Becoming a Pubilla, An Ancestral Tradition in Catalonia

Every year pubilles and hereus from all over Catalonia participate in a contest summoned by organizations that promote traditions of the past in the region. As was described in a previous post in Barcelona Photoblog, a pubilla is the heiress in a family where there is no son. She is the eldest daughter, must be between 16 and 21 years old and inherits the home and the estate. The hereu, is the heir, in those cases when there is a son. Families with pubilles were supposed to receive a contribution from the family of the groom, that unlike dowries, were voluntary. This contribution was called aixovar, from Arabic, assovár.

Being elected as the pubilla or the hereu of their municipality or in a final national contest, the representatives of all Catalonia, is a privilege for these youngsters who feel proud of defending the traditions of their ancestors. They will be honor guests in all minor festivities concerning these matters around Catalonia and will be received by the president of the Catalan parliament. A visit to Montserrat Monastery will be a must in their schedule.

Check also this post about Pubilles and Hereus or this one featuring a dancer in traditional dress.

Catalonian Parliamentary Elections 2010 in Times of Crisis

November 28th, 2010, Sunday morning, Catalans wake up amidst the fanfare of parliamentary elections time. Global crisis effects and the polemic ridden mandate of the Tripartit a triumvirate of left parties composed by Partit Socialista de Catalunya (Socialist Catalan Party), Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (Republican Left of Catalonia) and Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds (Initiative for Catalonia Greens), clearly create a general apathy atmosphere among voters although many are conscious that polls favor perhaps conservative and centrist nationalist party Convergència i Unió (Convergence and Union) according to some sources, something that obviously content their electorate but not opponents who fear abstention will incline the balance even further. One thing is certain, as usual, Partido Popular (the right), may be punished yet another year because of their lack of vision and understanding of the Catalan reality. Today, 135 seats will be disputed amongst 39 candidatures in Catalonia, but only a few (about 8) have real possibilities to get seats. Once the Parliament is created, the new President of the Catalan Government will be elected. This Sunday morning we will certainly say goodbye to the left coalition as even in case of victory, its members are reluctant to unite again, and perhaps we will have to say farewell to PSC and President Montilla (the face on the back of the tourist bus in the image above), the scapegoat in these turbulent times of crisis. From my personal point of view, non of the opponents can offer a credible program and I do not think they will or are able to approve laws that get us out of this mess. Some of them give me the creeps like CIU and some others give me the creeps and make me wanna puke like PP, with due respect to their voters who obviously are free to choose. Being myself on the left side of this equation I sincerely have no idea what to vote but I shall vote anyway for fear of what my abstention would bring. Everybody please vote! By the way, famous soccer match FC Barcelona - Real Madrid that was supposed to be played this Sunday is to take place now on Monday due to the elections and at least a majority of us will agree in one thing, supporting Barça!

The Art Nouveau Lamp in Barcelona, Europe

Decorative arts, architecture and other forms of artistic expression lived an authentic ecclosion by the end of XIX and the first years of XX c. in Catalonia as part of a cultural and political movement known as Renaixença which was spurred by the new spirit of the wealthy local bourgeoisie and their quest for industrial expansion, the influence of Paris and other industrialized European countries as the new model to follow in opposition to the retrograde, stale Castilian yoke. The cultural side of this renaissance, this art nouveau and the way it manifested in Catalonia is called Modernisme. A lamp was just a lamp but all of sudden there was an urge for innovation and new trends, an outburst of creativity that said hey this is our art, it is Catalan, we borrowed some elements from the most modern and fashion countries in Europe and Asia, we improved it and lifted it to the category of divine, we are educated, passionate for art, powerful and basically we don't need your Royal Majesties anymore, in fact we never did. Of course this is history in a very personal and simplified way. Here is another modernist lamp.

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Flag Waving Free

Arguments, disputes, quarrels and battles apart, I am going to concentrate on the abstract beauty of a flag waving in the wind, freely, against the sky. I can almost feel the battering of the cloth now and hear the murmur of a thousand causes and hundreds of deaths in the name of a land and those who on her, dwell. This is La Senyera, the flag of Catalonia. 

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Landscapes of Catalonia: Vallverd D'Urgell

This landscape picture was taken last month during a visit to Vallverd d'Urgell, a very small town in one of the most beautiful provinces of Catalonia: Lleida

Vallverd is famous for the Castell del Remei good wine cellars and recently for L'Estany d'Ivars i Vallverd, an old pond dried up by man that will be recovered with an ambitious 8.500.000 euros environmental plan and turned into a natural park intended to attract long gone species of birds to their primitive habitat among other purposes. I definitely enjoyed the intensity of the blue skies over the vast prairie.