catalan? que?

i was mostly unaware of the term "catalan" before i swarmed myself with tourist documentaries on spain. i wanted to have some kind of a clue about the crazy place i was moving [and had never been to before.] that's where i first heard about "catalunya", the northeastern province bordering france...where good ole' barcelona is located. catalan's are from this province.

here's a map of spain...you can see the province on the top right.

and a closer look...

[in the map above, the names are actually written in catalan.] yes, that's right, they have their own language...a melodic combination of spanish, italian and french. this was a fact i knew coming to barcelona, but didn't expect to be so blatant. when francisco franco ruled spain [from 1939-1975], it was illegal to speak catalan. after his death, the "catalan" patriotism was at an all time high, and has been ever since. on the streets they speak catalan, in stores they speak catalan, the billboards, the newspapers [not all, thank God] are in catalan. catalan's are "catalan"...not "spanish".

the other night i was taking a taxi [most taxi drivers speak to you in catalan] & he was speaking in castallano [spanish] and i said "are you catalan?" [hey, it was 5am] & he started raging [in spanish], saying "no, i'm not CATALAN, i'm SPANISH for god's sake...what the hell...f-ing catalan, we're in SPAIN not CATALUNYA." this is a good analogy of how people [spaniards] who aren't catalan feel about catalunya.

in gracia [my neighborhood] the catalan patriotism is always in full force [the catalan flag is 5 yellow stripes and 4 red stripes]:



but i must say, i love the catalan people. it feels good to know that every day i can count on their unfailing admiration for: pork, dark square-rimmed glasses, whiskey with lunch, horizontal striped shirts, magdelenas [the best muffins in the world], taking their babies and their dogs into bars at ungodly hours and their monochromatic dress choice.