradicionales. you can make words mean so many dif- the subject. However, things are very differ- Keywords: correbous, Terres ferent things.” ent in one region of Catalonia that is often de l’Ebre, heritage, identity, traditional festivities. “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty somewhat marginalised: the Terres de l'Ebre. correbous "which is to be master — that's all." Here, different types of festivals are still held, and the number is increasing. (Alice through the Looking Glass, Lewis There festivities involving bulls have not only Carroll) resisted and adapted to restrictions imposed from outside, but have increased in number Grandfather, I want a horse. Do you have over the years, protected by a measure of one? institutional approval, and firmly sustained –You want a horse? I’m too poor to buy by a level of popular support that contrasts you a horse. But we have the horse of pride. with the rejection that has more or less led to their disappearance in the rest of the Princi- (Le cheval d'orgueil, Pierre-Jakez Hélias) pality. In September 2019, Parliament urged the Catalan Government to abolish these Heritage and conflict festivals once and for all.
n Catalonia, a new and growing The context within which this contradiction sensitivity regarding our relation- occurs - that of a traditional festival that is ship with animals, and at the same disappearing, and is threatened with prohi- time a political climate especially bition but that persists and is being revived alert to the symbolic aspects of in a particular area - is significant and always the historical dispute with Spain, appears to be shaped by a form of social sup- led in 2010, to the de facto abolition of the port that perceives festivals involving bulls as Iconventional corrida de toros and the gradual a non-negotiable part of the local identity, a
L’any 2018 es van celebrar 439 corre- En el año 2018 se celebraron 439 corre- In 2018, 439 correbous took place bous a les Terres de l’Ebre, sis més que bous en las Terres de l’Ebre, seis más que in Terres de l’Ebre, six more than in l’any anterior. Aquest auge resultava en el año anterior. Este auge resulta de 2017. This rise is the result of legisla- d’una legislació que protegia les festes una legislación que protegía las fiestas con tion protecting traditional bull-related amb toros tradicionals, però sobretot toros tradicionales, pero sobre todo de un festivities, and, more importantly, of an d’un sud ignorat i menystingut, que havia sur ignorado y menospreciado, que había ignored and undervalued South, with assolit un nou orgull identitari a partir de alcanzado un nuevo orgullo identitario a newfound pride in an identity based les mobilitzacions contra el Pla Hidro- partir de las movilizaciones contra el Plan on mobilisations against the Spanish lògic Nacional. Una de les expressions Hidrológico Nacional. Una de las expresio- National Hydrological Plan. One of the d’aquesta vindicació va ser la proposta nes de esta vindicación fue la propuesta expressions of this movement is the perquè els bous fossin reconeguts per la para que los toros fueran reconocidos por proposal to have UNESCO recognise UNESCO com a Patrimoni Cultural Im- la UNESCO como Patrimonio Cultural the correbous as intangible cultural material de la Humanitat, una vindicació Inmaterial de la Humanidad, una vindica- heritage of humanity, the success of d’èxit improbable, ateses les dificultats ción de éxito improbable habida cuenta which is improbable considering the d’aquestes festes per ser acceptades de las dificultades de estas fiestas para ser challenges this type of festivity faces ni tan sols com a part de l’erari cultural aceptadas ni siquiera como parte del erario in garnering acceptance, even as part autoritzat a Catalunya, un rebuig que es cultural autorizado en Cataluña, un rechazo of the authorised cultural heritage of va traduir, el setembre de 2019, en la pe- que se tradujo, en septiembre de 2019, en Catalonia. All in all, a popular claim for tició del Parlament de Catalunya que els la petición del Parlament de Catalunya de standardisation such as this contrib- correbous fossin definitivament suprimits. que los correbous fueran definitivamente utes to the discussion about what El reclam popular de l’homologació com suprimidos en Cataluña. El reclamo popular is and what is not inventoriable as a valor intangible d’una festa considerada de la homologación como valor intangible heritage. com a intolerable contribueix a la discus- de una fiesta considerada como intolerable sió sobre què és i què no és inventariable contribuye a la discusión sobre qué es y qué com a patrimoni. no es inventariable como patrimonio. 202 Miscellanea Catalonian Journal of Ethnology December 2019 No. 44
collective identity constituted, as always, in from the application of allegedly expert crite- 1 conditions of aggressive opposition; in this ria, but in effect derives, directly or indirectly, This defence of the correbous as a symbolic identity-based response case, between the political and economic from the dictates of economic exploitation to the neglect of the Terres de centralism of Barcelona and the hegemonic in private or symbolic hands (or both at the l'Ebre is explicit. In the file on the models of what it means to be Catalan that same time) by institutions. festivals involving bulls in the inventory of the intangible cultural are based on festivals and customs from other heritage of the Terres de l'Ebre it parts of the country.1 In the first phase, we We also know that the notion of heritage says: "In the Terres de l'Ebre the will see that the adaptation of the correbous refers to what a generation inherits from the question of identity linked to a form of celebration is a key factor in the to legal restrictions was key, in March 1988 one that precedes it; and also to what a per- defence of a region with a history these restrictions introduced the prohibition son or group considers to be their property, of interventionism in the manage- of one of the most important elements of the not only in the sense of possessions, but in ment of both culture and natural resources that is very often per- festival - the death of the animal in public - the sense of what belongs to it, the qualities ceived as exogenous. The need to placing it in a context of hostility in the name it has, what makes it special. Approaching establish a territorial cultural unit to of the new values of animal rights, which the way this concept is used when it comes to defend the region against wrongs has generated a resurgence of were on their way to becoming universal indicating what can be officially inventoried feelings of belonging based on the and hegemonic. In the second phase, during as cultural heritage, supposedly idiosyncratic defence of what is understood to be a culture that belongs specifi- the first two decades of the21st century, the elements are often selected that are presumed cally to the Terres de l'Ebre "[online] context we need to keep in mind is that of the to refer not only to a synthesis of the past < http://ipcite.cat/ipcite/content/ strong feeling of identity felt by people in the of a particular community, but also to its les-festes-amb-bous> [Last con- Delta area that arose from their opposition to collective qualities, those that must persist sulted: 23 July 2019]. the National Hydrological Plan; the defence over time, since it is on these that both its of the correbous formed part of that, and thus survival and its broader attributes depend. became a social movement. Intangible Cultural Heritage was defined by UNESCO as “the practices, representations, This scenario is worth examination, as it expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the sheds light on certain problems that anthro- instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural pology, and in particular critical studies of spaces associated therewith – that commu- heritage (Marble, Frigolé and Narotzky, nities, groups and, in some cases, individuals 2010), have considered when addressing the recognise as part of their cultural heritage” controversial dimensions of heritage dynam- (UNESCO, 2003). This definition, which ics, which are full of schisms, antagonisms could be applied to any form of cultural iner- and contradictions, dark areas far from the tia, is in fact used to highlight, praise, protect friendly and non-conflicting views presented and promote only a limited number of the from the professionalised and institutional things that usually fall within the category point of view (Sánchez-Carretero, 2013). of popular and traditional culture, which, The subject invites us to reflect on what it in a way that is no less vague, preceded the is that leads certain cultural objects to be introduction of the concept of 'intangible officially recognised as ‘heritage’. Even more culture', Article 2 of Law 2/1993 on the controversial is the question of what and Promotion and Protection of Catalan Pop- why a given cultural object deserves to be ular and Traditional Culture, understood designated ‘Intangible Heritage’, a notion as "everything that refers to a set of cultural that in the early 2000s burst onto the scene activities, either tangible or intangible, such to become a part of the agenda in politics and as festivals and customs, music and musical cultural studies. In all cases, there is evidence instruments, dances and performances, fes- of how these labels are usually applied to all tive traditions, literary creations, cooking, kinds of politically determined projections techniques and crafts and all the other activ- of identity, or are used in various forms of ities of a popular and traditional nature".2 territorial marketing, predisposed to sell at the best possible price human landscapes The question then arises as to who designates presented as unique (Prats, 2014). We know a given cultural production as significant that what is catalogued as heritage - whether as an expression of a given essence, and for tangible or intangible - is presumed to result whom, whether it be local, regional, national “Hands off our bulls!” Miscellanea 203
or, in the case of UNESCO, an expression themes of the post-Franco festival revival 2 of the ethical principles that give, or should - were traditions that successfully imposed Law 2/1993, of 5 March, for the promotion and protection of give, substance to the positive universality their aesthetic attraction and their symbolic popular and traditional culture of the human condition. In any case, these virtues in an area that included the regions and cultural associations [online] all-encompassing definitions, updates to the of Garraf, Alt and Baix Penedès, Alt and
consider themselves to be victims. These was not a ‘fiesta’, and the animals were not 3 "intangible" materialisations that conceal or killed.4 They argued that the nature of festi- The ban was annulled in a ruling by the Spanish Constitutional Court disguise the existence of all kinds of injustices vals featuring bulls in Catalonia were more in the autumn of 2016, but this did or omissions may be different from, and humane and less cruel, demonstrating a not lead to a revival of the cele- even incompatible with, what the author- relationship with the animals that did not bration of events involving bulls in 5 Catalan bullrings because towards ised distributors of patrimonial excellence exist in Spanish bullfights. The fact that this the end spectators had been consider to be most important. And it is feature was the consequence of an earlier law, reduced to summer tourists, who then when a field like heritage, that would 3/1988, passed almost 20 years earlier was entrepreneurs did not consider to be a good business proposition. be deemed immune to social or political forgotten or ignored. constraints, being exclusively in the hands 4 This contradiction has been under- of wise experts and expert commissions, The central argument for the differential lined from the legal perspective. appears to be a vehicle for all kinds of social treatment that made bullfights illegal, and See Laus (2015), Grisostolo tensions, that find a language through which more or less at the same time declared the (2017) and Ridao Martin (2017). they can express themselves in the process of correbous in Catalonia still legal, was that 5 definition of what must be protected from bullfights involved a great deal of blood, An example of this positive image and culminated in the public sacrifice of a attributed to the Catalan festivals the passage of time and human action. involving bulls compared to those living being, whereas in contrast the Cata- held in Spain: "It must be kept in All of these issues appear to be unfolding lan correbous were bloodless. The aim of the mind that the correbous festivities, unlike corridas, do not involve the in Catalonia in the public polemic aroused Law 34/2010 was clearly defined in arti- death of the animal. In fact the bulls by some of the correbous whose defence has cle 2: "traditional festivities featuring bulls that are most appreciated are the mobilised a significant part - probably the that do not involve the death of the animal most experienced ones - it is they 6 who generate excitement at the majority - of the populations of the Baix (correbous)". It is true that in Catalonia end of their careers" (Vega, 2015 Ebre and Montsià regions, with the sup- festivals involving bulls were bloodless at 81). port of local authorities who have coincided the time the law was passed, and continue 6 in championing these festivals as a sign of to be so today but, the wording assumes - Law 34/2010, on the regulation identity, not only on a regional level, but and public discussions on the subject also of traditional festivities with bulls also as a way of living what it means to be assumed - that this aspect of the Catalan [online] < https://portaljuridic. gencat.cat/ca/pjur_ocults/ Catalan in their own terms, against a back- correbous - the fact that the animals are not pjur_resultats _fitxa/?action=fitx- drop characterised by the process of national killed - was an intrinsic part of the tradition a&mode=single &documen- tId=558961&language =ca_ES> emancipation that has been underway in itself, as if the benevolence shown towards [Last consulted: 22 July 2019]. Catalonia since 2010. the bull was part of an ethos that was some- how specifically Catalan. At no time was The discovery of ‘unacceptable’ it remembered - at least not in the sources Catalonia consulted - that if there were no bulls being In 2010 the Catalan Parliament adopted killed in Catalonia this was because of a ban two apparently contradictory - for many, that had been imposed more than 20 years blatantly contradictory - legislative resolu- earlier. This legislation had been highly con- tions. On 3 August, Law 24/2010 abolished tentious, but nobody seemed to remember traditional bullfights in bullrings in Cata- how problematic it had been to enforce. lonia. 3 Shortly afterwards, on 1 October, the same authority protected the traditional Article 4 of Law 3/1988 on the protection of Catalan correbous by means of another law, animals, approved by the Catalan Parliament Law 34/2010. This apparent contradiction in March 1988, prohibited "the use of ani- was interpreted as an incomprehensible and mals in shows, fights and other activities that indefensible comparative grievance, simulta- may cause suffering, or where the animals neously denounced by animal rights groups, may be subject to mockery or unnatural environmental parties and organisations, treatment, or that may offend the sensibil- supporters of bullfighting, and the Spanish ities of those who watch them". 7 Sporting Partido Popular Government. The response practices such as pigeon shooting, and also of the Catalan political parties was that they traditions such as cockfighting in Badalona, had approved the new law because the cor- the duck-catching in Roses and San Carles rebous, unlike the so-called fiesta nacional, de la Rápita, and the public slaughter of “Hands off our bulls!” Miscellanea 205 pigs in Juneda, Ogassa and Vidrà were not support of the socialist municipal author- 7 prohibited under the terms of this law. Bull- ities themselves, disobeyed orders from the Law 3/1988 on animal protection [online] < https://portal juridic. fighting in existing bullrings and correbous government, holding their correbous and gencat.cat/ca/pjur_ocults/ were excluded, but the wording of the time killing the bull at the end of it. The scene pjur_resultats_fitxa/?action=fitxa& implied a misunderstanding. In point 4.2 of the conflict was significant, as it high- documentId = 492668> [Last con- sulted: 10 February 2019]. it could be understood that the exceptions lighted the active presence at that time of a were “traditional festivals involving bulls tradition of bloody festivities involving bulls where the animal is not killed (correbous)”. in the counties of what is still called "Cat- It was clear that neither the authors of the alan Catalonia", such as Bages, Cerdanya, text of this law nor the parliamentarians who La Garrotxa, Baix Empordà and La Selva approved it were aware that in Catalonia (Lanao, Tornos and Vinyoles, 1990), and there were many places where popular fes- especially Cardona, the last stronghold of tivities involving bulls did culminate in the the anti-Bourbon resistance in the War of sacrifice of the animal, and that this often the Spanish Succession. It should be noted took place in public. It was obvious that this that the correbous in Cardona was twice lack of knowledge would lead to a series of presided over by Jordi Pujol as President of administrative and public order issues in the the Generalitat de Catalunya, the second places where the local festivities had not been time on 11 September 1983, a year before taken into account, simply because those the event was officially declared a festival of responsible for drafting the law could not interest to tourists. conceive of the possibility that festive tradi- tions in Catalonia could include practices The existence of festivities involving blood- considered to be "unbecoming of civilised shed in the Principality represented an obsta- countries" (Loureiro Lamas and Sánchez cle when it came to constructing an image García, 1990) of popular national culture acceptable to the political interests of its elites. The image of The consequences were immediately appar- festivities based on cruelty and bloodshed ent. Attempts to implement Law 3/1988 was associated in the official imaginary with came up against serious obstacles in many Spain and in no way reflected the virtues parts of the country, especially in some officially attributed to the Catalan people regions - those of the Ebre - which had once in terms of their willingness to engage in again been bypassed in the festival revival dialogue, their civility and moderation, in that came with the advent of democracy. line with what was claimed to be their clearly Alcanar, where the town council was in the European aspirations. These virtues were hands of the Iniciativa per Catalunya party, clearly incompatible with any kind of festivi- was the first victim. Fines were imposed ties involving real violence (Delgado, 1993). not only as a penalty for the celebration Popular Catalan culture needed to be pre- of the correbous festivities, but also due to sented as a culture that could be exhibited as the disturbances that ended up with two a living testimony to a peaceful and balanced policemen adrift on a raft. There were sim- society, and good judgement as an inherent ilar problems throughout the summer of quality of the Catalan people. This is why an 1988 in Amposta, San Carles de la Rápita, extensive tradition of festivals that were tak- Deltebre and other areas in the south of the ing place throughout the country involving country. It is in this context that a campaign bulls - including bullfights - had to be denied was launched in protest against the threat to (Amades, 1983 [1956]: II, 202-208 and V, local festivals, and its main slogan was very 113-114; González, 1990), it was a tradition clear: Hands off our bulls!. that contradicted a rejection of bullfighting that has become one of the most recurrent The most serious incidents occurred, how- themes of anti-Spanish nationalism in Cat- ever, in Cardona (Padullés, 2010 and 2011), alonia, not always explicitly expressed and where over the course of four years after the often wrapped up in ethical considerations approval of the law, the locals, with the based on a supposed moral superiority of 206 Miscellanea Catalonian Journal of Ethnology December 2019 No. 44
the Catalan nation (TKac, 2014; Xifrà and the Catalan nation: bypassing the country's 8 Sriramesh, 2019). This is the origin of the southernmost regions, regions that were not In Terra Alta alone, they are cur- rently celebrated only in Horta de repeated attacks on the bull-shaped adver- only physically located in the south of Cat- Sant Joan and Arnes; in the Ribera tising hoardings (they originally advertised alonia, but also in their own ‘south’, in the d'Ebre, they were only revived for a Osborne brandy) in Bruc in 2002, 2007 and symbolic sense attributed to the word by few years in Ascó. 2009, as well as the adoption of the Catalan Mario Benedetti. It was a part of the country 9 donkey in the early 2000s as a symbol of that was not considered to be a part of the Law 34/2010, of 1 October, on the regulation of traditional festivals what it meant to be Catalan. country at all when people spoke of what was with bulls [online]
Other localities in those counties adopted Campredó or Els Reguers around Tortosa. In 11 this approach locally, and at the beginning other locations, festivals involving bulls have There are of course a significant number of people in the towns of of 2012, there were about twenty whose been extended, as in l’Aldea, now being held the Ebre region who are in favour 14 festivities involving bulls had been declared at Pentecost as well as in August. of banning the correbous, and Intangible Cultural Heritage. who believe that this aspect of the region's cultural identity is one that Law 34/2010 had loopholes that infuriated can be dispensed with. Political The counterbalance to this euphoria were the anti-bullfighting groups and helped to organisations such as the CUP the constant protests by animal rights groups spread correbous events that go beyond what and civil society associations, such as those grouped together and some of the communities of the Ebre is strictly permitted by law. For example, in the Plataforma Antitaurina de against these festivals,11 leading to incidents the ambiguity in the treatment of one type les Terres de l’Ebre and Tots Som such as the attacks on animal rights activists of particularly detested correbous event, the Poble, represent this stance in the very heart of the region. in Ulldecona in 2011, and Mas de Barberans "bous embolats" - when bulls have fireballs in 2016. In May 2017 Parliament accepted attached to their horns - because in these 12
October of the same year, 20 mayors from of Catalan adopted from Pompeu Fabra's 15 the Ebre and Cardona regions from a broad grammar only served to widen the breach The only political group that has shown itself to be hostile to the range of political parties - PDeCat, ERC, with places such as the Terres de l'Ebre, correbous in Terres de l’Ebre is the PSC, Movem and Iniciativa per Catalunya where tortosí was considered a dialect that CUP, who presented candidates at - 15 met to create a common front to prevent was not altogether Catalan. the municipal elections held in May 2019 in five towns in the region - something that was inconceivable to them: Flix, Alcanar, Tortosa, Deltebre and the disappearance of the correbous in their It is worth remembering that this old issue Móra d’Ebre. They won a seat on towns and cities. led to the reopening, in the 1980s, of the the councils of Tortosa, Alcanar and Flix, obtaining a maximum of debate about a standard model of Catalan 5.48% of the vote. The popular culture of the offended and the proposal that the geographical varie- and the humiliated ties should be recognised (Pradilla Cardona, The widespread and well-publicised exist- 2014). This demand for plurality ran up ence of popular festivals involving bulls in against the model of identity imposed by Terres de l'Ebre contradicted the supposed the Pujol Administration, that is, the way process of ethical modernisation within Cat- in which conservative Catalan nationalism alan society, which was expressed in part revived and adopted as its own the levelling through the rejection of festivals featuring and centralist idea of romantic 'Catalanness' bulls. This highlighted the precarious nature of the Renaixença at the end of the 20th cen- of the way the southern regions of Catalonia were accommodated within the officially sanctioned concept of what it means to be Catalan. These were other expressions of identity that had their roots in the past. This was the result of the way that the lib- eral nation-state developed during the 19th century. In 1833 Spain was organised as a series of provinces, and this marked the beginning of the correspondence between borders and culture. Each administration tried to legitimise its geographical limits by a symbolic identification that aimed to bring together all sorts of cultural practices under the same umbrella, with little differentiation in order to better mark the cultural differ- ences between a particular territory and its neighbours. Thus, the administrative divi- sions began to create an identity dynamic that diluted the specific culture of the Ebre when the territory was divided between Cas- tellón, Matarranya and the Terres de l’Ebre (Collet, 2012) Catalan nationalism accepted this perspective as unquestionable, and relied on a unique ethnic representation which clearly contrasted with the others, that was linked to a new national and territorial reality tury, a brand of nationalism that was incapa- Esquerra Republicana ble of recognising the cultural diversity that posters for Torroella de accompanied by a corresponding cultural Montgrí and Amposta (2017). imaginary developed for this purpose. This was so much needed in Spain. The speech El País, 24 March 2017. nationalism was based on cultural elements, and customs of the southern regions had no with the use of the Catalan language being place in this project of cultural unification, the determining factor of belonging in mod- being guilty of an impurity caused by their ern Catalonia (Clua and Fain, and Sánchez nature as a permeable border with an even and García, 2014). The standard model deeper south, what for the Catalan nation- “Hands off our bulls!” Miscellanea 209
alist imaginary was the País Valencià and by "civilised" North, where the remnants of 16 extension Spain, which had already irrevo- unacceptable traditions were being brought We should remember that one of the things that triggered Parlia- cably absorbed it (Collet, 2012). Because, to an end, and a marginal, poor and "wild" ment's decision to ban correbous although it was not always explicitly stated, South, where those same festivals were still in the country was an incident in the bulls and the jotas were "Spanish" or, at being held, and participation in them was which a bull attacked spectators in 18 the town of La Selva, in which 19 least, more Spanish than they were Catalan. increasing. people were injured in September 2019.
The question that should be asked is why It is very likely that one of the keys to this 17 there was such a difference between the difference in the response to what was inter- Here, the ban was the result of resistance of the towns of the Ebre to the preted as a new aggression against heritage as a campaign by the political party ERC in 2017, supported by a legal intervention regarding the correbous actually lived by the people of many towns poster that read "Torroella de under Law 3/88, and that of Law 34/2010. in the Ebre region, was a new situation Montgrí free from correbous". This At the end of the 1980s, the context was which resulted in a heightened self-aware- poster was identical to the one in Amposta used by that same party, one of perplexity for a large part of Catalan ness among the local population born, as is ERC, in support of a campaign society and its own politicians - even the often the case within a framework of conflict. fought using the slogan "Amposta: legislators themselves - when they discovered This was the struggle against the National bulls now, bulls for always." the existence of a part of their festive universe Hydrological Plan approved by the Spanish 18 that was characterised by violence against Parliament in 2001, almost 20 years ago It is as if the contrast, expressed in the poem by Salvador Espriu animals. On that occasion, the defence of the (Boquera Margalef, 2009). The threat of the Assaig de càntic en el temple that correbous in the face of fines and prohibitions massive extraction of water from the River was sung by Ovidi Montllor, were was fierce, but at the same time marginal, Ebre triggered a local response that placed reproduced in the heart of the country itself: “Oh, que cansat estic and the situation was complex, mayors in all the symbolic weight on the image of the de la meva / covarda, vella, tan many cases not even enjoying the support river, through metaphors that associated it salvatge terra, / i com m’agradaria of their parties; and all of this was the result with the blood of the earth and the strength allunyar-me’n, / nord enllà, / on diuen que la gent és neta / i noble, of scandalised and hostile public opinion and power of unity. This was echoed in an culta, rica, lliure, / desvetllada i within the country. unprecedented way in public opinion, the feliç!”. ("Oh, how tired I am of my issue going far beyond questions regarding / cowardly, old, and oh so wild land, / and how I would like to get On the other hand, the situation that water extraction with the focus being on a away, / north, / where they say that arose in 2010 around the law designed to land that felt itself to be invisible and forgot- the people are clean / and noble, protected the correbous, and in the face of ten (Franquesa, 2018). From 2000 onwards cultured, rich, free, / alert and happy! "). protests made by some of the animal-rights there was a series of major demonstrations, groups who claimed to represent the feelings for example in Tortosa, Amposta, Barce- 19 A reminder of the arguments of of the majority of Catalans on the subject, lona, and Brussels. The last of these was on Tortosinisme, cf. Bayerri i Raga, the response was much stronger and more 7 February 2016, when, chanting the slogan 1984. confident. The declaration of thecorrebous “The Ebre without water means the death of as part of an intangible cultural heritage, the Delta”, 50,000 people took to the streets and the initiatives to obtain their recog- of the capital of the Montsià. All this took nition as such by UNESCO; the massive place within the framework of the process of demonstrations in the streets; the spread national emancipation in Catalonia, which of festivals involving bulls which were rein- was reflected in the profusion of flags at each stated in some places and introduced in oth- of the events involving bulls in each and ers where they had never previously been every one of the towns where they were held. held... All this was in stark contrast to the It has been argued that "Terres de l'Ebre" steady disappearance of correbous in the rest or "ebrenc" are expressions that renew the of the country, especially in the north. In the resistance against the single model of what it province of Girona in 2018, the only festival means to be Catalan, represented by tortosin- that remained was the one in Vidreres,16 as isme 19within a secessionist, reactionary and Parliament, at the request of the respective anti-Catalan framework (Vidal Franquet, town councils, removed from the list of tra- 2015), but the way in which the reaction ditional correbous those held in Olot, Roses against the symbolic Catalan centralism is and Torroella de Montgrí.17 This confirmed now developing - including a vindication of the symbolic division between a rich and events involving bulls - has been translated 210 Miscellanea Catalonian Journal of Ethnology December 2019 No. 44
not into a renunciation of 'Catalanness', but 156/2013. In fact, as Costa and Folch (2014: 20 rather into its radicalisation. 67) point out, a significant aspect is its Decree 156/2013, of 9 April, approving the procedures for the absence; terms such as "tradition", "celebra- implementation of Law 34/2010, In the Terres de l'Ebre, there was an identity tion", "protection", "spectacle" or "respect" of 1 October, regulating traditional process that, following the typology pro- being used, but never the word "heritage".20 festivals involving bulls [online] < https://portaljuridic.gencat.cat/ posed by Pujades (1990), began with an The regulations state that the purpose of the ca/pjur_ocults/pjur_resultats_ instrumentalist and circumstantial logic, law is "to guarantee the rights, interests and file/?action=file&mode=single& generating feelings of primary solidarity for safety of participants and spectators, as well document=633140&lan- guage=ca_ES> [Last consulted: the achievement of specific objectives but as the protection of the animals involved in 21 July 2019]. which, as it developed, dragged pending the show". In no case is there any mention disputes along with it, such as all of those of the protection, and even less of the pro- that had marked the Terres de l'Ebre not only motion, of any heritage element. Nowhere as an economically and politically inferior in the text is there any consideration of the Catalonia, but also as inferior in the symbolic legislative framework on heritage in Catalo- sense because it was not Catalan enough. nia. This is ignored and regulation is always As if the presence of cultural elements alien focused on public order concerns - "safety", to the mind maps of official Catalanism in "inspections", "offences", "infringements" that little corner of the territory were proof and "sanctions" - which is consistent with that in the end it deserved the contempt it the fact that the regulation was issued by the received. The popular culture of the people Ministry of Home Affairs. of the Ebre was the culture of the "humili- ated and offended" to which Sebastià Juan In fact, neither Law 34/2010 nor the reg- de Arbó had dedicated the best of his work ulations that follow on from it make any (Arnau, 1980: 4). allusion whatsoever to the preservation of the festival as a tradition, much less as her- Banner for the Agrupació de Penyes i Comissions Taurines An impossible heritage itage. On the contrary, both texts insist on de les Terres de l’Ebre. The parliamentary protection of correbous in limiting the right to celebrate such events to APCTTE (2018) 2010 was never concerned with safeguard- those localities that can ing something that could be classified as demonstrate their "tra- heritage. The legal recognition of the corre- ditional" nature. In this bous, once redeemed from an original sin of way legal action in rela- violence that nobody seemed to remember, tion to the correbous is was undoubtedly the result of the major- aimed at avoiding their ity pressure from people who, despite an proliferation beyond extremely hostile climate, were not willing the areas within the to give up their festivals, above all in the Ebre territory where they are region, where defending them had become already celebrated, and part of an identity that had been constantly to explicitly prohibit the undervalued. However, this legal protection establishment of new fes- was never the result of the attribution of tivals with bulls in other value as heritage. places, which implies that the legislators had con- In Law 34/2010 the term heritage only fidence that such festivals appears in relation to the correbous in the would gradually disappear. introduction, referring to its importance as 'genetic heritage', and so relating it to the It is significant that the role of breeding and selection of a certain breed of the General Directorate of Pop- animal, and not in any sense as a form of ular Culture and Cultural Asso- cultural or even ethnological heritage. Nei- ciations (DGCPAC, which in 2012 ther does the word heritageappear later in the replaced the Centre for the Promotion regulations for the development and appli- of Popular and Traditional Catalan Cul- cation of this law, as formalised in Decree ture), has played no part in the legal and “Hands off our bulls!” Miscellanea 211
regulatory regularisation of the correbous. The attempt to validate the celebration of 21 Only in the Inventory of the Intangible a festive event such as the correbous by pro-
for the Palio de Siena, because of the risk with criteria that are incompatible when 25 to the horses it involves (Scovazzi, 2011).25 they are at the same time required to be There is indeed one cultural prac- tice involving animals included on As in this case, the eventual inclusion of testimonies to diversity as well as factors the UNESCO list of the Intangible any such event as an element of intangible of cultural homogenisation. Cultural Heritage of Humanity. As heritage by UNESCO would be in direct the result of a joint proposal from 18 countries on three continents, contradiction to the values which are widely In effect, UNESCO only considers wor- falconry has been included since accepted within the framework of today's thy contributions that fit with its idealistic 2016, recognised for its contribu- post-modern and post-materialist societies, vision of a humanity in which social and tion to "the conservation of nature, cultural heritage and community which include as a generalised norm, pro- territorial asymmetries have miraculously social activities"
This exception in its exercise of non-in- Conclusions tervention on local customs reveals the The impossibility of making thecorrebous of paradoxes inherent in the vagueness of the Ebre a part of our heritage beyond the the concept of culture articulated and local sphere, enables us to shed some light on promulgated from within the authorised what heritage actually consists of; something discourse of heritage (Nielsen, 2011). A that becomes worthy of being treated in a notion instituted with conceptual clashes certain way as it is isolated from all the other regarding forms of 'unacceptable diver- ways of doing things within a society, and sity' (Wright, 1998; Stowkowski, 2009), is placed on the pedestal where those things which it is understood will no longer be that are admirable and exemplary sit. In the able to represent the moral values of a 'civ- Catalan sphere, for the institutions the virtue ilised society'. The problem involved in the of intangible heritage must be that of being defence of the correbous has the merit of in a position to integrate what Llorenç Prats revealing precisely the contradiction inher- (1996:295) called “a virtual pool”, a stock ent in a universalising project that insists of symbolic references, articulated and acti- on the reconciliation of supposed global vated as a congruent whole at the service of a human rights with the cultural rights of certain discourse of identity, one that it goes each human group (Stowkowski, 2009: without saying is appropriate to the interests 11). Inconsistencies which often, in the of its promoters. From then on, anything context of concrete practice, give rise to that did not fit with this story of a moderate controversy and confrontation, while at and kindly we would be condemned to be the same time producing imbalances at ignored or excluded. And the correbous have the level of legislation and management no place in the range of symbols of which of a heritage which is obliged to comply an authentically European country could “Hands off our bulls!” Miscellanea 213 be proud. They could not be included in a ernance of which UNESCO is "the cultural tourist promotion brochure next to castellers, arm, the visionary agency and the factory of sardanes, Montserrat or correfocs. ideas" (Meskell and Brumann, 2015).
In terms of the universal values that UNE- Because it runs against the desired virtues SCO requires to be embodied in the things of the Catalan people, and is in no way a to which it gives its blessing, it is extremely symbol of the model of human culture con- unlikely that the Catalan festivals involving sidered appropriate to the liberal project bulls will find their way onto the approved of world government, and as it can only list. In the first place because it is states that aspire to be enshrined as intangible heritage propose candidates for inclusion on the list, by a handful of municipalities, the largest and as we have already pointed out Spain has of which, Amposta, has fewer than 21,000 done nothing to gain recognition for bull- inhabitants, the correbous is an example of fighting, which is banned or contested both how intangible heritage can also become a in a part of the country and internationally. It political battleground. This is what happens goes without saying that if Catalonia were to when disputes over heritage arise in certain achieve independence it would be unlikely to regions or among groups of people that assert nominate the correbous of the Ebro delta to their right to be who they believe themselves be added to those festivities already included to be, and what they believe themselves to be in the UNESCO lists, to sit alongside events like, and they do this by disregarding domi- such as the Patum, the castellers or the fire nant moral guidelines, assuming counter-he- festivals held in the Pyrenees. But the main gemonic attitudes and proposals in matters obstacle is that these festivities are the very of popular culture and demonstrating that antithesis of the lofty principles of peace, others too have the right to call heritage humanitarianism, understanding between what they are proud of, turning their backs cultures, sustainability etc. which are the on what the wider society thinks or what is foundation of the aspirations for global gov- prescribed by norms and laws. n
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