We are in the Roman wall tower of the Palau Requesens, home to the Royal Academy of Belles Lettres. Eulàlia Duran, a sprightly 91 years old, feels almost like she's coming home. As a child, she lived in another Roman tower in Barcelona, ​​the one belonging to the Casa del Ardiaca. She is the daughter of Agustí Duran Sanpere (1887-1975), the man who reinvented the history of Barcelona and created both the city's archives and museum. Tonight—Thursday evening—he is being honored, somewhat belatedly, on the 50th anniversary of his death. In Barcelona, ​​Duran i Sanpere lends his name to a small passage in the Raval district, where the newspaper ARA is now located. A happy coincidence: with the establishment of the Ardiaca's newspaper archive, Duran i Sanpere did much to preserve the memory of the press. We newspapers have a duty to him. The city does too. Duran i Sanpere, who had preserved Catalan culture from the capital during Primo de Rivera's dictatorship, who had lived with enthusiasm and ambition during the Republican years at the helm of Barcelona's institutions, and who, stubbornly and skillfully, had maintained their continuity during the Franco regime, albeit for a few months. He did, however, witness with deep satisfaction the emergence of one of his daughters, young Eulalia, as a great historian, a true pioneer among women in times still dominated by patriarchal historiography. Eulalia Duran maintains an easy smile and enviable lucidity. Translator and intellectual protégée of Pierre Vilar, disciple of Jaume Vicens Vives—along with her friends Josep Fontana, Jordi Nadal, and Emili Giralt—compiler of Miquel Batllori's work, friend of Joan Fuster, professor to an entire generation of philologists and historians, her work is a history of the history of culture (16th-18th centuries).

Just over a century ago, the Catalans –a large part of the Catalans– We didn't know how to read. "In the 18th and 19th centuries, 70% of the population of Catalonia was illiterate, so for most citizens, information was transmitted orally or through images," explained historian Borja de Riquer at the Palau Requesens in Barcelona, headquarters of the Royal Academy of Belles Lettres, an institution he presides over. He added: "Let's not be nostalgic. People lived worse; living conditions were much worse." De Riquer's voice carries weight. He is a scholar who has deeply studied the history of Catalonia over the last few centuries. He coordinated the voluminous book (weighing in at one and a half kilos!). The memory of the Catalans, the reason for the passionate conversation he had with the deputy director of the ARA, Ignasi Aragay, at an event of Premium Club from the newspaper.

With the death of dictator Francisco Franco on November 20, 1975, Catalan society awoke from a nightmare. It had long been brimming with expectations and dynamism. But until the death of leader The latent energies did not fully erupt. This was also true in the cultural world.

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.