Catalonia and California: Sister States

Catalonia

&

California

SISTER STATES

LOWELL LEWIS

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© 2013 by Lowell Lewis. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 08/01/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-7032-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-7031-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-7033-0 (e)

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CONTENTS

Catalonia

Introduction

Theories About The Origin Of The Name Of Catalonia

Catalonia: 8000 BC Through The Ages To 2012

Stone Age and Bronze Age

Visigothic and Muslim rule

The use of the name Catalonia

The Rise and Fall of the Peasants

Berenguer Codifies Catalan Law

The Aragonese Empire

Link between Sicily, Aragon and Catalonia

Reign of Peter the Ceremonious

The Challenging Years

Reaper’s War

War of Succession, 1714

Catalans in Early California; Junipera Serra and Gaspar de Portola

Catalonia’s Recovery, Late 1700’s

The Carlist Wars

The Rise of Political Catalanism

Primo de Rivera a Spanish General and Dictator

Catalan Presidents

Spanish Civil War

Franco’s Dictatorship, 1939-1975

Democracy Restored

Present Day Catalan Economy

Boosting Company Competitiveness

Economy and business in 2009

Economic Crisis—2012

Research And Education In Modern Catalonia

Research Plan for Catalonia

Universities of Catalonia

Medical programs in Catalonia

Institute Of Agricultural Research And Technology (Irta)

Bicentenary of Gaspar de Portolá

Summary of the Scientific Areas of Cooperation

Joint Research with University of California, Davis

Improved Agricultural Production with Less Water

Genetic Engineering—Challenges And Benefits

Water Issues And River Basins

European Commissioner Evaluation

CATALONIA

A Country Known

for its Competitive Characteristics

For the past 300 years, Catalonia has been a unique region in Europe. It is not Spanish, it is not French, it is Catalan. Its uniqueness is apparent because of its language, but it is real because of its approach to trade, business development, education, and political development.

Catalonia was one of the first regions in the world to adopt a methodology aimed at boosting competitiveness in a geographical area by improving the strategy and working environment of its companies.

Today there are sound economic and business arguments supporting the case for Catalan independence.

Historically the development of California owes much to Catalonia and two Catalans, Junipera Serra and Gaspar de Portola. Serra found his first mission, the Mission San Diego on July 16, 1769 and then followed with 9 more missions along the California coast to San Francisco. Gaspar de Portola was a Catalan born in OS de Balaguer, Lleida, in 1716. He was a soldier and governor of California.

When I started to write this story I wondered who would help me critically and constructively. I need not have been concerned. My life partner, Montserrat Trueta, is always there with innovative support and technical and literal aid.

Numerous people here in Barcelona have been very supportive, especially Toni Strubell and Miquel Strubell.

I want too give special thanks to Josep Tarrago who has been a great friend for over 25 years and strongly encouraged me to write this book. His leadership in building and managing IRTA for 25 years impacted the entire scientific community in Spain.

If you are reading this in the Catalan version it is thanks to Carles Masia who did the translation from English into Catalan.

Flags and Symbols of an Independent Catalonia

INTRODUCTION

Catalonia is an autonomous community and historic region of the Iberian peninsula encompassing the northeastern provinces of Gerona, Barcelona, Tarragona, and Lleida. Present day Catalonia was established by the statute of autonomy on Dec. 18, 1979, but you will meet the many interesting years of this country beginning in 8000 BC. Today Catalonia is the richest and most highly industrialized part of Spain. Its area is 31,930 square km (12,328 square miles) with a population: 7,200,000.

Geography

The autonomous community of Catalonia occupies a triangular area in the northeastern corner of Spain and is bordered by France and Andorra in the north, Aragon in the west, Valencia in the south, and the Mediterranean Sea in the east. The Pyrenees separate present day Catalonia from France, and to the west the pre-Pyrenees and the Ebro River basin mark the border with Aragon. To the southwest the Ebro basin gives way to coastal hills separating the Catalonian province of Tarragona from the Valencian province of Castellón.

The provinces of Tarragona, Barcelona, and Girona have a Mediterranean shoreline, with coastal plains ringed by the low-lying Catalan ranges. The Catalans have historically separated the industrial towns of the coast from the predominantly agricultural settlements of the hinterlands. North of the Catalans is a high tableland that comprises most of Lleida province. The principal rivers in Catalonia are the Ter, Llobrégat, and the Ebro, all of which run into the Mediterranean. A Mediterranean climate prevails throughout most of Catalonia, with hot, dry summers and mild, relatively rainy winters.

Economy

Catalonia’s traditional agriculture was centered on the production of wine, almonds, and olive oil for export, as well as potatoes and corn (maize) as staples. Slightly more than one-third of Catalonia remains under cultivation, and the traditional crops of olives and grapes are being supplanted by fruits and vegetables for consumption in the cities. However, agriculture accounts for only one-tenth of Catalonia’s domestic product.

The Catalan textile industry first achieved prominence between 1283 and 1313 and has remained the region’s premier industry with Barcelona, Sabadell, and Terrassa are leading textile centers. The industrial sector has undergone rapid expansion and diversification since the 1950s, and the metalworking, food-processing, and chemical industries are steadily overtaking textiles in importance. Textile, papermaking and graphic arts, chemicals, and metalworking industries are concentrated in Barcelona. One of the city’s plants produces many of Spain’s industrial motor vehicles. Catalonia’s growing demand for petroleum products has led to the expansion of Tarragona’s petroleum refineries. Services, particularly those of tourism and transportation, are highly developed.

Catalonia has had a world wide interest for almost 800 years beginning with Sicily, Italy and Greece and then California in the 1700’s.

Research and education in agriculture, medicine and the environment have been maintained through its universities and through cooperation with European and American universities.

You will notice that I have a personal bias toward Catalonia and its people. That bias is based on personal experiences through 27 years of close interaction with the academic, political and business components of this country.

THEORIES ABOUT THE ORIGIN

OF THE NAME OF CATALONIA

Otger Cathaló—a legendary figure

The oldest theory and one of the most popular ones is based on an unproven assumption : the existence of the legendary figure of Otger Cathaló. According to several historic-literature books from the medieval ages, the great captain Otger Cathaló and his nine barons ( baron of Montcada, of Pinós, of Mataplana, of Cervera, of Cervelló, of Alemany, of Anglesola of Ribelles and of Erill) came from the south of France to fight the Arabs in the name of God. After several victories they pushed the Arabs back into the peninsula and the captain died in the siege of Empúries. Because of the loss of the great captain, his army stepped back to the Pyrennes mountains where they fortified themselves and asked for help from Carlemany. Some years later, with the help of the King of France, the Arabs were expelled from Barcelona and from most of the current territory to Catalonia.

The army men and the followers of Otger Cathaló were called cathalons, and that’s what gave name to the land they conquered: Cathalonia.

From the linguistic point of view this theory is totally acceptable. If we take cathalo and we lose the non-pronunceable h we have cataló. And if we think that the sound ó of the catalan speaking people of the Rosselló (region in the south of the France) is equivalent to the vowel-sound à in the rest of the catalan speaking territories, then we will have català, the ethnic and language name. In the case of the name of the country, it is also very easy to think how the name Cathalonia would derive to Catalonia.

Kathalaunic fields

The Kathalaunic fields, located in the Belgium Gal-lia, became famous during the V century for some great battles that were fought on them. Many medieval documents have been found which, for some reason or the other, reference this place. One of these documents is a manuscript, dated in the XI century, from a judge of Barcelona named Bonsom. In this manuscript we can read . . . Theodoricus, rex Francorum, cum esset Kathalaunia… (Theodoricus, king of France, coming from Kathalaunia…).

Another important document found, related to this theory, is an Italian chronicle from the XIII century that describes the legend of Atila marching through Chalons-sur-Marne, previously known as <>.

Back in the last century, in 1944 Giulano Bonfante wrote an article about the name of Catalonia. The theory he wrote is based on the proven fact that the French army helped the locals to fight and expel the moors from the north east corner of the Iberian peninsula. Bonfante then says that . . . it happened that the soldiers of this French division were all from Chalons-Sur-Marne, previously known as Kathalaunia, and to honor the land they had just conquered they named it with their ancient name: Kathalaunia. In fact, most of his soldiers, having seen the beauty of the weather and the fertility of the land, decided to settle down on it, and became known by the local people as the Kathalauns, which is phonetically identical to Catalans, the current ethnic word for naming the people that live in the land of Catalonia.

Analyzing this theory in more detail, we have to say, that no written proof of any kind has been found to support the first part of the theory: the importance of an event such as giving a name to a land should be reflected in an official document signed by the King of France.

On the other hand, the second part of the theory could very well be the real story, since it satisfies two crucial aspects: first it is acceptable from the linguistic point of view, and secondly, it satisfies the globally accepted rule which says that . . . the name of the inhabitants of a land is first; and it’s this name which then gives name to the land.

Catalonia: land of castles

This new theory, derived by the historian Balari, is based on the following fact: the enormous amount of castles that were built during the Reconquista, the big war to expel the moors from the Catalan land. Many historical documents from the XI century describe the necessity of building fortified castles along the conquered land in order to have better defenses against Arab counterattacks. Nowadays, most of these castles still exist, and have become a natural part of Catalonia’s landscape.

The fact is that most of the castles were owned by only a few men. For better organization, these men would then lend their castles to its vassals; a vassal with a castle was known as a castellanus. According to Balari, the low level of latin would change this expression to castlanus, with its variants castlà and catlà. Balari then says, that during the following decades, the people from the border countries like France, knowing that this land was full of castlanus, started naming its people catlans. From here, says Balari, it is easy to derive the current ethnic word catalans.

This theory, although being historically solid, is not linguistically acceptable. Linguists argue that there’s not a single case in the history of our language in which the phoneme st would end up in t by any means. A similar case can be seen in our neighbors land name Castilla, which still preserves the s.

Two Arabic theories on the origin

of Catalonia’s name

Lately, some Arabic historians have also given their opinions on this matter, and I have to say that it could well be that the origin of the name Catalonia has its roots in the Arabic culture. Two main theories have been derived.

The first one, from professor Vernet, is based on the existence of a place named Talunia. Vernet built his theory after having read a book of an Arabic geographer named Abul-l-Abbas who was born in Almeria in 1002ac. The book is called Tarsi-al-Ajbar and is a description of the major walking pathways in the peninsula. One of these paths is the one that joins Saragossa with Lleida, and in its description the following can be read: . . . from the city of Zaragoza, up to the city of Lleida, there are 117 miles; from Zaragoza to Burch-al-Rumi; 35 miles from Burch-al-Rumi to Huesca; 12 miles from Huesca to Talunia, 35 miles; from Talunia to the city of Lleida, 35 miles…. The problem is that, nowadays, there is no such place named Talunia. The interesting thing, though, is that around the area where Talunia should be, one can find lots of toponims like Torre de Castro, Punta de Castro, el Cascallar, la Resala, la Alcantarilla, which indicate a possible previous existence of towers and castles in that area. It is then possible that one of this castles was called Talunia, and then since castle in Arabic is calà, and the abbreviated form is ca, we have that the Arabic form of Castle of Talunia would be Ca-Talunia. This would not be the first time that a castle would give name to a land, since we have the examples of Castilla and Tirol.

In any case, this theory has two drawbacks: there is no physical evidence of the existence of this castle and secondly it goes against the globally accepted rule which says that . . . the name of the inhabitants of a land is first; and it’s this name which then gives name to the land.

The second Arab theory, recently derived by Enric Guiter, is, once more, based on the amount of castles that were built, during the X and XI centuries, with the idea of being powerful defenses against Arab counterattack wars. According to Guiter, the Arabs fighting at the front line would start calling this territory land of calats (land of castles), and they called its people, calatans. In fact, there are many other places in the peninsula which contain the term cala in its name, like Calataiud, Calatrava, Alcala, Calaceit… etc. As part of his study, Guiter asked 1000 students from the Montpellier University to repeat the word Calataiud. Surprisingly, around 70% of the students said Catalaiud instead of Calataiud.

Guiter concludes his theory by saying that in those times, very few people could read and write, and most of the knowledge was passed from father to son by word of mouth; therefore it is very possible that the word calatans, by confusion, and by word to mouth, became catalans.

This theory, could well be the right one, since it is linguistically acceptable, it has a historical background and the ethnic name appears first, hence satisfying the globally accepted rule. However it has one drawback: a conqueror sets the name of its defeated enemy’s land ; not the other way round.

The controversy about the origin of the name Catalonia has been going on for ages, and still no one has been able to prove that this theory or that theory is the right one. This document just tries to offer you the chance to think about this interesting and unresolved matter.

If I had to choose between these five theories, I would probably go for theory number two, the one about the Kathalaunic fields. But what about you, which theory do you think could be the right one?

Catalan Language Development from Vulgar Latin

The Catalan language developed from Vulgar Latin (13) on both sides of the eastern end of the Pyrenees mountains and valleys (counties of Razès, Conflent, Rosselló-Vallespir, Empúries, Besalú, Cerdanya, Urgell, Pallars and Ribagorça). It shares many features with Gallo-Romance, Ibero-Romance, and the Gallo-Italian speech types of Northern Italy. While Catalan has therefore been varyingly assigned to Ibero-Romance or Gallo-Romance, neither classification may be entirely appropriate.

It is the national and only official language of Andorra, a European microstate, and a co-official language of the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and the Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian. It also has semi-official status in the city of Alghero (where the Algherese dialect is spoken) on the Italian island of Sardinia. It is also spoken with no official recognition in the autonomous communities of Aragon (in La Franja) and Murcia (in Carche) in Spain, and in the historic Roussillon region of southern France, roughly equivalent to the current French department of Pyrénées-Orientales (Northern Catalonia).

Origin of the Catalan language in the Middle Ages

The mainstream historical account is that as a consequence of the conquests of Al-Andalus to the south and to the west by the Crown of Aragon, the Catalan language spread to all of present-day Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and most of the Valencian Community.

In the 15th century, during the Valencian Golden Age, literature in Catalan reached its apex, which was not matched again until La Renaixença, four centuries later.

Even though the official organizations state that the languages spoken in Catalonia and Valencia are the same,[8] some Valencian scholars hold that Valencian owes more to the language already spoken there before the Catalan-Aragonese conquest than to the language brought by conquerors. Their main argument lies in the small number of Catalan colonists, as registered in documents such as the Llibre de repartiment. However, similar statistical studies based on town tax lists reject these theses, claiming that 90% were Catalan.[7] This conflict is known as the Valencian language controversy.

Language policy in France and Vergonha

After the Treaty of the Pyrenees, a royal decree by Louis XIV of France on 2 April 1700 prohibited the use of Catalan language. The deliberate process of eradicating non-French vernaculars in modern France and disparaging them as mere local and often strictly oral dialects