A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend a performance of the Mystery Play of Elche (thanks to the El Tempir association, which organizes it, for the invitation). It is a marvel, an undeniable joy of medieval Catalan and European culture. For those unfamiliar with it, it is a liturgical drama that depicts the Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin Mary and has been performed uninterruptedly in the Basilica of Santa María in Elche for over five hundred years. The current performance follows the text of the 1625 consueta. The play is sung entirely in Valencian or medieval Catalan—except for brief fragments in Latin—and is musically rich. From a theatrical point of view, it has moments—the appearance of the Angel, the descent of Christ—that make a powerful impression on any spectator, regardless of their religious beliefs. Even today's spectators, accustomed to constant overstimulation and amazing spectacles, are moved and impressed by the Mystery of Elche and its powerful fascination.
The survival of such a valuable cultural expression throughout the centuries is solely thanks to the people of Elche. A visit to Elche—a city that seems almost imaginary, with its enormous palm grove, crisscrossed by orchards and an irrigation system, declared a World Heritage Site—a visit to Elche, I was saying, could be a fitting lesson in humility for the pack of pretentious preachers who want to save Catalonia and the Catalan language without acknowledging that it is alive and well, or the things they do. Getting to know the people from El Tempir, or the Casal Jaume I in Elche, or the Ali i Truc bookstore, or the Catalan Philology Department at the University of Alicante, with its magnificent humanities library, and meeting everyone who works intelligently and perseveringly to maintain the vitality and normality of the Catalan language in the far south, far below all the tourist traps and the ultranationalist right wing, and who also work with joy and without absurd fanfare or desire for the limelight, should at least make more than a few self-important people refrain from trying to lecture anyone about anything.
Elche is the third largest city in the Valencian Community and is full of Cayetanos They provincially imitate the most antiquated fashions of Madrid. But it also has the sunlight that shines among the date palms and an orchard that belongs to the Virgin herself (in her heavenly person), a House of Celebration, a Calaforra Tower, a majestic Mystery Play, and a language and culture of its own, as vibrant as we will ensure it remains. If you truly want to do something positive for the Catalan language, start by ceasing to be condescending and patronizing towards the people of the Valencian Country.
