Catalanismo y españolismo en el pensamiento de Prat de
la Riba (1899)
Enclavada
Cataluña en el área geográfica conocida con el nombre de España, somos españoles, del mismo modo que somos europeos por estar comprendida
España dentro del continente Europa. Gobernada España por el Estado español,
los catalanes somos españoles como miembros de este Estado, como ciudadanos de
esta sociedad política
No somos, pues, enemigos de España, tomada en este sentido (el único real), ni al combatir el Estado español queremos
otra cosa que rehacerlo con equidad y
justicia y con una organización más
adecuada y perfecta, dentro de la cual Cataluña
puede encontrar una vida de libertad y
de progreso.
La Veu de
Catalunya no es ni ha sido nunca separatista,
como no lo son ni lo han sido nunca las Asambleas catalanistas: las Bases de
Manresa, programa de la gran mayoría de los autonomistas catalanes, son
incompatibles con una aspiración separatista. Y esto que decimos ahora lo hemos
dicho siempre...
Queremos ver la patria
catalana unida con vínculos de
hermandad con los demás pueblos de España, formando una familia fuerte y
bien avenida, sin Cenicientas explotadas
ni herederas altivas.
CLASSIFICATION
·
Primary
and written historical source.
·
Political
source.
·
Public
document.
·
Context:
the text was written in Spain in 1899.
·
Intended
audience: everyone interested in politics and social affairs.
·
Author:
Prat de la Riba was a Catalan politician who belonged to Unió Catalanista, a federation of catalanist associations opposed
to Centre Català, another autonomist
party. As Unió rejected to
participate in politics, Prat de la Riba and other Catalanists created the Lliga Regionalista Catalana, a
conservative alternative to the dynastic parties in Catalonia. In the 1901
elections to Cortes the Lliga got 6 deputies and broke the
alternation of the dynastic parties for the first time.
ANALYSIS
In this text, Prat de la Riba defends that the
Catalans are Spaniards but that they should have more autonomy and contribute
less to the regional solidarity.
“La Veu de Catalunya” was a very important Catalanist
newspaper that was published in Barcelona from 1899 to 1937. The diary had a
double purpose: literary and political purpose. The edition was started by
Enric Prat de la Riba, with a mainly political orientation and as a defender of
Lliga Regionalista’s program (the Lliga was the conservative alternative
to the dynastic parties in Catalonia). The “Bases de Manresa” was the name of Unió Catalanista’s program, where they
defended the organization of Spain as a confederation of states, political
autonomy for Catalonia, the re-establishment of ancient institutions, like the Audiencia and the Cortes and Catalan as the official language.
When he talks about “Cenicientas explotadas”, he refers to Catalonia because he thinks
that Catalonia must give too much money to the central government (he calls
them “herederas altivas”).
This document is related to the appearance of
nationalist and regionalist movements in Catalonia, the Basque Provinces and
Galicia, which was one of the most relevant facts of the Restoration. These
movements appeared as a reaction against the State centralization and a political
and administrative system that didn’t take the specific cultural and linguistic
features of other regions into account. In some way, it was a reaction against
Spanish nationalism, which tried to impose a Castilian official culture,
ignoring the plural reality of the country.
Catalanism had a cultural origin. During the
1830s the Renaixença, a cultural and
literary movement had developed, in the context of Romanticism. Their goal was
recovering the Catalan language and culture, but they didn’t have political
expectations. The first political approach took place in 1880, when Valentí
Almirall, a former federal republican, called the 
Catalanist
Congress and tried to unify the two Catalanist currents: the republican and
progressive current and the literary current, more conservative and apolitical.
In 1885 Almirall wrote the Memorial of Grievances (Memorial de Greuges), a document signed by businessmen,
industrialists, workers’ delegates, intellectuals and professionals. It
denounced the oppression Catalonia suffered due to the centralist policy of the
government and claimed for a better treatment for the interests of the rest of
the Spanish regions and was presented to King Alphonse XII, but it didn’t have
any relevant consequence.
Catalanist
Congress and tried to unify the two Catalanist currents: the republican and
progressive current and the literary current, more conservative and apolitical.
In 1885 Almirall wrote the Memorial of Grievances (Memorial de Greuges), a document signed by businessmen,
industrialists, workers’ delegates, intellectuals and professionals. It
denounced the oppression Catalonia suffered due to the centralist policy of the
government and claimed for a better treatment for the interests of the rest of
the Spanish regions and was presented to King Alphonse XII, but it didn’t have
any relevant consequence.
As we have said, Prat de la Riba was a Catalanist man.
Catalanism had a cultural origin. During the 1830s the Renaixença, a cultural
and literary movement, had developed, in the context of Romanticism. Their goal
was recovering the Catalan language and culture, but they didn’t have political
expectations. The first political approach took place in 1880, when Valentí Almirall,
a former federal republican, called the 1st Catalanist Congress and
tried to unify the two Catalanist currents: the republican and progressive
current and the literary current, more conservative and apolitical. In 1885 he
founded the Centre Català. Some Catalan people opposed his progressivism and
founded Unió Catalanista in 1891.
The first party created to defend the Catalan
interests was the Lliga Regionalista Catalana, formed in 1901. As we said, it
was a conservative alternative to the dynastic parties in Catalonia. It was
formed by many members of Unió, like Enric Prat de la Riba. It was created
because Unió rejected to participate in politics. In the 1901 elections to
Cortes the Lliga got 6 deputies and broke the alternation of the dynastic
parties for the first time.
The Catalanists wanted a similar treatment to
the one the Basque Provinces had. After the end of the Third Carlist War, the fueros of the Basque Provinces and
Navarre were abolished, but the Basque Provinces received a special economic
treatment with the Basque Economic Agreement (concierto económico), which allowed the Provincial Councils (Diputaciones Provinciales) to collect
the taxes directly. This especial economic
treatment didn’t stop the appearance of a nationalist movement in the Basque
Provinces (PNV), clearly pro-independence and with an important racist content
initially.
CONCLUSION
Catalonia got more autonomy progressively. In
1899, there was a project of administrative decentralization. The Mancomunitat de Catalunya was created in
1913 and it was suspended during Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship. In 1932,
during the Second Republic, the Generalitat
de Catalunya was restored and the Estatut
d’Autonomia was approved. The Spanish Civil War and Franco’s dictatorship
meant the prohibition of Catalan in the official and educational fields.
Political freedom wasn’t recovered until the Transition and the approval of the
1978 Constitution. A new Estatut
d’Autonomia was approved in 1979, which recovered the official use of
Catalan and the political institutions, and it was substituted later by the
2006 Estatut. This one was modified
by the Constitutional Court in 2010 and it is in force nowadays. Prat de la Riba’s claims continue to be of
current interest, with the present pro-independence process: the same claims
(better financing, a federal structure of the State, the feeling of
mistreatment…).
Salvador Fuentes Lucas-Torres
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