The establishment of feudalism

Va ser a finals del segle XI quan el feudalisme finalment s’imposaria. Els senyors feudals, nobles o membres de l’Església, obligarien els camperols a entregar un excedent sobre la seva feina, castrant les seves llibertats i forçant l’endeutament d’una gran part de la població. Oriol Garcia Farré, agent d’11Onze i historiador, ens ho explica.

Es tractava d’un sistema polític, econòmic, jurídic i social establert durant l’Edat Mitjana per tot el continent Europeu. Els regnes es dividien en petits territoris que tenien certa independència, els quals eren administrats pels nous senyors feudals, laics i eclesiàstics, que proporcionaven ‘protecció’ als camperols adscrits a la terra, a canvi de tributs i treball.

Almenys aquesta era la retòrica oficial, com explica Garcia, “la majoria de la documentació existent sobre el procés de feudalització només explica el que als senyors o als eclesiàstics els interessà documentar”, i continua, “tingueu present que en aquesta documentació quedaran al marge amplis sectors de la societat, com per exemple els pagesos”.

Obligatorietat de generar un excedent

Amb la imposició del feudalisme, la producció agrícola i ramadera va convertir-se en el pilar de l’economia. L’explotació sistemàtica dels pagesos a través del cobrament de tributs, sense els quals “no hauria estat mai possible la construcció de castells, torres, monestirs o les portalades romàniques”, apunta Garcia, donarà pas a la necessitat de “demandar i lligar noves terres de conreu”.

Així doncs, es va produir una intensificació de l’agricultura esperonada per la coerció dels senyors feudals exercida sobre les comunitats de pagesos lliures, “que durant tot aquest procés de feudalització van estar empeses a abandonar la seva economia de subsistència, amb l’única finalitat de generar un excedent”, afirma Garcia.

11Onze és la fintech comunitària de Catalunya. Obre un compte descarregant l’app El Canut per Android o iOS. Uneix-te a la revolució!

Equality between women and men is not only achieved through universal suffrage. Full equality lies in changing the deepest structures of patriarchal society. We must work for a society that reflects a true relationship between equals. We continue with the historical exercise on great female figures of our contemporary history.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Catalonia embarked on the road to modernity through the process of industrialisation. The mechanisation of the textile industry and the structuring of the territory, with the construction of the railway and road network, enabled the country to become one of the most dynamic economies in Europe.

The capitalism that emerged from this process generated great profits for the few at the expense of great social imbalances. Inevitably, the workers’ movement emerged, forcing the better-off classes to reflect on whether it was permissible to make steady profits without a fair distribution of wealth. Then came the key question: is class struggle inevitable?

History has seen countless theorists address the question over the past centuries. Many have theorised and legitimised workers’ wills against bourgeois labour exploitation. And countless trade union movements have worked to liberate the worker from the oppression of the boss.

Competing interests

The class struggle has led the workers to use the right to strike and, as a last resort, physical confrontation to achieve their demands. And the bourgeoisie, supported by the power of surplus value, has been able to put pressure on public institutions to counteract the legitimate demands of the workers. When this understanding has been impossible, war and concentration camps have appeared.

The dialectic of revolutionary strategies for the abolition of capitalism and the processes of achieving an egalitarian society – which would also mean the end of the oppression of women – became the workhorse of radical feminism in the early part of the 20th century.

Many believed that, in order to eliminate gender inequality, it was first necessary to fight to end social classes, the patriarchy and the Church. After all this, the real emancipation of women would be achieved. Universal women’s suffrage would not be enough, just a progressive illusion to control their voice. Therefore, for the anarcho-feminists, it was necessary to go much further: would it be the dictatorship of the proletariat which would bring full equality of both genders? In this process, would it also be necessary to destroy the state, the symbol of bourgeois control?

A libertarian leader

No one would ever have imagined that an anarchist leader like Frederica Montseny i Mañé (1905-1994) would go so far. The only child of a married couple who were militant in the incipient libertarian ideas, she forged her revolutionary character at a very early age. The acquisition of knowledge, through her mother’s side of the family, imbued her with a strong sense of freedom, which shaped her character as a woman.

Frederica Montseny understood that the class struggle was the necessary path to achieve full individual freedom, the power of decision and the choice of a way of life. All this would shape the essence of the individual within society. And in this process of liberation, for both women and men, the acquisition of knowledge would be of vital importance.

This anarchist leader understands that women have to live in absolute freedom and that there must be a perfect balance between women and men. Her frame of mind was therefore far from the feminine “I” as a complement to the masculine “you” that prevailed at the time, which led her into exile from January 1939 onwards.

She soon stood out for her flair for writing, so she began to collaborate in the anarchist press and eventually joined the Confederación Sindical de los Trabajadores (CNT). Both ‘La Revista Blanca’, the theoretical organ of Spanish anarchism, and the more satirical newspaper ‘El luchador’ became excellent loudspeakers for disseminating her anarchist thought: between 1923 and 1936 Frederica Montseny wrote more than 600 articles.

An anarchist in government

History had an enormous challenge in store for her, one of those that place you in front of a major existential dilemma. A few months after the outbreak of the Civil War, the trade unionist Francisco Largo Caballero formed a government of national unity, in which all the progressive and revolutionary forces that made up the political landscape of the state had to be represented. His government was to include republicans, liberals and members of the PSOE, the PCE, the POUM and also the CNT.

Frederica Montseny thus became the first woman in the history of Spain to hold a ministerial post, as was the portfolio of Health and Social Welfare. The decision had not been an easy one because of her ideology and the pressure from the most purist sector of anarchism, which demanded that she resign from the post.

Stubbornness and the timeliness of the situation led Montseny to push through the first decree legalising abortion. This was a fifty-year advance on women’s right to decide about their own bodies.

Forced exile

However, everything came to a halt with the triumph of fascism in Spain. In French exile she encountered Nazi fascism, which nearly ended her life. She lived in France until 1977, when she returned to rebuild the anarchist trade union and continue the work interrupted in 1939. The world had changed, however, and the revolution had been pushed aside by the welfare state.

Frederica Montseny was one of the first voices to establish a direct correlation between women’s liberation and libertarian ideas. She never considered herself a feminist, although her theses have ended up forming part of the ideological body of contemporary feminism.

11Onze is the community fintech of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the super app El Canut for Android or iOS and join the revolution!

And the next day, nothing was ever the same again. The Catalan state disappeared ‘ipso facto’ with the abolition of the Generalitat, the municipal dismemberment and the annulment of the Catalan constitutions following the loss of the War of Succession (1701 -1714). After this, the only administration that remained active in Catalonia was the army of occupation, which, by maintaining some 25,000 permanent soldiers within the Principality, consolidated the Bourbon objective by means of harsh repression that would last until the mid-18th century. But not everyone faired badly…

As a result of the victory, the elite of the Bourbon army was permanently installed in Catalonia: the Royal Castilian Guards and the Royal Walloon Guards, reinforced by other special military occupation contingents. The total number of troops deployed throughout Catalonia was 47% of the total for the rest of the Iberian Peninsula. And if we add those deployed in the rest of the territories of the Catalan Countries – Valencia, Majorca and Aragon – the figure rises to 65%. A full-blown invasion.

The drafting of the Nueva Planta Decree would turn Catalonia into just another province of a new centralised monarchy that would rule over the entire Iberian Peninsula without legal differences. Thus, the dream of a Hispanic monarchy based on the existence of different kingdoms and cultural realities on the peninsula would crumble, but it would not disappear. From then on, there would only be a single Cortes, those of Castile, which would represent the whole of the peninsular territories, but would focus on a new political construction structured around identifying Castile with the new state.

Eighteenth-century Catalonia would be a territory governed solely by the military. The supreme head of the administration of Catalonia would be the Captain General. Territorial administration – the ‘corregimientos’ – would be in the hands of the ‘corregidores’, who would always be military men. Public order – in the first instance – would always be in the hands of the army and the famous “Veciana Squads”. This institution was founded in 1719 by Pere Anton Veciana Rabassa, a deserter from the Austracist cause who in early 1713 decided to place himself at the service of the Bourbon king and create a paramilitary and police organisation that would work at the service of the Captain General -Francisco Pío de Saboya y Moura-, with the mission of continuing to repress internal Bourbon resistance.

Veciana would set up a system of criminal files – known as ‘summary files’ – which would enable the corps to systematise police information. He also created a network of informers throughout the territory and organised the first agents to infiltrate the resistance. In 1735, Veciana had to resign his post for reasons of age, and it was then that the Captain General transferred the responsibilities of the corps to his son, Pere Màrtir Veciana. From then on, the command of the corps would be inherited by the Veciana family for five generations, until 1836.

Repression and state terrorism

For eleven years, Catalonia was subjected to harsh military repression, which lasted until 1725, when, through the Treaty of Vienna between the representatives of Philip V of Castile and Charles VI of Austria, the two sides mutually recognised each other’s succession rights and put an end to the dynastic dispute.

And what happened to the supporters who fought in favour of the Archduke of Austria’s choice? During the war, as the Bourbon armies occupied the Principality, a kind of ‘military terrorism’ was applied, which consisted of persecuting the local population, regardless of the degree of connection they had had with the Austracist cause, with the aim of undermining morale. After the fall of Barcelona, the main military commanders who had not been able to flee to Austria – such as Antoni de Villarroel – were indiscriminately persecuted and sent to prisons scattered around the Iberian Peninsula. Most of them ended up dying without ever regaining their freedom, while others were sent to the galleys.

The long post-war period allowed the repression to continue against all the armed elements that were still fighting against the new legal system, such as the notorious ‘carrasclets’. But all those families whose members were in exile in Austria were also persecuted and forbidden from maintaining any correspondence. The losers of the war were to have their property seized and all their rights revoked. They would even be banned from taking part in all public tenders or applying for state aid.

The establishment of permanent contingents in Catalonia would lead to a significant increase in military demand due to the need to supply royal troops. According to the General Manuals of the Quartermaster’s Office of Catalonia – an institution created to manage the post-war period – between 1714 and 1735 a total of 271 ‘asientos’ or contracts directly related to the supply of materials to the army and navy are recorded: gunpowder, weapons, artillery trains, uniforms, food, ironwork for horses.

The ‘asientos’ were also used for the construction or supply of barracks, such as the Ciutadella, and to produce everything necessary for subsequent Bourbon military campaigns, such as those in Italy. And this supply would come about thanks to the existence of a considerable productive, commercial and financial structure that had remained unchanged despite the war, and which would be capable of solvently producing the ‘seats’ that the monarchy would need over the following decades.

Catalan collaborationism

So, the question to ask ourselves is clear: how was it possible to maintain a Catalan productive structure in the context of the war at the beginning of the 18th century? How was it possible to supply the Bourbon army during the invasion of Catalonia and the siege of Barcelona in a territory that was completely unknown to them? Well, with the help of local characters who supplied, lent or helped the Bourbon army of occupation with food, money and logistics throughout that turbulent period. They were a group of merchants who changed sides – just like Pere Anton de Veciana – in search of a more favourable personal situation and taking advantage of the circumstances to improve their social and economic position.

Names such as the Milans of Arenys, the Mates and Lapeira of Mataró or the Massiques of Vilassar and many others would be great family names that would establish their prestige throughout the 18th century for having obtained important privileges as thanks for the services rendered during the occupation of the Principality. Many of these “illustrious” figures would be placed in key institutions for the deployment and execution of the Nueva Planta Decree, because otherwise it would not have been possible.

The new regime would pass “a disinfectant cotton wool over Catalonia”, in order to subsequently build a new network of local loyalties that would consolidate it within the territory. This reason why they were placed at the head of key institutions, such as the General Treasury (Catalonia’s taxation), the General Intendancy (Catalonia’s supply and logistics), the Confiscations of Catalonia (seizure of property) and the Bureau de Change (communal bank), a minority but large sector of the Principality’s population who, for various reasons, sided with the Bourbon proposal. In this way, the monarchy combined the principle of authority, as represented by the laws deployed in the Nueva Planta Decree, with a large institutional bureaucracy and flexibility with certain local social sectors, mainly the master craftsmen and merchants, who had sufficient economic resources to boost the economy.

The self-interested attachment of these sectors of Catalan society to the new Bourbon State gave them access to new sources of income derived directly from the new policies of Bourbon absolutism. Loyalty would give them access to large public contracts, which would lead to widespread corruption at all levels of public administration.

Until the end of the 1740s, Catalonia underwent a painful period of adaptation to its new status as a defeated nation, always suspected of disaffection. From then on, economic policy decisions were no longer taken in Barcelona, but at the Bourbon Court, following criteria based on the dreams of grandeur of the new reigning monarchy, regardless of the needs of its subjects.

BASIC BIBLIOGRAPHY

Benet Oliva i Ricós: ‘Els proveïdors catalans de l’exèrcit borbònic durant el setge de Barcelona de 1713/1714’, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, 2014.

David Ferré Gispets: Els efectes del “Contractor State” borbònic a la Catalunya d’inicis del segle XVIII, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, 2019.

Josep Maria Delgado Ribas: ‘Barcelona i el model econòmic de l’absolutisme borbònic: un tret per la culata’, Barcelona Quaderns d’Història, 23 (2016), pàg. 225-242.

Josep Juan Vidal: ‘Les conseqüències de la guerra de Successió: nous imposts a la Corona d’Aragó, una penalització o un futur impuls per al creixement econòmic?’, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Palma de Mallorca, 2013.

Find out about the families that were enriched by the defeat of 1714 on 11Onze TV.

Durant la Diada els catalans ens deixem endur pel romanticisme i els ídols de la resistència que van intentar preservar les llibertats. Casanova, Villarroel, Moragues, Carrasclet… però les guerres són una qüestió de diners i cal mirar-les amb fredor i autocrítica. Hi ha una colla de catalans que van optar per fer negoci amb l’invasor, essent així decisius per a la seva victòria.

Toni Mata. Director de continguts i mitjans d’11Onze.

Que les guerres les guanyen els diners és una cosa que se sap des de fa més de 2.400 anys. Ja ho va deixar escrit Tucídides parlant de les guerres del Peloponès. Però quan s’acosta l’11 de setembre els catalans tendim a treure la llista de greuges en lloc de posar-nos a pensar on la vam cagar. El cap del general Moragues exposat durant dotze anys en una gàbia, la brutalitat de la repressió, la resistència de Villarroel, la persistència de Carrasclet, el poble enterrant els traïdors fora muralles perquè “al Fossar de les Moreres no s’hi enterra cap traïdor”… Tot això està molt bé. Però qualsevol país que pretengui ser-ho s’ha de prendre una mica més seriosament a si mateix i deixar-se de romanços. Si l’any 1714 Catalunya va caure va ser perquè es va perdre una guerra i, si es va perdre va ser per molts factors. Un dels que va ser clau és el col·laboracionisme.

Qui es va fer ric amb la victòria de Felip V?

L’avenç de Felip V per Catalunya no hauria estat possible sense que una sèrie de catalans hi contribuïssin prioritzant el benefici econòmic individual per davant del país. Potser aquells ciutadans no tenien consciència de país, però qui sí que la tenia era l’exèrcit borbònic que, tal com explica l’historiador d’11Onze Oriol Garcia en aquest article, va mantenir el 65% de les seves tropes als Països Catalans durant anys per consolidar la invasió.

Efectivament, hi ha catalans que van decidir fer negoci amb els Borbons mentre aquests destruïen el país i les llibertats de tots. I es van fer rics! Es van fer rics subministrant aliments o tota mena de necessitats que tenia l’exèrcit invasor a mesura que avançava. Què hauria passat si aquests subministraments bàsics haguessin quedat tallats a la rereguarda? Felip V hauria pogut mantenir la contesa bèl·lica? Fa de mal dir, però és ben sabut que la flota naval austriacista (que comptava amb el suport català) era capaç de mantenir el subministrament de les seves tropes, però la borbònica no. Depenien del que poguessin comprar a terra ferma.

Per això, a 11Onze hem volgut demanar al nostre historiador que se submergís en els estudis sobre aquesta idea: quins catalans hi van guanyar amb la victòria de Felip V? És a dir, qui el va ajudar i se’n va beneficiar? I el resultat és espaordidor. Prop d’una trentena de famílies catalanes es van fer riques traint el seu propi país. Famílies que van obrir les portes a l’invasor i van ser convenientment recompensades amb contractes públics a partir de 1714. La nova elit catalana es va configurar durant la guerra de Successió. El poble intentava resistir, però alguns apostaven per intentar fer fortuna a costa d’entregar el país a l’enemic. Hem llistat els casos més rellevants, amb noms i cognoms, perquè més de 300 anys després siguem més conscients que mai que alguns catalans van tenir un paper clau en la derrota de Catalunya. 

Trencar la dependència

És el que en podríem anomenar, les paguetes de 1714, fent un símil amb la terminologia actual. La història és reiterativa i és imprescindible conèixer-la per detectar els errors que duen a les desgràcies. És possible defensar Catalunya i que el teu negoci o el de la teva família depengui directament dels ajuts espanyols de l’ICO? O el teu sou? La història diu que no. De la història sabem que és impossible parlar cara a cara o defensar-se d’algú de qui tens una dependència econòmica. I sabem que hi ha catalans capaços de vendre a Déu i a sa mare per un plat de llenties. La consciència nacional estava al segle XVIII (i potser ara?) en un segon terme, per a alguns.

En qualsevol cas, per començar a canviar les coses és ben clar que el primer que hem de fer és dir-nos la veritat. És un compromís que tenim a 11Onze. Per això hem volgut fer aquesta revisió històrica per poder-nos dir clarament: Catalunya no va ser derrotada el 1714 perquè fos abandonada pels anglesos. No tot és culpa d’algú altre. Catalunya va ser venuda per alguns catalans. 

Descobreix les famílies que es van enriquir amb la derrota de 1714 a 11Onze TV.

They tried, but they could not whitewash history. The memory of the past has to endure in order to learn from mistakes and not fall into the same traps. The victors were determined to alter historical reality and keep the ‘I’ above the ‘you’. But, winds from the north helped to change the situation and, with will, perseverance, and the courage of many women, they managed to put things in their place. We continue with the historical exercise is giving us on the approach to the History of Contemporary Women.

The establishment of ultra-conservatism within Spanish society – after the Civil War – was only a momentary effervescence lacking in real solutions. The international legitimisation obtained by the regime, which materialised at the end of the 1940s and had unsettled the opposition, did not bring any substantial improvement in terms of economic stability, nor in terms of the structural improvements Spain needed. On the other hand, repression did make it possible to achieve strict control over demands in all areas.

But twenty-five years after the end of the Civil War, Francoism was given a second chance to transform itself. The power offered by the massive influx of foreign capital – under the supervision of the International Monetary Fund – allowed the regime to move from autarky to unprecedented economic growth. It was through the implementation of the famous stabilisation plans initiated in the late 1950s that Spain entered the 20th century.

And to commemorate that event – the end of the war – Francoism launched an extensive propaganda campaign with the sarcastic slogan: “XXV Years of Peace”. The event served to exalt and legitimise the regime internationally as the guarantor of peace, order, progress, and stability. Blinded by “desarrollismo”, the Francoist dictatorship took advantage of the event to spread its extraordinary political oxymoron: organic democracy – now evolved into a parliamentary monarchy – which would allow it to survive for a few more decades. Many more!

Even so, it was still only a facelift on the outside, given that social and political improvements were still to come on the inside. Then, unknowingly – or not – the “economic miracle” favoured the emergence of the consumer society that would contribute to greater mobility of the population, which would give them access to a different type of information. All of this would lead to a progressive loss of influence of the Church – especially in the domestic sphere – and the emergence of new social and sexual habits.

The progressive European model led the regime to evolve

Fashions and customs from Europe brought about a significant change in the mentality of the 1960s generation. In spite of everything, openness – following European canons – forced the regime to accept the return of women to the world of work, which, together with the arrival of foreign tourists and the resurgence of feminism, caused the Francoist model of women – submissive, domestic and Catholic – to gradually crumble.

Nevertheless, Francoism fought this foreign social interference to the very end. From the airwaves, the regime supported the radio programme ‘Consultorio de Elena Francis’, which became an authentic sociological phenomenon for decades. Therefore, the dictatorship – through the ‘Women’s Section’ – used this medium to continue transmitting its ultra-conservative ideology and morals toward women.

The ‘Consultorio de Elena Francis’ recommended that women should be in self-denial, resignation, look the other way, turn a blind eye, be patient, wait for things to change or sacrifice themselves for their children and family. In reality, the background to women’s daily lives was different: single housewives, relegated to the home and housework, sexuality linked to motherhood, homosexuality ignored or rejected, an indissoluble marriage and guilt always attributable to women. Outrageous!

The official discourse pivoted towards “desarrollismo”, the welfare and progress of Spain, and the regime tirelessly sought to leave behind all echoes that would lead to the recovery of the memory of the Civil War. For this reason – and intentionally – the voices of thousands of people who had to cross the border in January 1939 were gradually silenced for decades. Thousands of exiles had been officially rejected by the Dictatorship and forced to become stateless.

“Spaniards, Franco is dead”.

After the death of the dictator, many disturbing questions arose within Spanish society. One of the first was: What had become of the exiles? Montserrat Roig y Fransitorra (1946-1991) answered it.

Montserrat Roig’s work ‘Els catalans als camps nazis‘ (1977) showed a reality hidden by Franco’s regime and unknown to many of the generations born after the 1940s. She gave a face and a voice to the entire generation that had to go into exile because they were at odds with the war’s victors. Roig managed to undo the fear that prevented many of the protagonists of exile and the Holocaust from speaking out. She recovered from anonymity such powerful women with such an intense life as, for example, Neus Català, who gave an account of her life as a resistance fighter in France and her stay in the Nazi concentration camp of Ravensbrück.

The echo of this document of testimony about the life of exiles in Nazi concentration camps was so immense that it brought Roig great notoriety in the society of the late 1970s. A few years later, she would expand the story of the deportees in the third part of his novel ‘L’hora violeta’ (1980). Before working on the forgotten exile, the author – winner of the Sant Jordi Prize for her novel ‘El temps de les cireres’ (1976) – had sought a meaning to life – from Natàlia’s feminine point of view – in late-Francoist Barcelona. For all these reasons, Montserrat Roig would become one of the most widely read and admired writers in contemporary Catalan literature. In fact, her aura still lives on!

From this point onwards, however, Montserrat Roig’s narrative would gradually change, as she experienced a profound disenchantment with the new political reality that was being constructed. On the one hand, her view of the incipient democratic state – what has been defined as the ‘Model Transition’ – led her to have serious problems with censorship and prohibitions with the public body that had contracted her to carry out a series of television interviews. The scandal was so huge that it even reached the Spanish Congress and Senate. On the other hand, the imposition of the Pujolist vision of what Catalonia should be like – which she did not share – led her to focus more on literature, on researching her unique and non-transferable voice. Shortly before her death – of breast cancer, by the way – she published a compilation of articles with the suggestive title ‘Digues que m’estimes encara que sigui mentida’ (Say You Love Me Even If I Lie), in which she reflected on her personal universe – as a woman and a storyteller – and analysed the cultural society in which she lived.

In the essay ‘Digues que m’estimes encara que sigui mentida’, Montserrat Roig talks about literature as an alibi to fix the time that flees inclement. She talks to us about the manipulations of memory and the media. She teaches us to see Barcelona through a window through which the gaze of a woman author looks out in a world dominated by the canons of male creation. And, above all, she confesses a series of reflections that sound terribly close to us, because they explain things to us about the personal geographies and collective homelands that we share.

11Onze is the community fintech of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the super app El Canut for Android or iOS and join the revolution!

We continue our approach to the history of contemporary women. In this case, we do so by recalling the figure of Carme Karr, who embodied progressive feminism between the 19th and 20th centuries and played a key role in the establishment of universal women’s suffrage.

History has been written by men. For centuries, the male gender has constructed a narrative around its deeds – mainly in the public sphere – and has minimised or ignored women’s contributions.

War, politics, diplomacy or management have built this reality. Therefore, the role given to women has been typically reserved for their gender: wife, mother, daughter, lover… To put it simply, the masculine vision has ended up imposing itself on the feminine reality.

Since ancient times, the sexual differentiation of work has led to a distribution of tasks according to sex, largely driven by biological characteristics. The evolution of societies based on this distinction would end up provoking a differentiated apprenticeship between women and men, which capitalism would transform into resounding inequality.

Voices of protest

At the same time, voices were raised that, through knowledge, ability, and intelligence, would energetically combat gender-based social injustice and express a clear desire to achieve full equality between men and women, even if it cost them their lives.

Catalan society at the beginning of the 20th century did not know how to handle the impact of the appearance of Carme Karr y Alfonsetti (1865-1943) on Barcelona’s intellectual scene. The fact that she was born in a bourgeois, cosmopolitan and European environment – together with her mastery of several languages – gave her a great breadth of vision.

History has recognised her as the country’s first regularly published journalist. She had gained experience on the staff of the magazines ‘Juventud’ and ‘El Adelanto’. But she is most widely known for her work as the head of the magazine ‘Feminal’.

A feminist megaphone

From this megaphone of gender freedom – created and designed for women – Karr would work intensely to elevate the intellect of the female readers who sat down to read at the recently created Biblioteca Popular de la Dona (Women’s Popular Library).

With countless top-level contributors and contributions from all over Europe, ‘Feminal’ acted to vigorously vindicate the role of women in society. The topics it covered were not usually trivial, but highlighted, above all, pervasive issues of common interest. The annals of journalism will remember the written confrontation between Carme Karr and Eugeni d’Ors in their debate on the intellectual capacity of women in tackling such “complex” cultural subjects as poetry, art, and music. No doubt about who got scalded!

It was through her writings that Karr projected a model of womanhood based on modernity and humanism. The key to her ideology hinged, firstly, on the acquisition of a female culture of her own, a basic factor for the progress of society. And then, in obtaining absolute recognition of all their rights.

Culture and feminism, together in public for the first time

It was on Wednesday 6 April 1910 that a woman was allowed to speak in public about culture and feminism for the first time. And it had even more merit to do so in front of an audience that was mainly male and not at all accustomed to listening to women, as was the Atenu Barcelonès at the beginning of the 20th century.

Today’s curiosity evokes the question of how those men must have felt when they heard from the mouth of a woman, and probably for the first time, the importance of normalising the world of women within their patriarchal society.

This discourse is widely remembered as it openly addressed the need to create institutions exclusively for women’s education. These centres of culture for women were to become the fundamental tool that would enable them to acquire the appropriate professional level and thus pave the way to full equality in the workplace.

In addition to the renaissance strategy, it was also necessary to work on the regulation of more gender-specific issues, such as mutual insurance companies to protect them during maternity or the creation of female labour exchanges.

Echoed in Madrid

It was a resounding success. The social impact of the conference was such that it had to be repeated on the following two Wednesdays: 13 and 20 April. But it didn’t stop there. The demands reached Madrid, in a letter sent to the Catalan Solidarity MP Francesc Macià. The future 122nd president of the Generalitat of Catalonia understood that this demand was legitimate and necessary to modernise Catalan society.

This was a turning point for Carme Karr. In the early 1920s, the journalist became an activist, and one of the first actions she undertook in this new phase was to promote the association Acció Femenina, which worked tirelessly to establish universal suffrage for women, among other actions.

The concept of universal women’s suffrage that Carme Karr defended was much closer to the British and American suffragettes than to the National Association of Spanish Women (ANME), which they considered too radical.

The 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition was a perfect megaphone for Catalonia and for Carme Karr to show the world that Catalan society was already modern. Carme Karr was entrusted with the direction of the Women’s Pavilion, the content of which was designed to break down the prejudices of the time about women.

A short-lived breakthrough

The Second Republic brought universal suffrage for women throughout the state. For the first time, women could vote. History had done justice after so many decades of effort and legitimate demands. In this way, conservative feminism, which argued that the social role of women had to focus on two areas: the family and religion, was imposed.

But the victory was short-lived. Carme Karr was deeply affected by the outbreak of the Civil War, the establishment of Franco’s regime, and the outbreak of the Second World War.

For an intelligent, freedom-loving, and absolutely pacifist person, it was difficult for her to understand how a gang of obtuse people were imposing by force, a model of women that forced them to return to their homes and be removed from public life. Seeing decades of effort vanish in an instant pushed her into a depressive abyss.

Thanks to the work of Carme Karr and her contemporaries, universal women’s suffrage became a reality throughout the state. That generation of women worked for the creation of a feminine consciousness that claimed the need to articulate a culture from the feminine self.

11Onze is the community fintech of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the super app El Canut for Android or iOS and join the revolution!

The sun set. A long, cold, and decadent night spread across Spain for almost forty years. Finally, the guns had imposed “me over you”. But the conviction and tenacity of many women made it possible to change the situation as the century progressed. We continue with the historical exercise on the history of contemporary women.

The drama increased when some 500,000 people crossed the border into France between the end of 1938 and January 1939, fleeing the horror. In fact, it had been suspected for months that this would happen. The victory of fascism in Spain became a reality in April 1939, when the hopes and illusions of a social majority that had worked to create a fairer and more egalitarian society were finally dashed. From then on, peace would be imposed under the constant threat of imprisonment for dissidents against the new order.

The regime imposed by force of arms was based on national trade unionism, but after the Second World War it was forced to move towards a different conception of power in order to ensure its survival. The world that emerged after 1945 would no longer be the same as at the end of the Spanish Civil War, since historical reality would be constructed on the basis of the confrontation between the capitalist and communist countries.

It was then that Francoism decidedly opted for National Catholicism as a social articulation. Catholic rhetoric would be more acceptable to the Western allies, the winners of the world war. And the most visible manifestation of this conception of power would be the return of hegemony to the Church, which would control all aspects of public and private life in society. The state would put the clergy on the payroll and provide the Church with a broad tax exemption and, most importantly, it would once again be given absolute freedom in the management of education.

Involution of the role of women

Franco’s dictatorship would destroy all the achievements of the Republic. The Church would legitimise the redefinition of the role of women in society. Thus, Franco’s regime would put the brakes on all the female achievements of the previous period by arguing an anti-feminist discourse, in which women would be perceived as inferior to men, both spiritually and intellectually.

Under this pretext, the new regime would relegate women to household chores, as mothers and wives. Many women were repressed by the regime, especially in the period 1939-1945. Feeding, helping or curing Republican combatants was considered a crime, for which many women were imprisoned, sent to concentration camps or even shot. Others, conditioned by fear, silenced their participation in the battlefields, making it a purely private memory.

Even so, the regime legitimised two youth organisations, the Women’s Section and the Youth Front, which were set up to indoctrinate all young people in the principles of the ‘movement’. In this way, the aim was to build a new society that was obligatorily articulated by the new values that underpinned Francoism.

A new political turn

Towards the end of the 1950s, something began to change. The failure of the autarchy and the tense international situation, with the Cold War in the background, led the regime to a forced reorganisation of forces in the power families. The Falangists, who had dominated the political scene until then and were the guarantors of fascist symbolism and rhetoric, were replaced by young technocratic politicians linked to Opus Dei.

This change allowed the regime to generate a new ideological discourse and project a more modern social image to the outside world. In this way, ‘developmentalism’ would favour the growth of a Spanish middle class that would sustain the regime for a few more decades, but would also cause its annihilation. This controlled openness, for example, would tolerate the publication of works in Catalan, but it would also allow demands for social gender equality to be rescued from the attics of memory.

Women in Catalonia

It was in this context that Maria Aurèlia Capmany i Farnés (1918-1991) published her famous essay ‘Women in Catalonia’ (1966), one of the key works for the recovery of feminist demands in Catalonia. She was the daughter of the folklorist Aureli Capmany and Maria Farnés, and granddaughter of the journalist and Catalanist politician Sebastià Farnés. From an early age, Maria Aurèlia Capmany showed an innate ability for writing and literary activities in general. The impact of her essay allowed her to give up teaching to devote herself entirely to literary activities and theatre.

The main thesis put forward by Maria Aurèlia Capmany in ‘Women in Catalonia’ hinges on the idea that no progress can be made on the problem of gender if the social and political problems of Catalonia are not solved first. And this is written by someone who was a woman, a Catalan and a socialist. In other words, the devil for the Regime!

A palpable problem

For Capmany, the gender problem exists and is palpable within society. Her essay reveals two major problems: on the one hand, the definition of women as otherness and dependence; and, on the other, social inequalities and women’s access to the public world. In this sense, the conclusion reached by Maria Aurèlia Capmany is very clear: women have the same social status as men, but only in appearance, because the reality is that they are all aware of their lack of integration, their state of evolution and the instability of their insertion in the society in which they live.

A working woman can easily discover the objective conditions of her marginalisation, since she works the same as a man, studies the same subjects, obtains the same qualifications as a man. Still, with these qualifications, she will do a second-rate job. Therefore, if a woman wants to dedicate herself to something beyond the walls of her home, she will have to do it discreetly and without giving it any importance.

As a result, Capmany would once again put forward the thesis of the 1930s, which fiercely defends the “me just like you”. Even so, throughout her long career, first as a writer and then as a politician, she worked tirelessly for the equality and integration of women in society. Through her prolific work, she fought against the stale ultra-conservatism of the Franco regime, coming to the conclusion that the key word for women’s liberation is emancipation. As her song ‘Teatro de cabaret’ says, she was an emancipated woman who had to think and decide, solemn and sensible, and she did it from freedom and dialogue.

11Onze is the community fintech of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the super app El Canut for Android or iOS and join the revolution!

Plan your holiday, pack your bags, and grab a book. Summer is synonymous with disconnection, and reading is the main protagonist. We bring you a book selection for your summer travels.

Recently, a study found that reading makes us more empathetic. With the only condition that it is quality literature, the researchers found that people who read are able to recognize the emotional state of the characters and improve their imagination and mental agility. 

And not only that. It is also popularly said that reading makes us attractive; in fact, it would be like brain gymnastics: it stimulates mental activity and concentration, disconnects us from problems and anxieties, and allows us to travel to new worlds. There are many benefits to reading, and they all explain the importance of encouraging it from an early age. So jot down the titles you can’t miss this summer and start training your brain!

• 21 Lessons for the 21st Century (2018) by Yuval Noah Harari. In this new instalment, the author of Sapiens (2014) and Homo Deus (2016) describes the fundamental lessons for living in this century. With his theories, he invites us to think, drawing scenarios that describe the main current challenges. He reviews social, political, and existential issues, and warns of technological dangers, from a daily point of view that defines the impact of all this on our present and future lives.
•  FakeYou: Fake news y desinformación (2018) by Simona Levi. The phenomenon of fake news questions the health of the media, political parties, governments, or companies. Controlling this often means restricting citizens’ freedom of expression and information. Simona Levi questions this legislation based on violating fundamental rights, in a work that becomes a weapon to fight against manipulation, lying, and falsification.
• The Vegetarian (2017) by Han Kang. It is not about vegetarianism, but the story begins when the protagonist stops eating meat. An individual decision that becomes a social challenge, a symbol of rebellion against what is conventional. About quitting submission and facing the system. A poignant and awkward story that describes what happens when you question what is accepted, and you break the rules, and how far the human capacity goes to carry it out to the last consequences.
• The Grapes of Wrath (1939) by John Steinbeck. It narrates the collapse of the American dream following the Great Depression. A context of economic and financial crisis that leads the protagonist family to emigrate and start a vital search to ensure their jobs, their dignity, and their future. A timeless story where power, equality, and justice are confronted in the United States.
• El hambre (2014) by Martín Caparrós. Wasting food and going hungry are the main concepts that Caparrós reviews in this book that has led him to travel to countries around the world where hunger is the main problem. A book that reviews food from all points of view, from those who speculate to those who need it, to explain and denounce a global issue in which we are all involved.
• The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) by Margaret Atwood. A disturbing dystopia that has become relevant once again. In a totalitarian and theocratic society, women have been reduced to mere instruments of reproduction. Atwood warns of the real danger posed by the loss of hard-won rights. It is a difficult read, but a necessary one.
• The Order of the Day (2017) by Éric Vuillard. Winner of the Goncourt Prize, this short but incisive work narrates the inner workings of economic and political power on the eve of Nazism. With an ironic and lucid style, Vuillard portrays how great historical events are intertwined with the mediocrity of those who make decisions.
• The Invisible Women (2020) by Toni Morrison. A personal choice: any work by Toni Morrison is worthwhile, but The Invisible Women stands out for its depth and sensitivity. The story of African-American women struggling to find their voice, identity, and freedom in a world that ignores them. Poetic and moving.

Some books distract you, others move you, and some change the way you see things. Whatever your summer pace, choose one and let yourself be carried away. You may not change the world this summer, but perhaps a good book will make you see it with new eyes.

11Onze is the community fintech of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the app El Canut for Android or iOS and join the revolution!

Aida Roca, filòloga i creadora de contingut digital, és la responsable de La Filòloga de Guàrdia, un canal per a difondre continguts en català i sobre el català. Més de 30.000 seguidors segueixen els seus trucs, amens i fàcilment aplicables, per aprendre a parlar un català genuí en qualsevol context i a qualsevol edat.

Tot just havia acabat la quarantena quan l’Aida Roca es va llençar a crear un canal de YouTube que va batejar com a La Filòloga de Guàrdia. Explica que va començar a crear el tipus de contingut que ella trobava a faltar a les xarxes: contingut d’entreteniment, en català i amb la llengua catalana com a temàtica. Així naixia La Filòloga de Guàrdia, el canal de YouTube, amb presència també en altres xarxes socials com Instagram, Twitter o TikTok, que ja acumulen més de 30.000 seguidors. 

El català pateix, des de fa dècades, una influència de la llengua castellana que es fa palesa en gairebé tots els àmbits: en els mitjans de comunicació, en la producció audiovisual, en l’oci i fins i tot a l’hora del pati, on els nens i nenes sovint aposten pel castellà, en lloc del català, per a relacionar-se amb altres infants. L’Aida, des del seu canal, i tal com ens explica en aquest nou episodi de Persones, defensa que el català és prou ric per a parlar-lo en qualsevol àmbit, només ens falta utilitzar-lo.

A la (falsa) recerca del català correcte

Roca remarca que no podem parlar de català correcte o incorrecte, perquè aquesta diferenciació rau en el context en el qual ens trobem. Així doncs, una expressió com “natros”, que es fa servir en moltes comarques de Catalunya, seria correcta en un context col·loquial, però deixaria de ser-ho si la fem servir per a un discurs institucional, per exemple. En aquest cas, com en tants d’altres, ens hem de referir a aquest tipus de paraules o expressions com a català genuí, autèntic, i segons el context serà correcte o no.

Però, més enllà del dialecte que parlem o el context on ens trobem, la jove Aida Roca planteja que la principal preocupació és si realment es fa servir el català entre els joves com a principal llengua, i ens apropa la clau per a capgirar aquesta situació. Roca també ens comparteix el seu punt de vista sobre la polèmica aplicació del 25% d’hores en castellà a les aules i l’estat de salut de la nostra llengua. Escolta la conversa sencera per apropar-te, una mica més, al català genuí.

11Onze és la comunitat fintech de Catalunya. Obre un compte descarregant la super app El Canut per Android o iOS. Uneix-te a la revolució!

Tourism is one of the businesses that shows one of the highest capital flow worldwide. As per the report from the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), in 2019, 1.4 billion of international tourists were recorded and up to between 100 and 120 million of jobs are linked to it.

It is, therefore, a sector with an undeniable weight in the world’s economy, and more particularly, with a direct affectation to practically all the inhabitants in the planet either in an active form as travellers or in a passive one as locals.

The touristic sector asks for regulation and responsibility

Given its importance, since years ago there are more and more organisations, Companies and collective bodies that ask for a sustainable tourism system that can be kept over time and nourish the population. Everything points to the fact that this industry will continue growing during the next years and, therefore, if the current model does not change, the negative impact that it generates will increase at the same rate. We are all currently familiarised with sustainability as a concept and we even have adopted certain daily routines that contribute to respect the environment. An attitude that changes more or less when we travel: we leave lights switched on, recycling, take care of public spaces, using more ecological transport ways, spend the necessary water, using less plastic … actions that we may miss when we are on holidays and which, by themselves, do not generate an impact, although they may mean a higher issue when they are multiplied by 1.4 billion people.

Within this context, and with the urgency to change the touristic model into a more responsible perspective, it pops-up the sustainable tourism concept, understood as the one which “satisfies current needs without compromising the capacity of future generations to satisfy their own needs”, as it is described in the Brundtland report. It will be about then, to minimise the negative impact that tourism is currently generating and to maximise its benefits, mainly from the three big pillars: environmental, sociocultural and economical.

To reduce the environmental impact to preserve future 

Tourism very much depends on the environmental quality to survive and evolve but, paradoxically, this is one of the main activities that it harms. Infrastructures construction like airports and roads, highly polluted transport ways by land, sea and air, creation of equipment and touristic resorts like restaurants, shopping centres, golf fields or sportive areas are examples of the negative impact that it brings to any region. All of this brings also risk to the flora and fauna in the area, which in the past years has worsened the situation of hundreds of species, especially the marine ones, which have not been able to overcome the changes that human pollution has caused in their natural habitat.  

In parallel, it has been thanks to tourism that some natural areas have become protected areas or they are areas with especial care being taken orientated to preserve the space looking forward to the future. This is the positive impact where sustainable tourism should be betting: to achieve the maintenance of care of spaces both natural and urban, by governments’ organisms to favour both, local citizens and future visitors.

Controlling the sociocultural impact and to bet for the diversity wealth

The willingness to often travel comes motivated by the restlessness to know other Countries, together with everything that this implies: culture, language, food and costumes. Diversity within the globalism is foreseen, and this arouses respect, tolerance and knowledge by both parts, but especially from the visitor’s point of view. For sustainable tourism it is essentially this cultural preservation but, amongst everything the respect for it. Guaranteeing a value experience therefore, must mean to guarantee sociocultural wealth.

A non-planned tourism, other than being a nuisance to local inhabitants, can bring miserable consequences on their lives and their quality of life, an issue that some areas of Catalonia have already suffered first-hand in terms of gentrification, this is a disproportionate increase of dwellings’ and plots’ prices that turn into, those being inhabitants, to look for more economically viable alternatives, giving way to those who can invest, a fact that may not have a direct relation to tourism in some cases but which, without doubt, has meant an aggravating item. 

The increase in prices in touristic  is one of the reasons to destabilise local people, forcing them to assume higher prices, well above the standard prices they could find in any other street of the city outside the touristic path. If we look at Barcelona, coronavirus crises forced many restaurants in touristic areas to lower their prices to match those offered in the rest of the city, showing the prices war that tourism business means. Avoiding this through regulation policies could not only protect local citizens but ensuring tourists pay for the right price of the product.

Positive economic impact: investing in people

From and economical point of view, it makes sense that as a business, tourism should bring benefits to the related area, but the challenge is making it in an equitable and sustainable way. It will bring nothing to improve the turnover if this does not bring a positive impact in the welcoming area. This is, to have a true benefit it has to mean an advantage to all implied parties and, if managed in a controlled and efficient way, tourism can have the enormous power of enriching the population through the creation and maintenance of jobs both, direct and indirect. 

On the contrary some multinationals, way away from applying a sustainable tourism system, choose to do the other way around, what is known as “scape”. These are business models where profits are not left in the welcoming Country nor bring any profit to the Country, like in hotels with an all-inclusive regime, where customers do not go away from the resort and, therefore, do not generate a positive impact to the area’s economy. They do create an impact indeed but negative as far as taxes is concerned, since the required infrastructures to welcome tourism are often financed through this business. It will require though to weight the generated impact of tourism against the cost that population  pays for. If there is no balance, then we are presumably facing a non-sustainable system and which will need to be revisited.

Tourism is in the end, our joint responsibility since we have all been involved for some time. There are actions that depend only on the individual responsibility and commitment to bet for a sustainable life model, also when we travel. The other side of the management, and that with a higher impact, belongs to the private and public organisations that will need to plan tourism facing next coming years with a clear motive: a bet for sustainability is a bet for the future.

Do you love to travel? With 11Onze Viatges you can book accommodation at the best price, without stifling the travel industry.