It’s fitting that George Orwell is the author we reach for first when discussing Catalonia; fitting, too, that a public square in Barcelona bears his name. Not only is Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia the most imperishable English-language account of the Spanish Civil War, the recent actions of the Spanish government to suppress the Catalan secession vote—sending in its police forces while issuing sinister down-the-memory-hole pronouncements: “There was no independence referendum in Catalonia today”—seem lifted from the pages of Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Whatever hopes Spain had of containing secessionist sentiment were squashed last weekend when images emerged from Catalonia of police beating protesters, voters being hurled down flights of stairs, elderly women bleeding, amounting to an injury count of nearly 900 people. Enraged at the brutality, even Catalans who’d been cool to secession headed to the polls. The final result of the referendum, according to officials, was 90 percent in favor of independence but with a turnout rate of only 42 percent. That afforded both sides their talking points, but Catalan separatism emerged as the only real victory, infused with fresh passion, a David with a Goliath.
No comments:
Post a Comment