The celebration of FC Barcelona’s 75th anniversary may be the one that has left the club with the most fruitful legacy. The commemoration came at a sweet moment, with the recent League title after 14 years of drought and with a possibility of social mobilization, unthinkable until not long ago, in the face of an end to the Franco era that seemed close.
The one in November 1974 was the third major Blaugrana commemoration and, like the previous ones, it was celebrated under a regime of deprivation of freedom. In 1924 it coincided with the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, and the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary, in 1949, was already in the midst of Franco’s regime. In 1974, the board chaired by Agustí Montal Costa was able to organize an extensive program of cultural activities.
On November 17, 1974, the meeting of partners in Montserrat camouflaged the creation of CDC
The premiere of Cant of Barçaon November 27 at the Camp Nou, with the performance by nearly 80 choirs directed by Oriol Martorell, and the commemorative poster, by a painter of international prestige Joan Miró, constitute the two most enduring legacies of the 75th. anniversary. But there were other social actions and, in one specific case, with historical political significance.
As was recently recalled in this newspaper, in a report by Jaume V. Aroca and Xavier Cervera that brought together Jordi Pujol, Artur Mas and Xavier Trias, the concentration of members and clubs of FC Barcelona in Montserrat, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary , was the perfect camouflage for a group of opponents of the regime, who obviously moved in absolute secrecy, to found Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya.
Jordi Pujol understood that the meeting of Barça fans, it is estimated that around six thousand attended Montserrat, was the ideal environment to not arouse suspicion among the police. As contemporary history professor Carles Santacana indicates, the political initiative was independent of the club’s activity, “although it is evident that some directors (or related people) were aware.” in his book Barça and the Franco regimeSantacana specifies that Josep Lluís Vilaseca and Joan Granados attended the meeting.
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In his volume of memories History of a convictionsays Jordi Pujol: “I went up to Montserrat on the bus of a Barcelona fan club. At eleven in the morning, in a room provided by the Benedictine community, a number of people met… In a meeting that concluded at five in the afternoon, Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya was founded.”
Pujol’s relationship with Barça went back a long way and even allowed him to formulate sociological analyzes of the Catalan character. In 1954, following a Barça-Madrid match that the Blaugrana eleven ended up winning despite the rival advancing, he wrote in Forging and he lamented the negative attitude of the public with the score against: “If they had to win the game, poor Barcelona! If the triumph of an ideal or collective interests depended on them, woe betide us!” He also censured “the cowardly public that shouts when Barcelona wins by 3 or 4 goals, but remains silent, their breath freezes, when things go wrong.” The article, in Catalan, was titled “Amb profundíssim dolor after Barcelona-Madrid”.
In the same book of memories cited, Jordi Pujol remembers that, with a friend of his, Pere Figuera, they were the authors of some graffiti (“Visca Catalunya!”) that appeared around the Campo de las Corts the day after the celebration. of the 50th anniversary, when the president of FC Barcelona was Agustí Montal Costa’s father.
And already entering the latter’s stage at the head of the club, Pujol used to write him current letters. Thus, in December 1972, following several clashes with the civil governor, Pujol pointed out to Montal: “The attack against you and against Barça as a Catalan institution does not obtain the journalistic and scandalous support of that other matter.” [se refería al caso Guruceta]. It is a sinuous and underground attack, more of insinuations and underhand blackmail than of frontal and frank attacks.”
Samitier, Kubala and Cruyff
‘Barça’, the censored film
One of the last events of the 75th anniversary, already in February 1975, was the premiere of the film Barçadirected by Jordi Feliu with intervention in the script, among others, by Jaume Miravitlles and Josep Termes. It was a review of the history of the club and the social role it had played. The film was widely censored, the subsidy to which the producer was entitled was denied, and in order to be shown it had to be made in Spanish. Even La Trinca’s songs had to be translated (botifarra of pages) and Guillermina Motta (The Barcelona fan). On the film poster, the faces of Samitier, Kubala and Cruyff appeared on a blue and scarlet background.
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