This Tuesday, the bankruptcy of the cooperative of l'Aldea, in Baix Ebre, began to be judged at the Audiència de Tarragona. Fourteen years ago, this bankruptcy caused 408 creditors to lose their savings, with disastrous consequences for the entire town. Although the cooperative's accounts apparently functioned correctly – in fact, they passed an audit by the Generalitat a year before the bankruptcy–, the creditors discovered on December 1, 2011, that there was a deficit of 6.97 million euros, 4.6 million of which were their savings. During the trial, which will last two months, 293 people were summoned as witnesses, although fewer will end up testifying, as during the preliminary hearings, held this morning, compensation agreements have already been reached.

The Ebrenc Litterarum Fair of Literary and Book Events will be held this year between May 28 and 31 in Móra d’Ebre, and will combine book presentations, exhibitions, and literary events. Since last year, the director of Litterarum has been Lluís-Xavier Flores, who has promoted the search for complicity throughout Catalan-speaking areas by opening sub-seats in other towns and cities, such as Morella, Calaceit, Tortosa, or Reus. “One of the challenges is to attract more programmers to the fair and for it to become again the fair of its beginnings, considered strategic by the Institution of Catalan Letters”, states Flores.

The Trapezi Circus Fair celebrates its 30th anniversary, reaffirming an increasingly clear commitment: to break the established framework and move beyond the codes of classic circus to become a showcase for contemporary European circus. The festival vindicates hybrid languages, social perspective, and new scenic formats that connect with theatre or dance. An evolution that may divide opinions, but which confirms Trapezi as a cultural event with its own identity and a future vocation, turning Reus into an open-air creative laboratory.

L’Hospitalet de l’Infant will become from May 29 to 31 the epicenter of jazz in Catalonia with the celebration of the first edition of Hospi Jazz, a new festival promoted by the Department of Culture of the Vandellòs and l’Hospitalet de l’Infant City Council, which is born with the aim of consolidating itself as a reference cultural event on the Costa Daurada. For three days, this town will host concerts and activities mainly dedicated to classic jazz and dixieland, with the participation of prominent bands from the Catalan and Spanish jazz scene.

Tomorrow marks the start of the fifth edition of the Toca’m festival in Tortosa, which maintains its commitment to placing twelve pianos in the streets, distributed across different parts of the city. There will be a total of 28 venues, including new locations such as the Episcopal Palace, the Puríssima convent, the courtyard of the Despuig palace, and the Sant Joan advance posts. The festival will run until next Sunday. Toca’m also reinforces its territorial focus with activities in Flix on April 25th and in Cases d’Alcanar on July 4th.

In the last supplement of ARA Camp de Tarragona, last April, we published an interview with the harpist from Espluga de Francolí, Anna Amigó Vilalta, just two days before she participated in the semifinal of the World Harp Competition, in the Dutch town of Utrecht. Her proposal, very different from the rest of her thirteen competitors, convinced the jury and she became one of the three finalists. The next day she achieved second place in what is considered the world championship of the harp.

There are fewer and fewer people willing to dedicate themselves to teaching. And, honestly, it's hard to be surprised. Being a teacher today is much more than entering a classroom and imparting knowledge. It is managing conflicts, enduring constant pressures, and working in a system that often seems to turn its back on them.For some time now, the school has been undergoing a profound transformation. Teachers no longer just educate: they also take on social and emotional issues that were previously outside the classroom. All this, while having to coexist with bureaucracy, lack of resources, and a growing sense of burnout.The most worrying thing, however, is the progressive loss of respect for this profession. There are still those who repeat the easy discourse that "they work little" or that "they have many holidays," ignoring the invisible hours of preparation, meetings, and corrections. Meanwhile, their demands remain the same: better working conditions, decent salaries, and a real commitment to public education.And now, given the increase in conflicts in schools, proposals are emerging such as incorporating plainclothes Mossos d'Esquadra into schools. Perhaps what education needs is not more surveillance, but more support, resources, and listening. Because when teachers and professors get tired of fighting alone, it is society as a whole that ends up losing.

El Camp de Mart will be the venue on the last weekend of May for the 5th edition of the Teta Festival with the objective of reaffirming itself as much more than a festival: it is a city project, a space that has managed to grow, evolve and attract complicity through feminism, culture and celebration.

Once again, the Camp de Mart Festival arrives, with around twenty shows for all tastes and ages: musical proposals of large and small format, circus and dance in various locations in Tarragona, from June 26 to August 14. Luz Casal, Rodrigo Cuevas, Lila Downs, Yerai Cortés, Maika Makovski, or the company Mal Pelo, among others, are some of the highlighted names in a program made up of an opera, 14 concerts, 4 circus shows, and one dance show.

Casa Rufo opened just before Easter and I already hear diners saying "it's delicious", while confirming that "all dishes enter the kitchen clean". Lleonard Cardona Rufo is a self-taught cook; he has learned from his parents, who first worked in a butcher shop and then at Casa Jesús, in Cases d’Alcanar. In the same place, but with a completely renewed concept, he insists on saying that he has opened a wine bar, but that you can also "eat" there. "In the "terreno", we always eat very well, from the garden, from the sea... and when you hear "delicious", you can rest assured", he shares. "My parents were artists. They made breakfasts, a menu for workers, and à la carte, both at midday and at night", he recalls. He has copied their format a bit, without lunches. At Casa Rufo, he offers a hearty breakfast, vermouth, and small plates at night. There is often a queue because, for the moment, he does not take reservations. He is open from Thursday to Sunday.

The same year that Antoni Gaudí learned —too late— that one had to be careful when crossing a street in Barcelona, in Cambrils we started buying in a covered market. It was 1926, and the coincidence is no metaphor, but it is not entirely innocent either: that year Catalonia was beginning the end of one era and opening another, and Cambrils, in the manner of El Camp, too.

A group of researchers from the Rovira i Virgili University of Tarragona were on the roof of the Palau Güell, on Carrer Nou de la Rambla in Barcelona, and noticed the twenty chimneys that crown this Antoni Gaudí building, recognized by Unesco as a World Heritage Site. Observing them, the question arose. Do they work or are they just ornamental? "It could be that they were just for show or a way to boast," explains Albert Samper, professor at the Higher Technical School of Architecture, who recalls that chimneys were a status symbol, as it implied that buildings that had them had heating, a luxury that at the end of the 19th century only the wealthy classes could afford. But it could also be that the chimneys responded to their main function and were capable of extracting smoke. Gaudí did not write anywhere whether the original chimneys could actually work.

The Falset Wine Fair (Showcase and Market of Wines from DOQ Priorat and DO Montsant) once again bets on cultural and territorial alliances as an integral part of its program, having reissued collaborations from recent years with the cities of Reus and Tarragona, the Fair of Emerging and Family Music of Vila-seca and the Garbinada Pop festival. As a result of this understanding, the Wine Fair weekend (from May 1 to 3) will feature the presence of the cities of Reus and Tarragona, and a series of concerts and shows have been programmed for both a general and family audience.

Butcher wanted in La Selva del Camp (Baix Camp). Stable long-term job. Morning hours (including Saturday) and afternoons from Monday to Friday. Experience and skill with knives essential. Income guarantee and, above all, absolute guarantee of recognition from the village elders, who are already starting to suffer. "This business of eating well is over," laments Maria, as she leaves Miquel and Pepita's butcher shop. "It's been talked about for a while – she continues – but I prefer not to ask," she says. By the end of the year, the three butcher shops in the village will close, and the only option for the 5,700 residents of Selva to buy meat within the municipality will be to go to the supermarket. For some neighbors, like Maria, this is an unprecedented upheaval. "You don't know how much my grandchildren enjoy it when they come to my house and try grandma's hamburgers... My daughter goes to the supermarket, which is another price, but of course..." concludes the neighbor.

I admit that I have lived in Baix Penedès for many years but, due to life circumstances, I had never seen the carpets made in Bellvei.

I've been seeing well-built businesses for a long time – with clear offerings, strategy, track record, and happy customers – that reach a point where things stagnate or even stop working. And for months I've been pondering why.

There are spaces that tell the past of a community better than any history book. In Amposta, this story inevitably goes through its market. Not only as a commercial facility, but as the setting where, for decades, the daily life of the city has unfolded – and still unfolds today.

“The first wine list at the restaurant was made by Ester Nin. Everything I know, she has taught me. Drinking and tasting together, asking her many questions, and me being very persistent and her very generous”. Sincere and direct, that’s how sommelier Litus Raga is, who is retiring after twenty years at the helm of the dining room at La Cooperativa restaurant, in Porrera. “I still have an unpaid invoice from the first day; they were a group of very generous winemakers, but they never remembered to pay it”, he shares with a smile. “Working has been a hobby”, he states upfront. And then: “Whoever hasn’t come all these years, I don’t expect them before I say goodbye”. The last service will coincide with the upcoming Fira del Vi de Falset. He has clear ideas and is one of those sommeliers who, by reading gestures and looks, knows what each table needs, attending to the honest and sincere cuisine of Mia Vall Grau. A floral shirt – a choice surely unconscious but matching the tablecloth – and always precise and often sharp words. They serve as his shield to serve: “There are wines that haven’t moved since the beginning, Vall Llach, Cims de Porrera, Clos Mogador... But from classicism, we have opened windows to new ideas and concepts like those of Nin Ortiz and Terroir al Límite, to whites, to brisados, to bubbles. We have been selecting projects that dialogue with La Cooperativa’s cuisine, with civets, fricandós and roasts. From body, structure, and over-extraction, we have moved to wanting lightness. I think the DOQ Priorat wineries have approached Mia’s stews”, he shares without complexes.

Easter gives the starting signal for the high tourist season on the Costa Daurada. It is increasingly common to see groups of tourists walking through the streets following marked routes, with a clear commitment to extending activity beyond the summer. This dynamism represents an undeniable economic engine, but it also accentuates overcrowding in coastal areas, pressure on services, and a progressive homogenization that threatens local identity. Without a real balance between economy and sustainability, tourist success may end up diluting what makes it attractive.

Unfortunately, the upheaval that the world is suffering, with regional conflicts of strong global implications, economic but above all of democratic culture, diminishes the Catalan cause. Now, as almost a hundred years ago, the emergence of totalitarian, not to say fascist, positions and discourses demands a strong democratic reaction that, as a hundred years ago, is not happening nor is it foreseen. Despite everything, it is essential that it occurs, for the good of all and, above all, of the young generations. And the leadership can only fall to consolidated democracies, with Europe at the forefront, following the stance made explicit by Mark Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister, at the last meeting of the Davos Forum.We must promote policies for greater European integration, supporting political parties that are firmly committed to it, not just discursively. As European integration progresses, the sovereignty of states will diminish. The most relevant decisions – economic, regulatory, or geopolitical – will no longer be made solely at the state level, but increasingly at the European level. In such a context, some issues that today seem almost irresolvable – such as the Spanish state allowing a referendum on self-determination – may be different. When the political weight of states is diluted, the relationships between peoples, territories, and governments can be reorganized with greater flexibility and less drama than we perceive today.Perhaps, then, the most realistic path lies not so much in local decisions as in contributing to the construction of a federal Europe, a Europe in which its peoples share the great responsibilities and challenges of our time.