This is actually a love letter from my father to my mother, written in 1955, when they were still dating. Their language was Catalan, but since Spain was under Franco’s dictatorship our language was in fact forbidden and they had to write in Spanish. It would have been hard to write in Catalan for them, since they could not even learn it at school. Or even speak Catalan at school, it had to be Spanish. Things I learned while reading his letter:
1-He used English sometimes. It’s a language he always liked.
2-He wanted my mom to buy the book “Vile Bodies”, by some Evelyn Waugh.
3-More interesting: their plans for the weekend. He was telling my mom about the “liberation party” at his hometown. I asked him what it was about. Well, whenever Franco’s guys would enter a town that day was the “liberation day”. And they should celebrate every year. How ironic is that.
I was going through some old books and papers at my parents’ (today was my mom’s birthday and we spent the day there) and found some interesting old books. Like this bunch:
One of them (Randall and the River of Time) is about “a man enslaved by the desires of a scheming woman”…. Now, no publisher would have that on the cover of a book today! It’s just not… politically correct.
7 comments:
These are real treasures!
My aunt lived in Cataluna in the early part of the 70s, and reflected on a get-together in the countryside in which the people sang Catalan songs (secretly, of course). When I lived in Spain, I saw the mark of Franco all the time on the people in my parents' generation. "When Franco was in power, we had to have permission from the La Guardia Civil for these parties!" (referencing a wedding party) or "We went to bedhungry every night" are among the comments I heard. People so affected by his control. I lived in a rather Franco-friendly town (Aranjuez) and would hear the counter-argument from time to time, as well. Did you ever watch "La Lengua de la Mariposa", Nuri?
It's soooo interesting! You're so fortunate to have such access to family history and so much of the context. It makes for very interesting reading... please share more when you can!
it's nice feeling when u look back and see how ur parents were think,BTW i have two catalain friends they always told me they are catalnin more than spanish
Cairogal, what was your friend's counter argument, I'm curious...
And no, I never watched La Lengua de la Mariposa, I will sometime!
Braveheart: it's an endless struggle. It's tiresome. For many people, you're either Catalan or Spanish. There's still too much resentment.
btw, Cairogal, I've added you to my links if that's cool with you
Very cool, Nuri! The counter argument I've heard often comes from people of certain social standing in Spain. "People had jobs!" "Spaniards have a short memory!" A Spanish friend here w/ a family of political background gave me a long explanation that contradicted things I believed to be historically accurate-Guernica being the fault of Franco was one thing he contested.
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