Sometime after 9am, I joined a bunch of citizens in a
gathering at one of Tarragona plazas. By 10am some 200plus started to march towards
the city hall at the sound of a band of Catalan bagpipes (called “sacs de
gemecs”, bags of laments, for their peculiar wailing sound) and a “batucada”, a
quite noisy drums and cymbals band, brazilian style, nowadays very popular
amongst youngsters in Catalonia.
At the city hall we gathered some 2800 people with
“estelada” flags, and 58 representatives of different associations and
organizations presented the mayor a signed document of their compromise with
Catalonia’s “Right to Decide”, right to vote. That’s been done in all of the 960 municipalities of Catalonia.
After some speeches and chants and the final singing of the
Catalan national anthem, the gathering peacefully dissolved itself, many people
moving to another plaza, where the “castells”, those peculiar Catalan human
castles, staged a show.
(Foto: The Tarragona flag
flying over the mayor’s head was mine)
Around noon I took a train to Barcelona. I was to meet there
my brothers, who had left earlier by car.
When I reached Barcelona-Passeig de Gracia station, around
lunch time, the streets were taken by hundreds of people dressed in yellow or
red T-shirts.
(
We went to a restaurant for lunch, absolutely packed full
with a very noisy crowd of demonstrators.
I treated myself to fried vegetables (like vegetable chips)
and “cap-i-pota”, a popular Barcelona delicacy of pork head and feet, stewed
over a long time with a very saucy gravy. (No matter what the recipe may
suggest, it is a very low cholesterol meal, as the vegetables are fried in
olive oil and the cap-i-pota has hardly any fat).
After coffee, we walked to Gran Via, one of the two sides of
the “V” to be staged in Barcelona. It took us close to one hour to walk from
the GranVia-Passeig de Gracia crossing to Entença street, some 13 blocks away
(1.2 miles), one whole hour before the set time for the demonstration, 17.14h
(to remember the year 1714, of the fall of Barcelona, 300 years ago to the
day).
I just saw what I saw, but I’d bet there were way more than
one million people in Barcelona avenues. They shouted, chanted, sing and had
fun. Right after the set hour, the “castellers” raised the pillars of honour.
(Foto: 6 tier pillars by the
“Colla Jove”, lavander shirt, and “Xiquets”, striped shirt)
Not one single incident recorded. This is a very resolute, determined, and peaceful people.
Make no mistake: they want to be independent from Spain.
Hear, hear, oh! World
XA
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