The Valencian Regional Ministry of Education, headed by Minister Carmen Ortí, has confirmed a new attack on the teaching of Catalan language and literature in Valencian public schools. This is yet another secessionist move: a measure that, under the guise of "prioritizing Valencian authors" in academic content, marginalizes and excludes writers born in Catalonia and the Balearic Islands from the Valencian language curriculum. Because they are not "Valencian" and do not write "in Valencian." Minister Ortí and her team overlook, or perhaps ignore, the fact that the first author to write in Valencian was a Mallorcan, Ramon Llull (with all due respect to the troubadours). This was possible because Llull was the first European writer to address theological and philosophical themes not in Latin, which was the language of culture in the 13th century, but in Catalan. In other words, Llull was a Mallorcan who wrote in Valencian because he wrote in Catalan. This, interchangeably, can be said of all Catalan writers throughout history. Of Valencian writers, too, and first and foremost: a very significant part of the best Catalan literature has been written by Valencians. Furthermore, from Ausiàs March and Joanot Martorell to Josep Piera, Enric Soria, Maria Josep Escrivà, Àngels Gregori, and Joan Deusa, including giants like Estellés and Fuster, it can be stated unequivocally that Catalan literature would not exist (it wouldn't exist as we know it: it would be much smaller). And we can put it another way: all Catalan, Mallorcan, Menorcan, and Ibizan authors write in Valencian. Doesn't Councilor Ortí know this either? If she doesn't know something as basic as this, she's obviously not fit to be a regional minister, much less the Minister of Education.
Of course, it's not a matter of the minister's ignorance, but rather the lowest form of politicking, which insists on using public schools to project the hatreds of the Spanish ultranationalist right, starting with anti-Catalanism. The fact that Valencian students can't study Llull, or Llorenç Villalonga, or Mercè Rodoreda, or Pere Calders, or Maria Mercè Marçal is a colossal absurdity and stupidity, which has no pedagogical or, of course, literary sense and only responds to the furious hatred of this right wing, for what they deem convenient: cava and nuts. It is from their hatred that these people (there's no reason to respect them) generate misinformation and, in this case, also ignorance: that is, they conceal and hide knowledge with the intention of distorting reality, such as claiming that "Valencian" literature is nothing other than Catalan literature. Their sole intention, for their part, is not to promote Valencian, but to dismantle the unity of the Catalan language in order to end up doing everything in Spanish. We tell them the same thing as always: go to hell. Seriously, man.
