No matter how much Manolo Lama and Paco González shouted themselves hoarse at the Bernabéu, Real Madrid's stadium was the scene of another defeat, in this case without footballers on the pitch: the Barcelona ceremony marked an abysmal contrast. Sobriety and good taste gave a helping hand to the saccharine cayetanismo. Complacency is nauseating, but the autoestima boost was necessary. In any case, a great contrast between the Barcelona and Madrid headlines this Thursday. The cave insisted on its obsession: Spain, Spain, Spain. "Blessed Sagrada Família, a sign of 'concord in Spain'," wrote El Mundo. It would have been nice to refer to the concord shown by the police on September 11, 1924, when they arrested Gaudí for refusing to speak Castilian. Abc also highlighted the temple's power to maintain state cohesion and La Razón, for its part, spoke of "unity," which we all know that under its masthead – that rojigualda in the corner of the flag – means, also and always, Spain. All in all, one way or another of not addressing the evidence: there are two different cultures, which are also expressed in aesthetics and the externalization of religious sentiment.
In the Catalan headlines, on the other hand, there was no trace of Spain, but it is interesting to see who brought Catalonia into them then and who embarked on other paths. La Vanguardia, for example, headlined "The Sagrada Família of the world," and El Periódico went even further and the planet was too small for it, so it wrote "The Sagrada Família points to the sky." In contrast, El Punt Avui not only did it not speak of Spain, but the headline was: "Looking up for Catalan." ARA also picked up the crumbs of Catalan identity left by Leo XIV and featured his words on the front page when he stated that the temple is "a catechism of stones, colors, and lights," which guides God's people "from this Catalan land." It guides God's people and, above all, it guides tourists. Or, as Gaudí said, "first beauty, then Starbucks".
