One of the first consequences of the Catalan Statute sentence passed last month by the Spanish Constitutional Court. The Catalan Welcoming and Integration Law says that immigrants who arrive in Catalonia will be welcomed in Catalan to acomplish this the Generalitat (the Catalan Government) offers free Catalan courses. Now the Spanish Ombudsman is appealing this law to the Spanish Constitutional Court and wants this to change so that they are welcomed in Castilian-Spanish instead (link in Catalan). This makes no sense since the language in Catalonia is obviously Catalan, not …

I recommend this excellent article on Catalonia recently published in Los Angeles Times written by Henry Chu.
It seems that international media are slowly realising that the best way to inform about the Catalan conflict is to get first hand information instead of the usual Spanish-biased point of view after just reading a bunch of newspapers published in Madrid. Serious newspapers can’t afford that lack of professionalism.
Let’s hope that slowly the international understanding of Catalonia’s struggle increases. It’ll definitely come in handy for all sides when the declaration of independence …

Catalonia is one of the oldest European nations. Located on the north eastern side of the Iberian peninsula with a current population if 7.5 million people. It has its own culture, language and traditions. Until 1714 was an independent state with its own government, laws, constitution and institutions. It has one of the oldest democratic traditions having created the first Parliament in mainland Europe during the middle ages.
In 1714, after the defeat in the succession war the Castilians imposed their language, dismantled the Catalan institutions and committed a cultural and …

Catalan Parliament has finally approved to ban bullfighting in Catalonia. This decision has attracted much foreign media attention and surprise for its supposed meaning coming from a country which is now inside the Spanish state. Even though it was popular in Catalonia many decades ago and Barcelona even had at one point 3 bullfighting rings those have progressively closed as people lost interest and now there’s only one left open. Nowadays bullfighting “shows” in Barcelona are practically only attended by tourists brought in for the show from nearby towns, mistakenly …