A sleepy and lazy Sunday morning. October 1, 2017. Our plan for the day is to travel from Valencia to Barcelona by train and get settled into our place for the next 5 days by late afternoon. The train leaves a little before noon so we wake up reasonably early to get ready and packed. Plenty of time to hang out for a while and relax. Let’s take a walk to one of the nearby cafés for some breakfast. An easy and relaxing day so far……
We have paid attention to the fact that there is a Catalan independence vote that day and knew before we left the U.S. Catalan flags have been hanging all around Valencia, which is not even in Catalonia, in support of the upcoming vote by their neighbor region. As foreigners, we don’t really understand the extent of what this really means. We do not truly understand the importance at this time. While in Spain, we have found out a little but really don’t know the level of what this means until we are in it, and even more so after we returned home days later. This is a major and historic event. Nearly 2.3 million Catalonians would vote this day.
Some minimal information regarding what this all means: Spain is divided into 17 regions (or referred to as Autonomous Communities). The Catalan community is in the northeast corner of the country bordering France to the north and the Mediterranean Sea to the east. Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain and the primary city in Catalonia. Catalonia is a very diverse community with income from a large variety of sources. As a community it supplies a huge amount of revenue to the central government and the country as a whole. The Catalan people basically felt that too much of their money was going to support the rest of the country and not their own Community. The vote that day was for Catalonia to become their own Republic – a country unto themselves. For any Americans reading this, imagine if Texas suddenly decided to become its own country and secede from the U.S. because too much of their tax dollars were going to support New Hampshire and North Dakota. Imagine the political and financial ramifications of such a thing. Obviously, the central government and royal family did not support this vote and called it illegal – a breach of the Spanish Constitution. The vote was proceeding anyway. The tension was high. The extent of this information is all of course information we found out AFTER we left Spain.
Back to sitting at the café in Valencia, having our juice and coffee with some fresh pastries as we have done every morning so far. Inside the small café is a TV hanging on the wall. Of course, the news stations, like our own, are showing the most shocking images of what is taking place in Barcelona. We do not have nearly enough comprehension of the language to understand what is going on but the images are striking; the national police forcibly breaking into polling stations and removing the ballots and polling boxes. Police fighting and clubbing resistant voters outside the stations. National police in riot gear. Tear gas. Bloodied citizens. The organizers of the vote being arrested and dragged off to jail. We sat, not talking for a few minutes but just taking in the visuals. THIS is where we are supposed to be in a few short hours. We are by no means people who are afraid to go where others do not, but we are also not reckless with our safety. What do you do?
The train ride back to Barcelona is quiet. Small TV’s on the train are playing American movies dubbed in Spanish. The train has much fewer people than our train leaving for Valencia days before. Do the locals know more than we do and even they are not going back to Barcelona today? It’s a little unnerving. Not so much that we’re not jumping in with both feet but on this train is the first time I’ve had some doubts that we should be going back today. Other than getting off the train at one of the stops along the way with absolutely no back up plan – we’re doing this.
Arriving at Sants in Barcelona in the heart of the city, we get off the train and enter the main part of the station and immediately can see that this does not have the same feel as the city did just a few days ago. There is much more anticipation. Everyone is clearly on edge a little, and the ease of the people that we have enjoyed so much on this trip is restrained today. Yet there is much excitement in the air. Schools were cancelled that day, and teens and young adults are arriving at the station as well, Catalan flags draped around their shoulders. We exit to the line of taxis outside and proceed to our apartment for the week. The driver does speak some English (thankfully) so we are able to glean that the protesting today is sparse and mostly contained to the central areas of the city and not near where we are going. The tension that I had has lessened and I find myself relaxing and almost getting tired on the taxi ride. I had not realized just how tense I’d become. The anticipation of the worst possible scenarios, fueled by the images of the morning news, had brought my stress level up far more than normal. I’m sure my wife, on reading this the first time, will be shocked by this admittance. I’m the man!? I’m the one who’s stoic, strong, logical. The relaxation I felt at this moment would remain for the remainder of the journey. There would be some additional moments where the trip did not go as planned but this feeling of contentment would continue through the remainder of the trip.
After arriving in Barcelona and getting settled in for the duration, a stroll in the nearby neighborhood is necessary. We had booked an apartment within four blocks of La Sagrada Familia. Walking around the area today is strange. It is such a highly touristed area that one could not even feel the tension of the day; almost like a bubble was placed over the area and somehow immune to the excitement of the rest of the city and region. We came to realize later that some of tourists had little to no comprehension of what was happening in Barcelona. Back at the apartment later in the evening we turn on the TV, somehow thinking that we could suddenly understand Spanish fully to know what was being explained on the news? The excitement can be felt but the content is missing for us. 10:00 PM or so. There is sudden commotion outside. Passatge de Vilaret (a short 2 block alley street) has come alive from the calmness of the night. We open the window and step onto the small balcony. Neighbors all around are banging pots and pans out their windows. People are screaming and shouting everywhere in the neighborhood. This continues for 30 minutes or so. Clearly the independence vote has passed (we would later find out by an unfathomable margin of 92%/8%). The immediate repercussions were yet to be seen.
On Tuesday following the vote, it was determined by many involved and portions of the local government itself that there would be a widespread strike of transportation services in the region to support the vote and the central government’s denial of the results. We had booked a day trip to the Costa Brava area outside the city along the coast with plans to take a boat ride as part of the excursion. The boat captains had agreed to the strike and were not operating. Having booked the trip through a major company, we were contacted and given a couple options and worked a solution for an alternate trip on a different day into our schedule. This left us with an open day in Barcelona to explore. Strike Day: the subways, buses and taxis would all be shut down for the day. We ended up walking about 10 miles, but it was probably the most amazing day in Barcelona for us. We got to experience the city significantly and were first hand witnesses to many protests.
We were in a small shop on a narrow street in the Gothic Quarter, looking at some touristy trinkets, when we start to hear the noise outside slowly growing and echoing through the narrow street. Drums and chanting are ever louder until we start to see the people outside the front window. We walk to the front of the small store to take in the sight of a long procession of mostly young adults and teens marching through the streets waving their Catalan flags, repetitively chanting their independence mantra to the beat of a few drums in the crowd. Stepping out of the front of the store into the edge of the moving crowd I can feel the energy and passion of the group. This time would probably only be about 500 or so people but also would be one of the smaller demonstrations we would see today.
Later in the day we’re passing through the center of Barcelona from the Gothic Quarter on our way over to Placa de Espanya and Montjuic. As we approach Placa de Catalunya it is obvious that this is the main gathering point for the day. There are demonstrators everywhere so we take a slight detour to stay out of the middle of the crowd, but not completely avoiding it either. The streets in the area are either impassable by auto or are barricaded off from traffic entirely by the police. People are marching and singing their way up the street from the southwest to meet the already massive crowd of people congregating in the Placa. In total there are at least 5,000 people coming together to support the cause here.
As the day draws to a close, we are exhausted by all of the walking. Upon review of the day we realize we have witnessed something important. The vote itself would never really have any effect on the status quo, but the fact that so many people went out to vote and the margin was so astonishingly far apart is truly something that will rarely ever be seen. The sheer amount of people having the same view on any subject up for public vote is amazing. The day went off with very minimal incidents which again is hard to imagine based on the volume of people out in such close quarter. The demonstrators that we would come face to face with all day were perfectly respectful of us and others who were not joining them. Historic. Passionate. Energetic. A truly wonderful day in Barcelona. Any trepidation we had would never be realized. We will be back for another visit, but it will not be quite the same as these historic days.
