Catalonia: A historical insight into what led to the present crisis

Catalonia: A historical insight into what led to the present crisis

Eduardo Mendoza provides a different angle - a pragmatic non partisan approach - to what has led to present events in Spain and in Catalonia. The author, born in Barcelona in 1943, states in the book "Qué está pasando en Cataluña?"(What is happening in Catalonia?) deals with cetain historical assumptions that tend to distort perceptions of what is actually happening. He also deals with cultural aspects of Catalonia, immigration and how immigration has shaped up today's Catalonia and in end comes to the issue of independence of Catalonia.

Eduardo Mendoza clearly explains why he wrote what he wrote refering to those who are in favour of independence and those who are against independence:

"No lo he escrito para posicionarme en un bando o en otro. Personalmente, no me gusta ninguno de los dos, pero eso se puede atribuir a mi temperamento, a mis ideas y a mi experiencia personal. Lo he escrito para tratar de comprender lo que está pasando." (I haven't written it to take sides. Personally, I don't like neither, but this can attributed to my temperament, to my ideas and to my personal experience. I have written it to try to understand what is happening." 

Although I don't completely agree with some of the statements made by Eduardo Mendoza, the book provides a valuable analysis to deal with the complexities of the subject. When you deal with the history of Spain and of Catalonia nothing is black or white and over-simplication can lead to fundamental errors. Eduardo Mendoza states that although the Spanish Civil has something to do with what is happening today there are other more relevant factors dating from Post-Franco Spain. 

"Francisco Franco fue un criminal de guerra, un dictador y un político astuto y mediocre, pero su importancia histórica y su influencia han sido magnificadas." (Francisco Franco was a war criminal, a dictator and an astute and mediocre politician, but his political importance and his influence have been exaggerated.) By saying this, the author indicates that thinking that everything that happens today was due to the Civil War and Franco's regime is in itself an exaggeration. 

During the Civil War and after the Civil War, Catalonia was not a monolithical unit. Some Catalans sided with Franco and some Catalans sided with the Republic. Catalonia itself was divided across socio-economic classes. In principle, Catalonia didn't want independence. Catalonia wanted to recover its lost freedoms, an amnesty for those who had been incarcerated and those who had been forced to leave the country and the restoration of its autonomous government.

The book plublished by Seix Barral in 2017 is a brief, but right to the point analysis for those seeking to comprehend present realities of Catalonia and of Spain. 

It must be remembered that the book was published long before recent political events in Catalonia and in Spain under a Socialist Prime Minister that seems to have lost control. Excessive use of force and long jail sentences for elected representatives of the Catalonian people are reminders of the fact that repression is neither exclusively left wing or exclusively right wing. It happens under any ideology. What is shocking is that today it is happening in what is considered to be democratic Spain.