We stopped off in Berga on our way to Barcelona. It’s a mediaeval city with a strong history of republicanism. In May 2012 for instance, the town council declared King Juan Carlos to be ‘persona non grata‘. Nobody’s likely though, to be keen on a king who goes elephant hunting in Africa as his country plunges ever deeper into recession.
Now its cause of choice is Catalan independence. I’m not going into the arguments here. Though sauntering along various Ramblas on a September evening as friends and families pop into a bar for a drink, or to a restaurant for dinner, it’s hard to accept their definition of themselves as an oppressed people; or to take entirely seriously their view that they and, for instance, the Kurds, are all in it together.
Mooch up and down the narrow alleys of Berga with us and look at the posters, the slogans, the street art which are such a feature of this town. A young man stopped me as I was snapping away. ‘We don’t all think that way here’ he said. But he admitted that he was in a minority .
Click on any image to see it full size.
From Pyrenees to Pennines 
That’s a wonderful picture at the top of the post and a splendid selection of slogans and posters brought about by the independence movement.
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You haven’t seen the half!
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Judging by those posters, the Catalonians are pretty serious about their desire for independence.
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As with Brexit here, it divides communities and families.
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Division of communities and families seems, sadly, to be a common problem among democracies right now. I know we have our share of it here in the US.
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And not about to change for the better anytime soon 😦
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It’s all so very complicated isn’t it? Autonomy, identity and respect for difference, but at the same time we are all humans seemingly busy squabbling when we so need to be acting collectively especially in the face of climate change.
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I love street art although I suspect one person’s art is another’s graffiti. I was so pleased to read the Fanny post – you all deserve a happy ending.
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There’s no doubt that a lot of this falls under the graffiti heading. But Spain has a lot of good street art too. Thanks. Things looking up at last for my daughter and co.
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So complicated …
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It is for lookers on. For the parties involved, on each side, the issues seem clear cut.
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And of course that’s what makes any hope of resolution complicated if not impossible. Polarization seems to be increasing everywhere, sadly.
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