Banc Sabadell has had to resort to patriotism to appeal to the conscience of its shareholders and overcome the BBVA takeover bid. Some have rejoiced for objective economic reasons; others have expressed a somewhat more immature, football-oriented gem, as if we were witnessing yet another moral victory. But the fact is that if those at Sabadell had to disguise themselves as Spanish in 2017 for operational reasons, now they have had to disguise themselves as Catalans for the same reason, which means that Catalan identity exists—subsists—under strange formulas, in the realm of the intangible. And this sensorial, non-material nation is the necessary, though not sufficient, condition for us to one day become a practical nation, materialized by facts, norms, and real—that is, political—obligations. Catalonia is something, but it hasn't been political for centuries, ever since the court moved to Madrid and politics with a capital P—the kind born in the Modern Age, the kind of state apparatus, diplomacy, and war—passed us by. The 21st century—and somewhat the 20th—is the time of the Catalans' reencounter with politics, even if it's just political etiquette, and this fact is transcendental. But understanding what politics is about is a process that takes time to crystallize, like everything important in history. As the decades pass, we will become more aware, and perhaps we won't be so harsh on the accident of 2017.
This week I've received some morale boosts that will make me have a good Sunday. I've seen Banc Sabadell disguise itself as Catalan, and I've also seen TVE disguise itself as Catalan through its second channel, now called La 2 Cat. Some see such a disguise as an excess of transvestism and national accidentalism; a way of sneaking in doses of Spanishness through the back door. What I see, and it's common sense, is that it's much better to see Spaniards disguise themselves as Catalans for convenience than the opposite. For too long, we've seen artists, communicators, politicians, businesspeople, and other ambitious figures shedding their skin to camouflage their Catalan identity and feel accepted in the great house of Hispanicism, which has more territory, more markets, and more power, and which, despite these obvious advantages, perceives our resistance to fading away as a veritable kryptonite. Our capacity to generate insecurities is moving!
In addition to Sabadell and La 2 Cat, I have seen Rosalia, a Catalan (very Catalan) who has the habit of exhibiting elf and flow, conducting an interview in Catalan because she felt like it and, above all, because this is the interviewer's professional choice. I've seen many students from the UAB (the Autonomous University, as we used to call it) standing up to Vito Quiles and Hispanic fascism, and I've heard a student at the microphone who had joined in without even being Catalan, because he was clear about which of the two sides in the fray was his. And finally, I spoke with a young friend, exultant because more Catalans have been born this year than ever before in our history, and he said this without any mention or concern about the origins of the parents of these new arrivals, because he's convinced that whoever is born here is imbued with that sensorial and intangible nationality. In some processes of interaction, it fills me with hope, because this kind of osmosis is, above all, the great vaccine against the pathos of disguises.
Oh, and there was also the Planeta Awards gala and I didn't find out until two days later.
