The Solidarity of Stateless Nations

When I first visited Barcelona in the 1970s, locals weren't allowed to speak Catalan or dance their beloved Sardana. The Catalan flag was outlawed, so locals waved the flag of the Barcelona soccer team instead. Now, in public schools, children speak Catalan first, local flags fly proudly, and every Sunday in front of the cathedral, the people gather to dance the Sardana. This circle dance symbolizes national unity as all differences are cast aside and Catalans raise their hands together to proudly celebrate their ethnicity. A Catalan person in Barcelona told me, "Catalunya is Spain's Quebec. We don't like people calling our corner of Iberia a 'region' of Spain...because that's what Franco called it. We do not accept subjugation as a region of Spain. We are a nation without a state.”

Even though things have changed — and Catalunya is increasingly free to pursue its own interests — Europe's "stateless nations" continue to live in solidarity with each other. The Catalan people find Basque or Galician bars a little more appealing than the run-of-the-mill Spanish ones. They even make a point to include the other languages on their ATMs. In Barcelona, you'll see Catalan first, then Spanish, Galego (the language of Galicia, in northwest Spain), Euskara (the Basque tongue), and then German, French, English…and a button for all the rest. While all of these groups — Catalan, Galician, and Basque — speak the common language of Spanish, they respect each other's native tongues as a way to honor their shared ethnic-underdog status.

These groups' affinity for each other even factors into where they travel. On a recent trip to Northern Ireland, I was impressed by how many travelers I met from Basque Country and Catalunya. Because the Basques and Catalans feel a kinship with the Catholic minority in Ireland's Protestant North, they choose to vacation in Ulster.

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