In last night's episode of Singulars, a TV3 program we have already dealt with in the last two blog entries, Jaume Barberà finally interviewed somebody who was supposed to give reasons against the independence of Catalonia, the lawyer Juan José López Burniol.
I have no time to analyse the content of the interview itself, but I have been able to make a brief video about the propaganda effort that was employed in its presentation. Here it is.
At the end of the episode Barberà says goodbye with a quote of Catalan national poet Salvador Espriu. It is the Espriu Year in Catalonia, commemorating his birth 100 years ago. The quote is: "Castilla ha hecho España y Castilla la ha deshecho." Castile has made Spain and Castile has destroyed it.
Alas, this is not a quote of Espriu, but of the very Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset (in España invertebrada). Espriu once used this Ortega quote not because he agreed with him, but because he disagreed: he wanted to offer an alternative vision of Spain in his most famous collection of poems La pell de brau. See here.
Jaume "Bart Simpson" Barberà. What a laugh.
Bart Barberà is not the only one to get this quote wrong. A few days ago so did Josep Bargalló in El Periódico. And this guy -from separatist and pancatalanist ERC- is not only known for having been one of Catalonia's highest representatives (Conseller en cap), he is also a "literary critic" and a "writer" and a "teacher", says Wiki. Ex director of the Ramon Llull Foundation and of the Ramon Llull Institute, says the Catalan Wiki.
What makes matters not a iota better is that both -and apparently several others- might have copied the quote from the most official Any Espriu homepage (please look for the "2013-01-28" entry). And nobody wondered why it is in Spanish, not in Catalan....
Coda: Quoting so badly is nothing new, either. I call it "pulling a Rahola".
Update: Apparently this video cannot be seen in Germany because of the Krall song. Here's a version for the Germans; sorry, no song.
Thank you Mr Candide for such insightful analysis. So, Mr Barberà, once journalist, now is just a toy for the nationalist machine. Their mistake of using an Ortega's quote attributed to Espriu is overkill, so ridiculous and pompous at once!
ReplyDeleteKind regards,
@gaab75
Welcome to the blog, Gaab, man!
DeleteWow. That video is great. I want to show it to everybody just so they can better understand how manipulative TV can be.
ReplyDeleteAnd then people ask me why I boycott public tv channels.
Oh, if you want to do that, look at the 4-5 videos before, too.
Deletethis is bullshit, bullshit blog and this isnt reporting, all fake and manipulated... free catalonia!!!
ReplyDeleteLove them phrases that start with bullshit and end with free Catalonia. They are so telling.
DeleteI think the OyG quote is part of his bitchfight with Unamuno, who in En torno al casticismo 20 years earlier, and probably elsewhere, wrote "Pero si Castilla ha hecho la nación española, ésta ha ido españolizándose cada vez más, fundiendo más cada día la riqueza de su variedad de contenido interior, absorbiendo el espíritu castellano en otro superior a él, más complejo: el español. No tienen otro sentido hondo los pruritos de regionalismo más vivaces cada día, pruritos que siente Castilla misma; son síntomas del proceso de españolización de España, son pródromos de la honda labor de unificación. Y toda unificación procede al compás de la diferenciación interna y al compás de la sumisión del conjunto todo a una unidad superior a él. La labor de españolización de España no está concluida, ni mucho menos, ni concluirá, creemos, si no se acaba con casticismos engañosos, en la lengua y en el pensamiento que en ella se manifiesta, en la cultura misma." But it's all silly posturing from people who can only understand history as a political tool for the present. God save us from Iberian philosophers and poets.
ReplyDeleteThe (other) hilarious part is that foreigners seem to know Spanish (incl. Catalan) culture better than the locals. With this I mean you more than me, for I had a hunch rather than readily available knowledge. Then did the research.
DeleteThanks Mr.Candide.Why not boicott public TV 3 channels?
ReplyDeleteIf you boycott every media you don't like you end up viewing/reading nothing, or only the things you want to hear. I don't know which is worth.
DeleteWe have the right to real public media, and we should fight for this right.
it's funny, Espriu had been hiden for many years, and now, when nationalist want to remember him, they can't.
ReplyDeletehttp://diariodeunbotifler.blogspot.com.es/2009/11/contra-catalunya-43.html
if you prefer in Spanish
http://www.marionoya.com/2012/10/27/cerilles/
Candide, et dec una disculpa per la nostra darrera trobada al twitter. Ara em sembla obvi que quan has posat el comentari amb la foto de les pastilles estaves, d'alguna manera, treient ferro a l'assumpte, tenint en compte que, i això no ho recordo mai, jo mateix hi tinc una referència còmica a la meva bio. Bé, en comptes de seguir el joc crec que he embolicat una mica la troca i m'ho he pres com una desconsideració personal. Malament per a mi.
ReplyDeleteAixò no treu que et trobi tremendament irritant ;)
Miquel
Respecto aquest pas teu, Miquel.
DeleteJo vull ser irritant. Vull ser fins i tot xocant. Crec que la política actual s'ho mereix.
Sempre estaràs benvingut aquí per debatre i oposar-te al meu punt de vista.