Juana Dolores considers stopping writing in Catalan

BarcelonaThe writer and poet Juana Dolores (El Prat de Llobregat, 1992) has explained in an Instagram video that she is about to abandon Catalan as a language for literary creation, due to the pressure and systematic lynching she suffers on social networks.

Juana Dolores has exploded after the controversy generated by some statements she made in an interview on TV3 about the exhibition she inaugurated this summer at La Virreina, Declaració d'amor a Lenin. The artist explains that she is fed up with the attacks from "a left-wing and nationalist youth organization": "They criminalize immigration with classist, racist, and unashamedly fascist positions". For the poet, conceiving an organization that is simultaneously left-wing and nationalist is "an oxymoron and a contradiction". "It's not me saying it, but political science," she adds.

In her speech, the author of Catalan Requiem. And if a nation parading down a red carpet, published by Edicions Poncianes, recalls that the majority of his literary production is in Catalan, but warns that the current situation makes him reconsider: "90% of my work is written in Catalan. If you want me to continue writing in Catalan, I hope the situation changes, because the truth is I'm about to stop doing so and I realize it's becoming more of a chore for me," he stated.

In this sense, Dolores recalls that she already decided to abandon Catalan on X: "When I stopped writing in Catalan on Twitter it was because I was tired of suffering lynching for years and years by the independents Catalans, bitter, whiny, and racist nationalists." He also reproached certain profiles forinfluencers who take advantage of their name "to scratch a few followers", and has remarked that she is not and does not want to be influencer: "I have a real job. To be influencer is to be a clown, to be a teletienda, and 99.9% of the time to be an ignorant person who has not opened a book and has read it with concentration and humility".

The artist wanted to categorically deny the accusations that attribute to them the statement that Catalan is the language of the bourgeoisie: "I have never said that the Catalan language is the language of the bourgeoisie, you will never find a statement or tweet of mine defending this. The Catalan language does not belong to the bourgeoisie because the bourgeoisie does not own the language they speak. All the beautiful things of this land, like the language, are perpetuated thanks to the sweat and work of the working class," they stated.

Dolores has cited cities like Santa Coloma de Gramenet (el Barcelonès) as an example: "There, the organized working class, many of them migrants and Spanish-speaking, fought so that their children and they themselves as adults would learn Catalan". At the same time, she has asked not to be lectured: "When I am accused of these lies, they talk to me about the working class of the Ebro Delta. My Catalan identity is from the metropolitan area of Barcelona. Many farmers are landowners who must vote for Aliança Catalana. My grandfather was a farmer in Huelva, so don't touch my balls".

Likewise, he has flatly rejected the thesis that Catalonia is a colonized territory: "Catalonia is not a colonized country, it is in coordinates of oppression. Arguing that it is a colonized country is disrespectful to truly colonized countries".

Death threatsDolores has lamented the violence she has had to endure following her public exposure and her statements on TV3: "An event in Piera was disrupted and I left crying, I have been assaulted more than once. I feel profoundly alone", she confessed.

According to the writer, the situation has crossed all limits: "It cannot be that I receive death threats. I owe nothing to Catalonia, it is not a land of welcome but hostile, like any capitalist country". She also lashed out at the upper classes: "The Catalan bourgeoisie who now criticize me wanted to eat my ass, and I did not allow it because I do not want to be a symbol of integration".

Regarding the linguistic debate and public subsidies, Dolores believes that a deep reflection is needed: "The Catalan language is over-subsidized. We should ask ourselves the relevant questions: why is it so subsidized and has no real impact? If we want to fight for Catalan, what we need to do is change our mindset, and not become a kind of Catalan Vox that is starting to be very frightening".

The artist concludes that the working class cares very little about Catalonia's independence: "The working class doesn't give a damn about Catalonia's independence, and if they don't give a damn it's the fault of the Catalans who only do is cry".