Pride in being Spanish reborn in Catalonia
Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Spain, (MILLAT ONLINE):Francisco Alfonso had never voted or taken part in a demonstration before, but that all changed when Catalonia’s leaders tried to break the wealthy northeastern region away from Spain.
“Before, you kept quiet, you didn’t say anything,” said the 37-year-old plumber, a pro-unity supporter from the working-class town of Santa Coloma de Gramenet near Barcelona.
But after Catalonia’s separatist government went ahead with a banned independence referendum on October 1, and the region’s parliament declared independence three weeks later, “you realise you have to hit the streets”, he said.
“If we didn’t, this would be a jungle. They are separating us from Spain, companies are leaving, the economy is going downhill,” he added, in a reference to the over 3,000 firms that have moved their legal headquarters away since the vote.
For years, separatists monopolised attention — red and yellow striped independence flags draped balconies and flew above dozens of town halls, while Spanish flags were scarce. Meanwhile, grassroots independence groups staged massive rallies.
But the regional government’s separatist drive has led many Catalan opponents of independence, like Alfonso, to become more vocal about their pride in being Spanish.
Those feelings have intensified as Catalonia prepares to vote on Thursday in a regional election that could chart the course of Spain’s secession crisis.
After the referendum, pro-unity supporters began to hang Spanish flags across Catalonia and staged their own mass demonstrations, including one in Barcelona on October 8 that drew hundreds of thousands of people.
“Never in my life had I owned a Spanish flag,” said Alfonso’s friend Mara Jose Gonzalez, a 63-year-old housewife who bought one for a rally.
“The first day I used it I was afraid, but the second time I felt a sort of liberation,” she added before heading to a campaign rally for pro-unity party Ciudadanos with her husband and Alfonso.