Spanish identity in crisis: Towards a Catalan Nation

(Felipe Caroca González)

Many humanistic disciplines have gone through time finding ways to develop research issues in order
to reach the precision of concepts. By the time, several approaches and reconceptualizations made
this historical field more complex, thereby, entanglements became uneasy to grab. However, this
process of complexity enabled a more accurate insight into global historical contexts and improves
the understanding of historical processes, facilitates deeper interpretations and avoids gaps better
than older approaches. In these lines, I will juxtapose academic approaches about 'nation' analyzing
briefly the actual situation of Catalonia's independence declaration which actually is a critical issue
within the national structure of Spain.
Catalonia has gone through a tense situation across its history as it developed a Catalonian identity,
far apart from the Spanish identity feeling, which is reflected every 11th September since 1714 1 in
Catalonia. As a consequence of many communication troubles in 2017, the citizens of Catalonia
organized a referendum which was considered illegal by the Spanish government. In recent years,
the Spanish population started a big discussion about identity and democracy at the gates of a new
division in the twenty first century 2. Thus, the following questions arise: Why do they need
independence? Are they ready to establish a nation?

From the academia, Hobsbawm's work 'Nations and Nationalism Since 1780' clarifies several of this
inflection points stating that nations themselves do not make states and nationalisms but the other
way around3, contrasting this with Bermejo's statement that the Spanish Constitutional Court
recognized the "Catalonia Nation" as historical and cultural valuable 4, adding that citizens of
Catalonia are going through a Spanish identity crisis 5 due to neglecting policies of the government 6.
Hobsbawm also explains three phases of a nation's development, in this order we can identify that
Catalonia is in the transition from the phase B to phase C, the latter one being the final process of a
nation's establishment.7

On the other hand, this separatist identity is based on territory and language characteristics,
however, are these attributes enough to bet in building a new nation? From A. J. Toynbee's view, this
is not enough, at least in territorial aspects, as he argues that nations should aim for non-territorial
autonomies towards a multinational state in order to achieve a Western statesmanship ability to
cope with actual multinational problems8.

To sum up, Catalonia's national self-determination still in a development process but facing imposed
limits of the Spanish government which avoids the Catalonian national galvanization. Nevertheless, it
is possible to understand and to make a sort of 'foreseeing' of their situation thanks to interesting
historical approaches that our field is developing, on their way to create awareness of the historical
processes within our present

1
Michael Vargas. ‘Catalonia is not Spain’: projecting Catalan identity to tourists in and around
Barcelona†, Journal of Tourism History, University of New York at New Paltz, (2015). p 1.
2
Romualdo Bermejo García, 'The Catalan crisis and the misrule of the governments of Spain', Revista de
la Facultad de Derecho de México Tomo LXVIII, Número 271, (2018), p. 904.
3
Eric Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism, Cambridge University Press, (1991), p 10.
4
R. B. García, 'The Catalan crisis and the misrule of the governments of Spain', p. 897.
5
R. B. García, 'The Catalan crisis and the misrule of the governments of Spain' p. 922.
6
Idem.
7
E. Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism, (1991), p 12. I argue this because of the reason that the
'national idea' rises in Catalonia 2010 (phase B) within the demonstration so-called 'Som una nació, nosaltres
decidim'. Also here Hobsbawn explain that the phase C requires a mass support and the transition to arrive
there is a crucial moment in the chronology of national movements.
8
Arnold J. Toynbee, 'The Ottoman Empire in World History', in Proceedings of the American
Philosophical Society 99/3 (1955), p. 126.