FRANCO IS NOT DEAD
Catalonia is an autonomous region of Spain located in the North East. The Catalan community has more than 2000 years of history, and since 1714 after we were defeated, our constitution was suppressed and the Spanish Monarchy ruled a community that didn’t belong to them – and no one was fucking happy with that. Since then the Spanish Government has given Catalonia a degree of autonomy, with a separate Catalan Government (alongside several other regions) under the supervision of the central Spanish Government. But once again they took that away from us with the Spanish dictators, first Primo de Rivera in 1923 and then Francisco Franco in 1939 until his death in 1975. Franco decided it was OK to takeover and make Spain, as a whole, fucking miserable. He banned Catalans from using their own language and celebrating their culture, and people became more and more discontent with the Spanish Government.
After that bastard Franco died, democracy was brought back to Spain and we had our Parliament returned, but us Catalans have never felt truly Spanish, and as time goes on we have only grown angrier. We get few advantages from the Spanish Government, now led by conservative Mariano Rajoy, but increasingly unfair taxes and a bunch of stupid tolls that do not benefit the Catalan Government (amongst other problems).
The Catalan community, after years of this crap, finally decided to stand up for themselves. A referendum was set up for the 1st of October to vote for or against independence from Spain. Clearly Rajoy and the Spanish Government don’t want us to abandon them, as we are one of the most affluent regions of Spain and would never agree to make this referendum legal. But sometimes communities have to stand up and go against stupid laws, imagine if women had never stood up against the government to earn the right to vote.
Catalans began to queue for voting the day before the referendum was scheduled to start, just in case the Spanish Government sent the national police to close up the polling locations. Then, early that morning, Catalans began voting. Everyone who was there was happy as fuck, celebrating, waiting peacefully to vote while singing the Catalan anthem.
Then things got fucked up. Although the Catalan people were doing something declared illegal by the Spanish Government, the national police went overboard making use of violence and leaving over 800 people injured. Clearly some people think it’s OK to violate human rights, to attack and brutally injure people who were peacefully protesting and exercising their right to express their political beliefs. Spain has a long history of right wing governments overreacting to nationalism that doesn’t benefit them, being one of the main causes of the Spanish Civil War.
While all this crap was taking place, Rajoy was making appearances on national TV, claiming that nothing was happening in Catalonia, what the actual fuck. There were even Spanish people in the capital, Madrid, protesting against Catalonia. Some singing fascist songs that originated when Franco the Bastard was in power.
So it now seems as if it’s OK to sing fucking fascist songs, to hurt people and violate human rights, to oppress a vast percentage of the Catalan community who desire independence. But it is not OK for them to safely vote for our future, to use the “democracy” we supposedly have in Spain to open a dialogue.
The result of the referendum, in which approximately 40% of eligible people voted, has been stated to be 92% FOR independence by the referendum organizers. Sadly, as has already been said, this was not official and it is unclear what is going to happen next. The Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, has said on TV that he is waiting to speak with the Spanish Government, to mediate and have a serious conversation, but Rajoy and his officials are not responding. If the situation continues like this, Puigdemont plans to declare independence, risking jail and worse.
That’s how things are in Spain right now, no chance for conversation, a sham of democracy, the violation of human rights…an absolute circus.
The author is originally from Barcelona, and her family and friends have been involved in the recent conflict in Spain. This article is born from conversations with her relatives and friends who are experiencing these events firsthand.
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Illustration by Ariadna Gimenez