Catalan National Day
By: Isaiah | September 11th, 2008
It’s Catalan National Day. Whatever your political affiliations, this is a day that FC Barcelona commemorates as a club. If you don’t know much about this day, check out the Wikipedia page here.
I imagine many Catalans approach this day with a strange mixture of pride and sobriety. For many people, all over the world, September 11 is a strange and tragic day — from the liquidation of the Minsk and Lida ghettos by the Nazis to Pinochet’s 1979 coup in Chile to the 2001 attacks here in NY — and no doubt the Catalans include many of their losses in this long list. However, I cannot speak to the true nature of this day; can any of the Catalan readers describe what this day means to the people of Catalunya?
Fear not, though, La Liga returns on Saturday with our faithful Barça taking on Racing. I’ll have a preview up tomorrow or early on Saturday.
Category: Barcelona
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Thanks for the comment, Isaiah. Manuel Vazquez Montalban (1939-2003), a great writer and thinker that studied the cultural and historical side of FC Barcelona, said that, specially during hard times for all things Catalan, like during Franco’s dictatorship, Barça has been “the unarmed army of Catalonia”.
The Wikipedia article is quite poor. Those of you interested in “La Diada” can find better info in English at:
http://www.xtec.cat/ieselsui/projecte/ladiada/ladiada.htm
http://wirdheiminvilanova.blogspot.com/2008/09/eng-what-catalans-commemorate-on.html.For a more much thorough treatment in just 12 pages, see:
http://www.identitats.org/fitxers/MROVIRA_ASEN2006.pdf
For all kind of info about Catalonia, see:
http://www.answers.com/topic/catalonia
Those who happen to be interested in translating something from Catalan into English can use this engine:
http://traductor.gencat.net/jsp/go2url.jsp?locale=en
From Catalonia
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United States
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Thanks Genis…always like the history lessons associated with teams/cities of soccer…
hopefully we will get to see the racing game on GolTv…it’ll be such a waste otherwise…wait for football to begin for two weeks and then this all over againPosted from
United States -
Interesting interview with Deco in EMD, the translation is on Fcbtransfers:
http://fcbtransfers.blogspot.com/2008/09/deco-about-exit-1-i-left-in-mutual.html
Basically Deco is fine with the way things ended, and happy that the team won two La Ligas and one CL title during his time. He has some poignant things to say about the club. Deco seems like a good guy, and he has a sophisticated view of the relationship between the fans, the club, the management, and the players.
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United States -
True dat, Mat. It’s not looking good right now. Silliness. That Fox Soccer BarcaTV thing that runs the week after matches might have the Racing telly. BarcaTV via the Web won’t, because they have limited broadcast rights, as well.
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United States -
I stand corrected. The Racing match IS going to be on BarcaTV, perhaps in acknowledgement of the complexities.
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United States -
Thanks for link Colin….man! Deco is either completely sincere or a master of PR extrodinaire. Didn’t he get a DUI in the midst of everything last year? Drinking problems often create Masters of PR. But truely I hope the best for him, and that the “great guy” is the “real guy.” I hope we do face Chelsea in CL…in my 3 years of Cule life, those matches have been equally deserving of “El Classico” moniker as those vs EE.
Professor Genis, I’m looking forward to doing my Catalan link course work later today!
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United States
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