In February of 1926, exactly one hundred years ago, the Magazine of Catalonia He initiated a survey on "Catalonia-City," a concept coined in 1905 by the modernist writer Gabriel Alomar. From a Catalanist position, but one entirely opposed to conservative regionalism, Alomar advocated a revaluation of the idea of the city, which in his view was where, historically, "the strength of nationalities" and their resurgence resided. For this reason, the Mallorcan writer (who would later become one of the founders of the Socialist Union of Catalonia) maintained that it was necessary to undertake "the Barcelonaization of Catalonia"...of the old mountainous and rural Catalonia, distorted by centuries of coexistence with Spanish Spain." Furthermore, he predicted that "until the Catalan people resume their orbit around the new Barcelona, there will be no revived nation."
Another Republican politician from Alomar affirmed that "the goal of nationalism is for all of Catalonia to be a city." The idea gained traction, even within conservative sectors of Catalan nationalism, and Eugeni d'Ors adopted it for the Noucentisme movement, consistent with his desire to extend throughout the country a "civility" that sought to construct a national culture but also one of stark class inequality. Thus, it is not surprising that the Magazine of Catalonia Conduct a survey on the concept of Catalunya-Ciutat, based on the conviction, expressed by its director, Antoni Rovira i Virgili, that "it would be difficult to find a formula that is simultaneously more accurate, more concise, and more expressive." But the result was not entirely satisfactory: according to the summary Rovira himself made a few months later, in December 1926, Catalonia was not yet "spiritually" unified, and although in the preceding decades geographical and spiritual distances had been considerably reduced, "Catalunya-Ciutat. We already have our City of Intelligence. But it must be expanded, its urban planning improved, and connections secured and facilitated."
Rovira then observed that the proposed objective was unattainable: "The fruit is not yet ripe enough" and "the moment is not entirely opportune." He was also particularly pained by the fact that, throughout the survey, he had noted "the persistent complaints and accusations against Barcelona's centralism and its possessive nature." He, who was not from Barcelona, rebelled against this notion, asserting instead that "Barcelona, throughout history, has sinned far more from a lack of ambition [...] than from a desire to subjugate, absorb, or centralize." In his view, the "head and center of Catalonia" had been neither a "bureaucratic capital nor an iron-fisted ruler," and therefore "has never dictated the law in Catalonia." Moreover, "it has been more timid than bold" and "more generous than stingy towards others." And he concluded, emphatically: "He hated little, and was hated much."
Today, one hundred years later—and at a time when the master plan for the Barcelona metropolitan area, which is to replace the old 1976 General Metropolitan Plan (PGM) crucial for regulating access to housing and integrated mobility, is in the process of being approved—urban Catalonia is a rural reality, the old one superseded by an urbanization not only physical, which, in a way, has made "all of Catalonia a city." A porous, permeable territory that currently, despite the railway ills we suffer—the commuter rail is, or should be, in fact, the metro of this great city—is fully connected by the "links" that Rovira i Virgili spoke of.
What has not disappeared, it seems to me, is the also old question of the role that the city of Barcelona should play in relation to Catalonia as a whole. In the 80s and 90s, Jordi Pujol made it one of his pet projects, and Maragall's idea of metropolitan power unleashed a "culture war" that has now faded. But in some sectors, the misgiving persists that Barcelonaization represents a loss for Catalan identity, even going so far as to suggest that what is actually needed is a Catalanization of Barcelona. This issue shouldn't be ignored, because the future of the country is closely linked to the evolution of its capital (just ask the Valencians or the Mallorcans!), but if the debate is to be even minimally fruitful and honest, we should first agree on what Catalan identity means, without the rapidly changing social perspective.
