Coming to Barcelona, I didn't know what to expect. I had wanted to go there for the past 15 years but didn't even have a clear idea why. I realize now that it was this scene from the movie Barcelona (1994):
That was my subconscious reason. Consciously, I'd heard it was a great city, full of great art and architecture, and I wanted to see the town that had been a last anarchist holdout in the Spanish Civil War and the site of great collectivization and resistance against the fascism of Franco, or so I'd heard.
It was strange, then, to see anarchist, communist, socialist, feminist, Catalan nationalist/separatist (more on that later) slogans in red and black and wheatpaste strewn across the city in response to the financial crisis but to find little public commemoration of Barcelona's incredible history during the Spanish Civil War.
Anticapitalist demonstration
Enough with the bankers, politicians, corrupt robbers, enough!
"How much are you worth/How much do you cost?"
"Wildcat strike"
"Capitalism IS the crisis"
"Independence, Socialism, Feminism"
"Capitalism is a Pyramid Scheme"
"Freedom for Catalan Countries"
It was only after taking an excellent tour led by Nick Lloyd of Iberianature and then reading Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell and other books on the war from the library that I realized why: while there may have been a good six months in which 70-80 percent of the businesses in Barcelona had collectivized and the feeling of liberation and possibility and the songs of revolution rang through the streets, there was also soon a brutal period when members of the left executed thousands of members of the clergy, destroyed churches and cathedrals, and desecrated religious icons and symbols (the Catholic church was aligned with the fascists and the right and was responsible for its own share of terrors, but still). It was a testament to this conflict that Nick told us that he'd had a dozen Barcelona locals tell him, "If you take people anywhere in Barcelona, take them to the Placa Sant Felip Neri. This is where they shot the priests." While in fact the damage to the church wall came from shrapnel from a fascists' bomb in 1938, the perception of what happened is as important as what actually happened, because it speaks to what lies underneath, in peoples' collective memories. Even if it didn't happen in this exact place, it did happen, and people did not forget.
"In memory of the victims of the bombing of Sant Felip Neri. Here died 42 people, most of the children, from the actions of a Francoist plane on the 30th of January, 1938"
The walls of the Plaza de Sant Felip Neri
As much as I'd seen images from revolutionary Spain in books of art and resistance, I'd never seen this or understood what it represented, even in its mythology, to the conservative side of Spain. Even now, I was genuinely shocked to see, on a church in the Poble Nou neighborhood, graffiti that said "Fuck the pope." But I'm not Catholic and so, as much as I have an abstract understanding of the archaic views of the Vatican vis a vis the rights of reproductive rights of women and the sanctity (or lack thereof) in being gay, I don't have the same visceral reaction to it that others do who have been steeped in its indoctrination throughout their lives.
***
What I did have a visceral reaction to was being in the midst
of a nationalist demonstration on the 11th of September, National Catalonia Day, when hundreds of thousands of people flooded the streets of Barcelona to demand
independence from Spain (and, most likely, to also protest the economic austerity measures proposed by the Spanish government in response to the ever-deepening economic crisis in Europe).
Poster for Catalonian Freedom March
Just
like for gay pride in San Francisco, there were swarms of people draped flags and marching in what seemed like every direction. Only instead of rainbow flags they
bore the red and yellow stripes of Catalonia.
National Catalonia Day, 11th of September, 2012, Barcelona
Bikes for Catalonia
Even when it is for a potentially righteous cause, there is something about a large group of people bearing a flag *of any kind* that scares me. Because the flip side of belonging to the group bearing that flag is not belonging and then wondering if you are welcome at all. And that is not to say that community boundaries are inherently bad; sometimes they are critical for survival of the group; people have a human right to dignity and self-determination. It's just that with borders, while you might benefit from staying in, who's to say that you will be allowed to leave? (Think: East Germany.) And conversely, when you keep others out, how do you maintain your connections with the people on the other side? (Think: The Israeli West Bank Wall.)
When I asked Nick what the anarchists in Barcelona thought of Catalan independence, he said they were totally against it, but that overall half of his friends were against it and half of them were for it. (A split, see?) I don't know enough about Catalonia one way or another to have an educated opinion. It's just a feeling I get in my chest and one that I'm inclined to listen to. In a crowded movie theater, know where the exits are.
***
The day after the protest the newspapers showed emboldened Catalan leaders, promising reforms.
"The president shows his intention to start constructing structures of statehood; the government intends to combat the image of Spain as the enemy of Catalonia."
We love you. As queers of San Francisco/The Mission, we are writing to tell you that we think you are fabulous, smart, inquisitive, thoughtful, and inspiring. We watch your show online with avidity. And, as your fans, we are also offering some constructive feedback.
In your interview with Gavin Newsom, you threw him curveball questions and offered an open platform for his gubernatorial stump speech. We thought you should know better, and have attached some things to ponder when next you and he meet:
Top 10 Reasons Gavin Newsom is a Snake in the Grass and Not Queer-Friendly Even Though He Supports Gay Marriage
10. He slept with his campaign manager’s wife and then cried, “I’m an alcoholic” and checked into rehab a la Michael Richards. We believe in polyamory, but sleeping with your campaign manager’s wife is just shady.
9. He was appointed to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors by self-identified Mayor “Slick” Willie Brown (i.e., he is a product of patronage and nepotism).
8. Same as #9. See Paul Getty oil family.
7. Newsom only did the gay marriage thing at first to appease gay voters in the Castro who played a big role in getting him elected and were pissed when he neglected to mention the gay community when applauding the city’s history in his inauguration speech. (We concede he later really cared about the issue.)
6. In his campaign literature for “Care Not Cash,” Newsom misleadingly cited a New England Journal of Medicine article as proof that people on welfare spend their money on drugs. Its authors sent him a cease and desist order and he was forced to quietly trash thousands of hateful and erroneous campaign flyers.
5. Newsom ran his mayoral campaign on the heels of his successful “Care Not Cash” campaign, which took money out of the pockets of homeless people. While he claims the program has been a success, there are more people homeless than before; participants report panhandling because the program cut their cast benefits to $59/month; and the housing offered by the program was procured largely by displacing other poor people from single-room occupancy hotel rooms in the Tenderloin, where it can be hard to stay off drugs or feel safe for residents.
4. While Newsom is out parading about his success at creating universal healthcare, services are being slashed in the midst of a budget crisis. The economy is not his fault, but he could at least show up to budget hearings.
3. Under his watch, San Francisco was turned into a playground for increasingly rich, white people – the black population is dwindling to zero and his policies have sided with private developers time and time again. Now, ugly, expensive lofts sit empty while the exodus of people of color continues, evictions soar, and homelessness grows.
2. If you observe closely, you will see that Gavin Newsom is in love with the idea of himself as a leader, but he does not actually effectively lead.
1. Gavin Newsom wears excessive amounts of Pomade. While we like this in butches and drag kings, it makes him look like a creep.
Yours,
The Residents of Richlandia
p.s. If you don't believe us, check out the S.F. Bay Guardian's article, The Two Newsoms
Sent to then President-Elect Obama's vision page at www.change.gov/, November 11, 2008.
100% of young black and Latino men graduate high school. Prisons and jails close for want of boarders. University rolls swell. Needle exchange programs are federally funded. The rights and dignity of drug users are respected. Public health and public safety work hand in hand. Drug treatment is available on demand. Housing is affordable and accessible. As my State's hepatitis coordinator, I receive calls from people who are no longer uninsured, and who, for the first time, have access to health care for hepatitis B & C. And, while I choose not to marry, as a gay person, it is my right.
"When she had been married a little while, she concluded that love was half a longing of a kind that possession did nothing to mitigate." Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinson
This blog is my attempt, in a time of growing obsolesence of zines and print publications, to search for depth via the internet and, paradoxically, to forge connections.
