Xavier and Catalan Independence

They declared the referendum unconstitutional and then put the independence leaders in prison.Xavier Ballart is the owner of the apartment where I’m staying in Barcelona. He stopped by to explain Cataluña’s drive for independence.

Even though he spoke Spanish instead of Catalan, I couldn’t understand him as well as I’d like. He suspected as much but was too polite to let on. There was no mistaking what his hands and his expressions were saying.

Xavier said economics is part of the story. Cataluña is an innovative, productive part of the country. Like the colonials in early America, Catalans resent that Madrid takes a oversized bite out of their taxes before sending what’s left to other parts of the country.

But just as important, he said, is dignity.

The Catalan history runs deep and includes a distinct language that was outlawed by the fascists under Franco. Cataluña considers itself more open and forward thinking that other parts of Spain. It sets trends and challenges traditions. It is to Spain roughly what California is to the U.S.

Its population is about that of modern-day Switzerland and three times greater than America’s was when we claimed independence .

Last year a referendum on independence was outlawed by Spain and suppressed by the police. Some separatists leaders went into exile. Although the vote was in favor of independence, divisions run deep.

There were marches on Sunday. I happened to walk past a company of police standing on the ready on the east side of town. Xavier refers to them as RoboCops.

Secession is tricky business. Our Declaration of Independence insists that a free people have the right to secede and form a new government but the constitution we ended up with doesn’t include that protection. We fought a civil war over that issue.

Cataluña’s drive for independence has had an effect on investments and the economy. European governments have not given the recognition the ‘independentistas’ are asking for.

Xavier wears a yellow cloth ribbon on his shirt — you see them on the streets. He gave me an enameled metal version that he knows, as a visitor, I’ll never wear. He simply wanted a blogger from America to know that something is happening here.