Revolt of Catalonia in the Castellana

During the broadcast of the October 12th military parade that TVE aired yesterday, there was one of those moments when the history of Spain explains the present.

The King's Immemorial Infantry Regiment No. 1 was marching, and, amidst the chatter filled with data from the commentators, they explained that this regiment was founded by the Count-Duke of Olivares and that it was fundamental “in 1640 to end the revolts in Portugal and Catalonia.” And that was that.

They were referring, of course, to the Reapers' Revolt against the very grave abuses of those Castilian troops stationed by force in Catalonia. With the cry of “Long live the land and death to bad government,” they killed the viceroy (the Corpus de Sang) and led the Generalitat, presided over by Pau Claris, to break with the Spanish Crown and ally with France.

Naturally, the commentators dismissed the possibility of explaining any of this to the Spanish television viewers, and it all remained as some unknown “revolts in Portugal and Catalonia.” Anyone adding context would have gotten involved in the fact that the current national anthem of Catalonia is an adaptation of the popular song from that revolt, which ended by saying: “To arms, Catalans, for now the king our lord has declared war on us.” Explaining that those troops who were parading down the Castellana were the successors of those people “so proud and so superb” was asking for trouble.

What became clear is that that army fought against Catalonia, that we were the enemies in that story, and that this matter of Catalan revolts is not exactly something new.