As someone who grew up during the cold war, one of the major miracles to me is the resurrection of the Catalan language. Catalonia is located in the north of Spain, in the region that borders Andorra and France. It has been a part of Spain for centuries. Despite its being a part of Spain, Catalonians continue to speak Catalan, which is a Romance language spoken by about 6 million people. The language is separate and distinct from both Spanish and French, and sort of looks like a cross between the two.
During the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939, a majority of the Catalonians opposed Francisco Franco, who later won the war and became a fascist dictator over Spain until his death in 1975. During his lifetime, the public use of catalan was banned. It was denied any official status and was not broadcast or used in government offices. After Franco's death in 1975, King Juan Carlos, who was trained by Franco as his successor, oversaw democratisation and increased rights for the Catalonians and the Basques. Since then, Catalan has enjoyed a resurgence. It is now taught, used in government offices, broadcast and published without restriction. Catalonia even has a regional parliament known as the Generalitat, which deliberates in Catalan.
One of my favourite bands that arose as a part of the rebirth of Catalan is "Sopa De Cabra. Their name translates as "Goat's Head" and their latest song that I could find is De Poc A Molt (From Little To Much) The opening lyrics of their latest song are as follows.
Va alçar-se d´un jaç a la vorera,
amb els ulls plens de nit
i els cabells de foc.
Em va dir que no era d´enlloc,
que no tenia nom.
No desitjava res, amb poc en feia prou.
He lifted up a bed on the sidewalk,
with eyes full of night
and hair of fire.
He said it was not from nowhere,
had no name.
Did not want anything, with little done enough.
I must apologise to my readers for a translation provided by Google upon which I am unable to improve due to my ignorance of Catalan. Despite this, the translation does provide a general sense of what the song is about. On this cold day in December, my heart is warmed by the revival of Catalan. I hope my readers will enjoy this song, which sounds a bit like "Refugee" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
The video with this post can be found at the link below, where the original article appears
http://globetribune.info/2010/12/16/song...