The other day there was a huge confusion. Some people thought it was a street name. Others, an expat pastry chef who invented the ensaïmada. Even some argued it was a product of AI. With time, all is revealed. July 27th: 750 years since the death of James I, our king. Because here we had kings, princes, counts, knights, ponies… We know nothing. Normal. James was not meant to exist. It's a mistake.

Borja de Riquer (Barcelona, 1945) has directed the collective work The memory of the Catalans, published by Edicions 62. It has 1,000 pages divided into 221 sections written by 136 authors. It weighs a kilo and a half. It is a monumental book, which eschews essentialism and seeks to explain the country's changing identity forged over a thousand years of history. Characters, landscapes, traditions, monuments, events, and dates are at the foundation of collective memory.

Josep Maria Salrach (Barcelona, 1945) is one of the great medievalists of Catalonia and Europe. Failing health, he has made an effort to speak to the ARA in this interview. Emeritus professor at the UPF, we review with him his career and his vision of Catalonia around the year 1000, at the time of the formation of the nation.