Catalan people

Catalans

Salvador Dalí · Pau Casals · Mercè Rodoreda · Antoni Gaudí · Jacint Verdaguer · Carles Puyol
Total population
ca. 8 million
Regions with significant populations
Spain      Catalonia          (people born in Catalonia) 7,512,381 France 303,000 Argentina          (estimates vary) 178,000 or 176,000 Cuba N.A. Mexico 54,000 Germany 49,000 Andorra 28,000 Italy 22,000 Chile 16,000 Venezuela 5,600 USA          (estimates vary) 1,738 or 700 Ecuador 850
Languages
Catalan (native); Spanish and French (as a result of immigration or language shift)
Religion
Roman Catholicism, Atheism, Agnosticism
Related ethnic groups
Valencians, Balearics, Occitans, Aragonese and other Spaniards, Sardinians.

The Catalans or Catalonians are the people from, or with origins in, Catalonia that form a historical nationality in Spain. The inhabitants of the adjacent portion of southern France (known in Catalonia proper as Catalunya Nord, and in France as the Pays Catalan) are sometimes included in this definition. Also, sometimes Catalan is used to define peoples from Catalan Countries, which include other areas where the Catalan language is spoken.

Extended concept

The other Catalan-speaking peoples, namely Andorrans, Valencians, Balearics and some Aragonese and Alguerese are sometimes identified as a distinct Catalan ethnic group by certain nationalists. The latter assertion is especially rooted in Catalan nationalism.^{[citation needed]} In the aforementioned territories (often designated Països Catalans, "Catalan Countries", by Catalan nationalists). This extended concept is unpopular and brings eventual conflict, most of all in the Valencian Community where it is a great issue involving discrimination of the language and mediatic manipulation.

Historical background

See also: History of Catalonia

The earliest reference to Catalans (Catalanenses), treated as an ethnic group, is found in the Latin Liber maiolichinus, an Italian epic poem of c.1120. This also contains the earliest reference to Catalonia (Catalania) as the name for their homeland.

The area that is now known primarily as Catalonia was invaded in 1500 BC by Proto-Celtic Urnfield people who brought the rite of burning the dead. These Indo-European people were absorbed by the Iberians beginning in 600 BC in a process that would not complete until the fourth century BC. These groups came under the rule of various invading groups starting with the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, who set up colonies along the coast, including Barcino (present-day Barcelona) itself. Following the Punic Wars, the Romans replaced the Carthaginians as the dominant power in Catalonia by 206 BCE. Rome established Latin as the official language and imparted a distinctly Roman culture upon the local population, which merged with Roman colonists from the Italian peninsula. An early precursor to the Catalan language began to develop from a local form of popular Latin before and during the collapse of the Roman Empire. Various Germanic tribes arrived following nearly six centuries of Roman rule, which had completely transformed the area into the Roman province of Tarraconensis. The Visigoths established themselves in the 5th century and would rule the area until 718 when Muslim Arabs and Berbers conquered the region and held it for close to a century. The Franks held back small Muslim raiding parties which had penetrated virtually unchallenged as far as central France; Frankish suzerainty extended over much of present-day Catalonia. Larger wars with the Muslims began with the Spanish March which led to the beginnings of the reconquista (reconquest) by Catalonian forces over most of Catalonia by the year 801. It was during this period that a Catalan national identity fully emerged as Barcelona became an important center for Christian forces in the Iberian peninsula.

Catalonia emerged from the conflicts in Muslim Spain as a regional power, as Christian rulers entrenched themselves in the region during the Carolingian period. Rulers such as Wilfred the Hairy became masters of a larger territory encompassing Catalonia. The Crown of Aragon included Catalonia, Aragon, Valencia and the Balearic Islands. The marriage of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon and the conquest of the last Muslim kingdom of Granada in 1492AD tied Catalonia politically to the fate of the new Spanish kingdom, while a regional culture continued to survive and thrive.

Some sporadic regional unrest led to conflicts such as the Revolt of the Germanies in Valencia and Majorca, and the 1640 revolt in Catalonia known as the Reapers' War. This latter conflict embroiled Spain in a larger war with France as many Catalan nobles allied themselves with Louis XIII. The war continued until 1659AD and ended with the Peace of the Pyrenees which effectively partitioned Catalonia as the northern strip of the March came under French rule, while the rest remained under Spanish hegemony. The Catalan government took sides for the Habsburg pretender against the Bourbon one during the War of the Spanish Succession that started in 1705AD and ended in 1714AD. The Catalan failure to defend the perpetuation of Habsburg dynasty in Spain culminated in the surrender of Barcelona on September 11, 1714AD, which came to be commemorated as Catalonia's national day.

During the Napoleonic Wars, much of Catalonia was seized by French forces by 1808 as France ruled the entire region briefly until Napoleon's surrender to Allied Armies. In France, strong assimilationist policies integrated many Catalans into French society, while in Spain a Catalan identity was increasingly suppressed in favor of a national identity. The Catalans regained autonomy during the Spanish Second Republic from 1932 until Francisco Franco's nationalist forces retook Catalonia by 1939. It was not until 1975 and the death of Franco that the Catalans began to regain their right to cultural expression, which was restarted by the Spanish Constitution of 1978. Since this period, a balance between a sense of local identity versus the broader Spanish one has emerged as the dominant political force in Catalonia. The former tends to advocate for even greater autonomy and/or independence; the latter tends to argue for maintaining the status quo. As a result, there tends to be much fluctuation depending on regional and national politics during a given election cycle. Given the stronger centralist tendencies in France, however, French Catalans display a much less dynamic sense of uniqueness, having been integrated more consistently into the unitary French national identity.

Geography

The vast majority of Catalans reside in the autonomous community of Catalonia, within Spain. At least 100,000 Catalan speakers live in the pays catalan in France. An indeterminate number of Catalans emigrated to other countries during the Spanish colonial period and in the years following the Spanish Civil War.

Culture and society

Described by author Walter Starkie in The Road to Santiago as a subtle people, he sums up their national character with a local term seny meaning "common sense" or a pragmatic attitude towards life. The masia or mas is a defining characteristic of the Catalonian countryside and includes a large house, land, cattle, and an extended family, but this tradition is in decline as the nuclear family has largely replaced the extended family, as in the rest of western Europe. Catalans in Spain are recognised as a "nationality" and enjoy a high degree of political autonomy, leading to reinforcement of a Catalan identity.

Language

Main article: Languages of Catalonia

The Catalan language is a Romance language of the Gallo-Iberian group. It is the language closest to Occitan, as well as sharing many features with other Western Romance languages such as Spanish, French, Portuguese and Aragonese. There are a number of linguistic varieties that are considered dialects of Catalan; among them, the dialect group with the most speakers, Central Catalan.

The number of Catalan speakers is over 7 million, but very few Catalan monoglots exist; basically, virtually all of the Catalan speakers in Spain are bilingual speakers of Catalan and Spanish, with a sizeable population of Spanish-only speakers of immigrant origin (typically born outside Catalonia or with both parents born outside Catalonia) existing in the major Catalan urban areas as well. In the Roussillon, nowadays only a minority of the French Catalans do speak Catalan, with French being the majority language for the inhabitants after a continued process of language shift.

The inhabitants of the Aran valley count Aranese –an Occitan dialect– rather than Catalan as their own language. These Catalans are also bilingual in Spanish.

In September 2005, the .cat TLD, the first Internet language-based top-level domain, was approved for all webpages intending to serve the needs of the Catalan linguistic and cultural community on the Internet. This community is made up of those who use the Catalan language for their online communications or promote the different aspects of Catalan culture online.

Traditional clothes

The traditional clothes (now, practically only used in folkloric celebrations) included the barretina (a sort of long woollen long cap usually red or purple color) and the faixa (a sort of wide belt) among men, and ret (a fine net bag to contain hair) among women. The traditional footwear was the espardenya or espadrille.

Cuisine

Main article: Catalan cuisine

Traditional diet

The Catalan diet is part of the Mediterranean diet and includes the use of olive oil. Catalan people like to eat veal (vedella) and lamb (xai).

There are three main daily meals:

• In the morning: a very light breakfast, consisting of fruit or fruit juice, milk, coffee, or pa amb tomàquet "bread with tomato". Catalans tend to divide their breakfast into two parts: one early in the morning before going to work or study (first breakfast), and the other one between 10:00 and 12:00 (second breakfast).
• In the afternoon (roughly from 13:00 to 14:30): the main meal of the day, usually comprising three dishes. The first consists of pasta or vegetables, the second of meat or fish and the third of fruit or yogurt.
• In the evening (roughly from 20:00 to 22:30): more food than in the morning but less than at lunch. Very often only a single main dish and fruit. It is common to drink moderate quantities of wine.

In Catalan gastronomy, embotits (a wide variety of Catalan sausages and cold meats) are very important; these are pork sausages such as botifarra or fuet. In the past, bread (similar to French bread) figured heavily in the Catalan diet; now it is used mainly in the morning (second breakfast, especially among young students and some workers) and supplements the noon meal, at home and in restaurants. Bread is still popular among Catalans; some Catalan fast-food restaurants don't serve hamburgers but offer a wide variety of sandwiches.

In the past, the poor ate soup every day and rice on Thursday and Sunday.

The discipline of abstinence, not eating meat during Lent, was once very strong but has practically disappeared in the 20th century.

Spicy food is rare in the Catalan diet, but there are quite garlicky sauces such as allioli or romesco.

Traditional dishes

Main article: Catalan cuisine

One type of Catalan dish is escudella soup which contains chick peas, potatoes, and vegetables such as green cabbage, celery, carrots, turnips, and meats like botifarra (a Catalan sausage), pork feet, salted ham, chicken, and veal. In Northern Catalonia, it is sometimes called ollada.

Other Catalan dishes are calçots (similar to leeks and often eaten with a romesco sauce) and escalivada.

Music

Main article: Catalan music

Catalan music has one of the oldest documented musical traditions in Europe.^{[citation needed]}

Religion

The majority of Catalans are of the Roman Catholic tradition.

Social conditions

Catalonia is one of the richest and most well developed regions in Southern Europe. Barcelona is among the most industrialized metropolis and is both a regional capital and a magnet for various migrants from other regions in Spain as well as from foreign countries.^{[citation needed]}

Identity and nationalism

Due to the continued identification with a distinct identity, many Catalans support Catalan nationalism or Catalan independentism in Spain. This is only seen to a much lesser extent in France.

Nonetheless, there are many Catalans for whom the Catalan identity is not viewed as necessarily being mutually exclusive with the Spanish one. In contrast, the situation in France has been sharply different as French policies have completed a more thorough assimilation of the French Catalans into the French Republic.^{[citation needed]}

Famous Catalans

Main article: List of Catalans

See also

• Catalonia
• History of Catalonia
• Catalan myths and legends
• Nationalities of Spain
• Òmnium Cultural
• Spanish people

References

• Balcells, Albert et al. Catalan Nationalism : Past and Present (Palgrave Macmillan, 1995).
• Collier, Basil. Catalan France (J.M. Dent and Sons Ltd., 1939).
• Conversi, Daniele. The Basques, the Catalans and Spain: Alternative Routes to Nationalist Mobilization (University of Nevada Press, 1997). ISBN 1-85065-268-6.
• Guibernau, Montserrat. Catalan Nationalism: Francoism, Transition and Democracy (Routledge, 2004).
• Hargreaves, John. Freedom for Catalonia?: Catalan Nationalism, Spanish Identity and the Barcelona Olympic Games (Cambridge University Press, 2000).
• Simonis, Damien. Lonely Planet Catalunya & the Costa Brava (Lonely Planet Publications, 2003).
• Starkie, Walter. The Road to Santiago (John Murray, 2003).
• Michelin THE GREEN GUIDE France (Michelin Travel Publications, 2000).

Online references

• US Library of Congress Country Studies: The Catalans
• Catalans, World Culture Encyclopedia
• Ethnologue for Catalan language
• Lletra. Catalan Literature Online
• Catalans in France
• Catalan Resources
• Catalan Identity
• Museum of the History of Catalonia
• Catalanism
• Catalan Dancing
• The Spirit of Catalonia. 1946 book by Oxford Professor Dr. Josep Trueta
• Catalan Festivals and Traditions