Catalan Countries

Map of the Països Catalans ("Catalan Countries")

Northern Catalonia Catalonia Alghero La Franja Valencia Balearic Islands Carche Italy Spain France Mediterranean Sea Balearic Sea Andorra (In darker grey, Catalan-speaking area) The concept of the Catalan Countries includes territories of the following sovereign states:
COUNTRY	REGION
Spain	Catalonia Valencia Balearic Islands Aragon (for Western Strip) Murcia (for Carche)
France	Northern Catalonia in the Pyrénées-Orientales department
Andorra	Catalan is the official language
Italy	The city of Alghero

The estelada, a separatist symbol, is often regarded as the flag of the Catalan Countries, especially the red-star version.

Graffiti on Belfast's Falls Road

Graffiti in Argentona. It reads "for the unity of the language and the Països Catalans".

Graffiti in Vilassar de Mar, which reads "One nation, Països Catalans! One language, Catalan!".

Template:Fix bunching The Catalan term Països Catalans (often literally translated into English as Catalan Countries) refers to the territories where Catalan language is spoken.

The first mentions of the term date back to the late 19th century, but it never surpassed the limits of a small circle of Catalan authors until its strictly cultural dimension became increasingly politically charged by the late 1960s and early 1970s, as Francoism began to die out in Spain. Thus, what had remained to date as a cultural term restricted to connaisseurs of Catalan philology, then rose to prominence and became highly controversial during the Spanish Transition period, most acrimoniously in Valencia during the 1980s.

The Països Catalans do not have any legal entity nor is there any universal territorial definition of the scope covered by this concept. It may refer strictly to the territories in which the different varieties of Catalan are traditionally spoken, or it may be extended to the entire political entities in which Catalan has some official status, in spite of the fact that those entities include areas where Catalan is not spoken (the map to the right covers this latter usage).

Component Regions

Catalan is spoken in:

• the Spanish autonomous communities of
  • Catalonia —even though in the comarca of Val d'Aran Occitan is considered the language proper to that territory—
    • "La Franja de Ponent" ("The Western Strip") a Catalan-speaking area in the Spanish autonomous community of Aragon;
  • the Balearic Islands and
  • as Valencian, in the Valencian Community, with the exception of some western comarcas where Spanish is the only language spoken;
    • Carche, a small Valencian-speaking area in the Spanish autonomous community of Murcia;
• Andorra, a European microstate;
• most of the French department of the Pyrénées-Orientales, also called le Pays Catalan (Catalan Country) in French or Catalunya (del) Nord (Northern Catalonia) in Catalan;
• the Italian city of Alghero, in the island of Sardinia, where a variant of Catalan is spoken.

Catalan is the official language of Andorra, co-official with Spanish and Occitan in Catalonia, co-official with Spanish in the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community —with the denomination of Valencian in the latter— and co-official with Italian in the city of Alghero. It is also part of the recognized minority languages of Italy along with Sardinian, also spoken in Alghero. It is not official in Aragon, Murcia or the Pyrénées-Orientales, even though, recently, the General Council of the Pyrénées-Orientales officially recognized Catalan, along with French, as a language of the department, on 10 December 2007.

Cultural dimension

Trans-regional cultural collaboration

There are several endeavors and collaborations amongst some of the diverse government and cultural institutions involved. One such case is the Ramon Llull Institute (IRL), founded in 2002 by the Government of the Balearic Islands and the government of Catalonia. Its main objective is to promote Catalan language and culture abroad in all its variants, as well as the works of writers, artists, scientists and researchers of the regions which are part of it. On 2008, in order the extend the collaboration to institutions from all across the Catalan Countries, the IRL and the government of Andorra (which formerly had enjoyed occasional collaboration, most notably in the Frankfurt Book Fair of 2007) created the Ramon Llull Foundation (FRL), an international cultural institution with the same goals as IRL. In 2009 the General Council of the Pyrénées-Orientales, the city council of Alghero and the Network of Valencian Cities (an association of a few Valencian city councils) joined the FRL as well.

Another relevant example is the Joan Lluís Vives Institute, a collaborative network constituted by universities in the Catalan linguistic domain.

Political dimension

Controversy

The term is controversial because many non-Catalans see the concept of the Països Catalans as regional exceptionalism, counterpoised to a centralizing Spanish and French national identity. Others see it as an attempt by a Catalonia proper centered nationalism to lay a hegemonic claim to the historically Catalan regions in southern France or, in Spain, to Valencia or the Balearic Islands –where the prevailing feeling is that they have their own respective historical personality, not necessarily related to Catalonia's, as the Països Catalans term would suggest. Some authors, also within the Catalan literature, have dubbed the term as "inconvenient", while attesting that the concept has generated more reactions against it than actual positive adhesions

Thus, in extensive areas included in the territories designated by some as Països Catalans, Catalan nationalist sentiment is uncommon or nonexistent. For example, in the Valencian Community case, Esquerra Repúblicana del País Valencià (ERPV) is the most relevant party explicitly supportive of the idea but its representation is limited to a total of four local councilors elected in three municipalities (out of a total of 5,622 local councilors elected in the 542 Valencian municipalities). At the regional level, it has run twice (2003 and 2007) to the regional Parliament election, receiving less than 0.50% of the total votes. In all, its role in Valencian politics is currently marginal. There are other parties supportive of the concept in Valencia, but they have achieved so far even more negligible results than those of ERPV. Despite of this lack of popular support, some of the most vocal defenders or promoters of the "Catalan Countries" concept (such as Joan Fuster, Josep Guia or Vicent Partal) were Valencian.

The subject became very controversial during the politically agitated Spanish Transition in what was to become the Valencian Community, especially in and around the city of Valencia. In the late 70s and early 80s, when the Spanish Autonomous Communities system was taking shape, the controversy reached its height. Various Valencian right wing politicians (originally from Unión de Centro Democrático) fearing what was seen as an annexation attempt from Catalonia, fueled a violent Anti-Catalanist campaign against local supporters of the concept of the Països Catalans, which even included a handful of unsuccessful attacks with explosives against authors perceived as flagships of the concept, such as Joan Fuster or Manuel Sanchis i Guarner. The concept's revival during this period was behind the formation of the fiercely opposed and staunch anti-Catalan blaverist movement, led by Unió Valenciana, which, in turn, significantly diminished during the 90s and the 2000s as the Països Catalans controversy slowly disappeared from the Valencian political arena.

This confrontation between politicians from Catalonia and Valencia very much diminished in severity during the course of the late 1980s and, especially, the 1990s as the Valencian Community's regional government became consolidated. Since then, the topic has lost most of its controversial potential, even though occasional clashes may appear from time to time, such as controversies regarding the broadcasting of Catalan television in Valencia —and vice versa— or the usage by Catalan official institutions of terms which are perceived in Valencia as Catalan nationalistic, such as Països Catalans or País Valencià (Valencian Country).

As for the other territories, there are no political parties even mentioning the Països Catalans as a public issue neither in Andorra, nor in la Franja, Carche or Alghero. In the Balearic islands, support for parties related to Catalan nationalism is around 10% of the total votes. Reversely, the Popular Party –which is a staunch opponent of whatever political implications for the Països Catalans concept– is the majority party in Valencia and the Balearic islands.

See also political issue surrounding Valencian

Legal frame

The Spanish Constitution of 1978 contains a clause forbidding the formation of federations amongst Autonomous Communities. Therefore, if the case was that the Països Catalans idea gained a majority democratic support in future elections, a constitutional amendment would still be needed for those parts of the Països Catalans lying in Spain to create a common legal representative body.

Nonetheless, in the addenda to the Constitution there is a clause allowing an exception to this rule in the case of Navarre, which can join the Basque Country should the people choose to do so.

History and evolution of the name. Alternate names

The term Països Catalans was first documented in "Historia del Derecho en Cataluña, Mallorca y Valencia. Código de las Costumbres de Tortosa, I" (History of the Law in Catalonia, Majorca and Valencia. Code of the Customs of Tortosa, I) written by the Valencian Law historian Benvingut Oliver i Esteller.

The term was both challenged and reinforced by the use of the term "Occitan Countries" from the Oficina de Relacions Meridionals (Office of Southern Relations) in Barcelona by 1933. Another proposal which enjoyed some popularity during the Renaixença was "Pàtria llemosina" (Llemosine Motherland), proposed by Victor Balaguer as a federation of Catalan-speaking provinces; both these coinages were based on the theory that Catalan is a dialect of Occitan.

None of these names reached widespread cultural usage and the term nearly vanished until it was rediscovered, redefined and put in the center of the identitary cultural debate by Valencian writer Joan Fuster. In his book Nosaltres els valencians (We, the Valencians, published in 1962) a new political interpretation of the concept was introduced; from the original, meaning roughly Catalan-speaking territories, Fuster developed a political inference closely associated to Catalan nationalism. This new approach would refer to the Catalan Countries as a more or less unitary nation with a shared culture which had been divided by the course of history, but which should logically be politically reunited. Fuster's preference for Països Catalans gained popularity, and previous unsuccessful proposals such as Comunitat Catalànica (Catalanic Community) or Bacàvia (after Balearics-Catalonia-Valencia) diminished in use.

Today the term is politically charged, and tends to be closely associated with Catalan nationalism and Catalan independentism. The idea of uniting these territories in an independent state is supported by a number of political parties, ERC being the most important in terms of representation. Other groups with no representation in the relative regional parliaments, such as ERPV, PSAN, Estat Català, CUP also support this idea to a greater or lesser extent.

See also Catalan language history

See also

• Gate of the Catalan Countries
• Military history of Catalonia
• Muixeranga, proposed hymn for the Catalan Countries.
• Nationalities in Spain

References

• Atles dels Països Catalans. Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2000. (Geo Estel. Atles) ISBN 84-412-0595-7.
• Burguera, Francesc de Paula. És més senzill encara: digueu-li Espanya (Unitat 3i4; 138) ISBN 84-7502-302-9.
• Fuster, Joan. Qüestió de noms. (Online in Catalan)
• Geografia general dels Països Catalans. Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana. 1992–1996. 7 v. ISBN 84-7739-419-9 (o.c.).
• González i Vilalta, Arnau. La nació imaginada: els fonaments dels Països Catalans (1931–1939). Catarroja: Afers, 2006. (Recerca i pensament; 26)
• Grau, Pere. El panoccitanisme dels anys trenta: l'intent de construir un projecte comú entre catalans i occitans. El contemporani, 14 (gener-maig 1998), p. 29–35.
• Guia, Josep. És molt senzill, digueu-li "Catalunya". Llibres del segle. (Què us diré; 22). ISBN 978-84-920952-8-5 (Online in Catalan -PDF)
• Història: política, societat i cultura als Països Catalans. Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, 1995–2000. 13 v. ISBN 84-412-2483-8 (o.c.).
• Mira, Joan F. Introducció a un país. València: Eliseu Climent, 1980 (Papers bàsics 3i4; 12) ISBN 84-7502-025-9.
• Pérez Moragón, Francesc. El valencianisme i el fet dels Països Catalans (1930–1936), L'Espill, núm. 18 (tardor 1983), p. 57–82.
• Prat de la Riba, Enric. Per Catalunya i per l'Espanya Gran.
• Soldevila, Ferran. Què cal saber de Catalunya. Barcelona: Club Editor, 1968. Amb diverses reimpressions i reedicions. Actualment: Barcelona: Columna: Proa, 1999. ISBN 84-8300-802-5 (Columna). ISBN 84-8256-860-4 (Proa).
• Stegmann, Til i Inge. Guia dels Països Catalans. Barcelona: Curial, 1998. ISBN 84-7256-865-2.
• Ventura, Jordi. Sobre els precedents del terme Països Catalans, taken from "Debat sobre els Països Catalans", Barcelona: Curial…, 1977. p. 347–359.

External links

• Catalan Countries in the English version of the Catalan Hiperencyclopedia.
• Lletra. Catalan Literature Online
• The Spirit of Catalonia. 1946 book by Oxford Professor Dr. Josep Trueta