What is Happening in Catalonia (2017)
(Qué está pasando en Cataluña)
Eduardo Mendoza (1943)
94 pages
Hoping to clarify some of this confusion, the Catalan writer Eduardo Mendoza has released a short book on the relationship between Catalonia and Spain, and the implications to the current unrest. In What is Happening in Catalonia he notes that even within Spain the conflict has for years been marked by a great deal of misunderstanding. Much of this, he argues, has arisen out of myths about Catalonia and its people --- myths that have been propagated among both Catalans and their non-Catalan, fellow citizens of Spain.
Over twelve concise but compellingly written chapters he addresses these myths, introducing them, analyzing how they took root and describing how they have contributed to aggravating an already volatile situation. A number of the chapters explore the experience of the Catalan people during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, which lasted from the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939 until his death in 1975. Mendoza claims that mischaracterizations of this period have solidified into dogma now trotted out by those in the separatist movement to support their cause, without a thoughtful consideration of their validity.
Another set of chapters examine the history of Catalonia, from a region of largely independent villages of farmers and fisherman, through a period of rapid modernization during the industrial revolution, and up to the recent challenges posed by issues such as immigration. Mendoza suggests that, like peoples in other regions of the world, Catalans have created stories of a romantic and noble past as a means of developing a coherent vision of their identity. Similarly, in Spain outside of Catalonia, more prejudicial images of the Catalan people have developed which tend to deprecate Catalan identity. In either case, Mendoza presents arguments that explode these simplified images.
Mendoza rounds out the book with chapters that discuss how Catalonia fits into the idea of Spain, and the implications of his analysis for the status and future of the separatist movement.
Though directed to the immediate challenges of the Catalan separatist movement for both Spain and Catalonia, Mendoza’s analysis in the book ties into broader issues of our day. Addressing, for example, the current attraction in many countries around the world --- and most particularly in western democracies --- of movements focused around an often powerful, but generally incoherent position against the status quo, he writes:
The political position of the contra movements is a characteristic of an age in which has disappeared any form of opposition to a social-economic system that is dismantling with impunity the welfare state and any hint of distributive justice. A considerable sector of the electorate exercises their vote as a punishment --- a castigation. This is understandable, but the result can be noxious. In the best cases it leads to instability; in the worst, to situations worse than those against which those contra movements sprang up. (83)
Las posturas políticas a la contra son una characterística de una época en la que ha desaparecido cualquier forma de oposicíon a un sistema socioeconómico que va desmantelando impunemente el estado de bienestar y cualquier amago de justicia distributiva. Un considerable sector del electorado ejerce el voto de castigo. Es comprensible, pero el resultado suele ser nocivo. En el mejor de los casos conduce a la inestabilidad; en el peor, a situaciones peores que aquéllas contra las que se ha actuado. (83)
Thus, a sense of disempowerment in the face of social challenges --- such as the impact of economic disruption or accelerated immigration --- has left populations latching onto groups motivated by a single-minded desire to dismantle existing political institutions, with little in the way of a coherent plan to replace them. The results of the 2016 U.S. presidential election can be viewed as an example of such a “castigation” when viewed in light of comments by the historian Vincent Harding in 2011 that “for the white community of America, there is this uncertainty growing about its role, its own control, its own capacity to name the realities.” (An extended version of Harding's comments can be found here.)
Mendoza’s observation of the power of myth and the impact of social disruption on the development of the Catalan separatist movement has parallels to observations by Eric Hoffer, in his essay The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements:
… frustration not only gives rise to the desire for unity [with a larger cause] and the readiness for self-sacrifice but also creates a mechanism for their realization. Such diverse phenomena as a deprecation of the present, a facility for make-believe, a proneness to hate … and many others which crowd the minds of the intensely frustrated are … unifying agents and prompters of recklessness. (Hoffer, 59, my review of the book here)
In his book What is Happening in Catalonia, Eduardo Mendoza has provided an engaging introduction to some of the more common narratives particular to the Catalan independence movement. In his arguments, he has tied the situation in Catalonia to broader challenges facing societies world-wide, making the book valuable beyond that particular situation. In that context, an observation he makes toward the end of the book would seem to indicate his doubts about whether workable political solutions can be found for many of these conflicts:
The illusion of democracy lies in the belief that democracy is a superior state in which it is sufficient to invoke it as if it were a charm through which all problems can be resolved. But it is not that. The life of a society is difficult. Democracy offers some means of mitigating arbitrariness and abuse of power, but nothing more. It only constitutes the rules of a system, as merciless as any other one. (69)
El sueño de la democracia consiste en creer que la democracia es un estado superior en el cual basta invocarla como si fuera un sortilegio para que se resuelvan todos los problemas. Pero no es así. La vida de una sociedad es dura. La democracia ofrece algunas recurso para mitigar la arbitrariedad y el abuso del poder, pero no más. Es sólo el reglamento de un sistema tan despiadado como cualquier otro. (69)
Other reviews / information:
At this point, I’m not aware of this book having been translated yet into English. The translations from Spanish of the quotes in the review are mine.
Read more quotes from this book here.
Have you read this book, others by this author, or even similar ones by other authors? I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts.
Other of my book reviews: FICTION Bookshelf and NON-FICTION Bookshelf
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