J.J. Jenkins is a business administration junior and Mustang Daily study abroad columnist.
If you thought the United States presidential election was heated, the politicization of daily life in Barcelona is a full-blown wildfire.
On Nov. 25, the citizens of Catalonia go to the polls in a de facto vote for independence from Spain. But just like the election of Mitt Romney or re-election of Barack Obama will likely result in a more divided government, no matter how the vote goes, it will all probably be in vain. But, in both cases, that doesn’t make it unimportant.
Spain faces a crisis that makes the sluggish recovery in the States look like a boom. More than 25 percent of the country is out of work, and unemployment is only slightly lower in industrial and economic centers like Barcelona. More than half of young people don’t have jobs.
Improvement in the economy is measured in how little Gross Domestic Product shrank in the past quarter as the government attempts to cut its way out of the recession. The stage is set for a classic struggle with the desire to control deficits and debt on one side and the need to boost consumer spending on the other.
Now as this symbolic vote nears, the streets near the city center are often packed with peaceful protesters, striking public transportation workers and rowdy students who often appear as if they have little to lose.
The police presence at each march is overwhelming. Armored vans and baton-wielding police escort the protesters past Plaça Urquinaona and Plaça Cataluyna, which were hotbeds of resistance and struggle during the Spanish Civil War.
“Aquí, ara, independencía,” (Here, now, independence) echoes through Camp Nou while FC Barcelona plays. Fans transformed the stadium into a giant Catalonian flag before a match against Real Madrid last month, a big “F you” to the capital city. A million-and-a-half people marched down Passeig de Gracía on Sept. 11, marking the day Catalonia lost its autonomy from Spain in 1714. Only once did I see the passion boil over as a group of 20-something’s attempted to smash down a door to an apartment complex where, from a balcony, an unseen man flipped the crowd off through the railing.
On Wednesday, the metro ran at 30 percent of its normal interval, meaning you wait three times as long for each train (usually around 10 minutes) and, more importantly, three times as many people were packed into each car. The buses didn’t run and neither did most cabs. At least there was a legitimate excuse to be 30 minutes late to class.
Next week, there will be a general strike. Nothing working. At all.
Though the strikes are often meant to protest against the Spanish government taking more in tax money from Barcelona than it gives back in benefits, Catalans are caught in the crossfire.
Now, I don’t find the previous argument particularly convincing (if certain states in the U.S. took this stand, Delaware, Minnesota and New Jersey would have a case for rebellion), but it’s a popular and powerful refrain around the city.
Still, the same side often disagrees on exactly what the region wants. At an “intercambio” where my Spanish class met up with a class from a local university so they could practice their English, two students from Catalonia offered different visions for the future. One said he will vote for full independence from Spain while the other offered a compromise: Catalonia could remain part of Spain as long as it had more, even full, control of tax revenue in the city.
From my vantage point, admittedly a distinct outsider, the economic arguments obscure the true difference: language. Of course, language hits at a deeper difference, culture. But inside Barcelona language is most obvious. Even though every Catalan speaks Spanish, the streets signs and direction inside the metro are in Catalan.
Using their own language is a privilege they have only enjoyed since the death of Francisco Franco in 1975, so, in essence, the act of speaking Catalan has traditionally been a form of resistance. These undertones to an already complicated system are what make it so difficult to sort out, even votes can’t change the fact that, in reality, Spain needs Catalonia for the economy and Catalonia needs Spain for legitimacy.
So, just remember when you get the chance to go to the polls today, that we are fortunate to live in a country where a vote for a president is a vote for a united national identity. And, fortunately, the winner, like him or not, is the leader of us all.