Dalí to the Panadella
Dalí, God rest him, was wrong. So was his father, the God of Catalan religion, Francesc Pujols, from Barcelona-Martorell. The one from Figueres dared to say that the center of the world, of the universe was… “This place is located exactly in the center of the Perpignan station.” And more disoriented than clock-like mustaches that strike neither quarter hours nor full hours, he recalls God the Father: “All important things happen there, and Pujols also saw it clearly, because Montpellier, Perpignan, is the place where truth is to be discovered.” We can't stop laughing. The truth is at La Panadella.
Joan Coromines knew it well. A language detective, a philologist, and the foremost specialist in Romance linguistics. He spent his entire life interrogating words. And by shaking La Panadella, he ended up confessing that it means Bread and Drink. Here beings stop for that. And then continue the long journey. La Panadella has been a continuous present of this country. A gerund of our existence. The plot twist of our history. Click.
La Panadella is very small but it is very big. About forty people live here. But everything and everyone has happened here. From a Roman road to a royal road, or regal. Yes, protected by our Kings of the genetic Game-of-Thrones. The political, economic, social, military highway of what we are: the Crown of Aragon (1162). The most direct route between Barcelona (County of Barcelona), Balaguer (County of Urgell), and Saragossa (Kingdom of Aragon). We are this: the asphalt of the first universal confederation. Since the 12th century, it has been a permanent center of gravity.
La Panadella, the node of Catalonia. A human and communicative infrastructure. Ideas, news, products, people circulate here, speak, make pacts... Everything. Known as the Wheat Road since the days of the Middle Ages and the days of the Urgell canal. Wheat, fruit, vegetables that go from Ponent to Barcelona. And from Barcelona to Europe, to the world. Food and the desire to eat. Thirst and the thirsty. La Panadella is the capital of the in-between.
La Panadella is the hinge that opens the doors, the shutters. La Panadella mirrors the basins of the Segre and Llobregat rivers. La Panadella meeting point of the muscle of eastern and western Catalan. La Panadella natural encounter of the geography of Lleida, Barcelona and Tarragona: unique, here the tectonic plates touch. Railing of Old Catalonia and New Catalonia. La Panadella collective memory. La Panadella is the pot, the trencadís, the coca de recapte, the allioli... that makes a country. And now it returns like the Catalan Terminator.
More than a hundred mayors from different parts of Catalonia and economic and social associations are meeting this Monday the 13th in La Panadella for this. The future of Catalonia is no longer played in Girona or Barcelona. Dalí, Empordà; Pujols Barcelona-Baix Llobregat have nothing more to say. Tomorrow is played on the La Panadella scale. The balance and imbalance of the country. Where is real Catalonia? Is it the 50% who live in less than 5% of the country in the metropolitan area, or 30% of the country where only 2% of the population lives, as in the Pyrenees? Are some more important than others? And if the fewer have more? Where is the Bread and Drink? Where is life? Where is death?
Dalí is coming at full speed this way. He will paint a new picture about the center of the Universe. A large round table of physical and spiritual foods full of dancing creatures. The great main square of Catalan freedom is in La Panadella. Bread and drink, see, live: Pact of La Panadella, Pact of Catalonia.