Màriam Ben-Arab, the Catalan with Tunisian roots who draws in 'Cavall Fort'

BarcelonaIt's immediately clear that Ridha Ben-Arab (Tunisia, 1948) is a charismatic man. He's an artist, painter, and ceramist. He discovered Catalan existed in his first class. "I was a foreigner, but I didn't have to speak Spanish; I spoke Arabic, French, and English," he recalls.

Ben-Arab witnessed the death of Puig Antich, the No-Do, the fall of the dictatorship, and the Transition. "I didn't arrive when everything was done," he recalls, "for me it was important." "And I was delighted with life, from the first day in Catalan," he says. "I didn't even consider it. We live here, we speak Catalan. To understand a people, you must speak their language," he asserts.

Proud of her Arabic name

When their daughter, Màriam (the Rock of Vallès, 1983), was born, there was no debate either: being a mixed-race couple who spoke Catalan at home, she would speak Catalan to him and he would speak Tunisian (the Arabic of Tunisia). The girl grew up speaking Catalan here and spent her summers on the other side of the Mediterranean, teaching her father. Fina also learned it by listening to him. "It's a gift that they give you when you speak another language, because you learn it effortlessly. I can also speak Tunisian, although I can't write it. They continue speaking it to him, because inertia leads them towards Catalan. "We have always spoken about important things in Catalan," she says. Strong Horse. A demonstration of the broad and diverse Catalan identity. Among other editorial commissions, he has just published the magnificent Ivy (Bindi Books), one of the best children's comics of the year, which compiles the comics published in the magazine over the last three years.

The Ben-Arabs say they haven't noticed any racism in their white skin, but they do hear xenophobic comments. The marriage was a shock in the town of La Fina—the bulk of Muslim immigration would begin to arrive two decades later—and, when they landed in Roca del Vallès, Ridha was called "the Moor." He quickly dismissed it: "Individual attitude counts for a lot, and if you speak Catalan you integrate more, people like it," he says. If he had arrived today, would things have been different? Would he have been forced to speak Catalan in Barcelona? No one knows. What he does know is that today, when they see his name, there are still those who address him directly in Spanish: "That bothers me," he complains. Ridha has spoken, lived, and loved in Catalan for more than fifty years.