I've just arrived from Mexico and I'm struck by the paradox that I suddenly hear less Catalan spoken in Barcelona than at the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL). The FIL was a fabulous bubble of self-esteem. It was full of Catalan-language authors—74% of the invited authors wrote in the country's own language—and those who write in Spanish, who for obvious reasons were the most successful there—Javier Cercas or Eduardo Mendoza—naturally also frequently used Catalan in private conversations.
In Mexico, among the upper classes, it's not difficult to find links to the Catalan exile. The country's president herself, Claudia Sheinbaum, was first married to Carlos Imaz Gispert, son of Montserrat Gispert Cruells (Barcelona, 1934 - Mexico City, 2022), a renowned biologist who arrived in Mexico at the age of 7, suffering from tuberculosis. She's the grandmother of the Mexican president's son. Stories of exile are a bottomless well.
Catalanophobia, so persistent on the Iberian Peninsula—one only has to look at the unstoppable rise of Vox—doesn't exist in Latin America. It's unlikely to exist when, apart from minorities in the cultural world or families with histories like that of the president, the vast majority are unaware of Catalonia's very existence. And those who discover the present and historical reality of Catalan, if they view it, as is often the case, from an anti-colonial nationalist perspective, find it rather amusing: they see us as a rebellious and noble people, a people who, like them, have also suffered Spanish rejection and contempt, and have persevered. The fact that we have media outlets, publish more than 9,000 titles a year, and have a prestigious literature generates a healthy envy in them.
It's a mistake to look at those immense and diverse lands as a merely and homogeneously Hispanic territory. It reveals a great deal of ignorance. The long-suffering pre-Hispanic cultures and languages have ancient roots and a thriving revival, albeit modestly, even though Castilian Spanish remains the predominant, common, and beloved language. In any case, the resilience and rebirth of Catalan appeals to them. It's not a matter of numbers—we Catalans are few: fewer than the inhabitants of Mexico City, which is approaching 9 million—but of will and modernity. We too can learn from the optimism that, despite objective difficulties, spurs them on.
As for the Latin Americans who come to Catalonia to make a living, they often don't realize they'll encounter a language other than Spanish. In truth, they have no need to learn it. But beyond laziness, lack of curiosity, or the absence of obligation, they initially have nothing against it, no national or ideological prejudice. It's a matter of taking advantage of that emotional neutrality. On the plane back, a Mexican woman in love with a Catalan man from Reus, very outgoing and cheerful, imitated our words and accent. "Very, very good!" she kept saying, thoroughly amused.
The controversy surrounding the grant for a Latin American author doesn't make much sense when viewed from this perspective of the American continent, untainted by Spanish bias. It's good to attract literary talent to Barcelona, where the recipient will live within our bilingual reality. It's true that the grant could be extended to pre-Columbian languages... One could also be created for English (United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom) or perhaps even with an open call for applications to all the other languages of the world.
Furthermore, it's worth noting that the Barcelona City Council allocates one and a half million euros annually to the book industry, of which no less than 75% goes to Catalan-language publishing and authorship. This includes the Montserrat Roig grants for creative writing (€6,000 per recipient: most awarded to authors writing in Catalan), international exchanges, Catalan Book Week, purchases for libraries (65% of titles acquired are in Catalan), the five literary festivals, and also Sant Jordi's Day. The recent creation of a municipal language commissioner aims to further promote these policies, although the priority will be the social use of Catalan among young people, where the decline is worrying.
