He Catalan separatism has never shown any qualms about add minors to your cause. In memory there is, for example, the children’s choir who performed at the gala of the 2018 Catalan film awards with a parody song that denied indoctrination in the classrooms —and that, for many, did nothing other than reaffirm it—. This instrumentalization of childhood, however, did not end with the ‘procés’. Whoever doubts this, only has to listen to the interview that was recently done with a young girl on Catalunya Ràdio. In it, the little girl embarked on a plea in favor of always expressing oneself in Catalan regardless of the language of the interlocutorone of the last fixations of nationalism.
“I always keep Catalan. We have to keep our language, because if not, who will?”proclaims the girl. Previously, he had reported that a student in his class addressed a classmate in Spanish, even though the latter understood Catalan. “I never do [pasarse al español]”, clarifies the interviewee. Next – and urged by the presenter, Kilian Cebrià – the minor looks at the camera and sentences: “Keep Catalan. It is our language and it is very beautiful”. To which the driver responds: “Very good. It was very clear.” It should be said that the program in which it was broadcast, ‘Sense Fronteres’, has as its premise the “defense of Catalan.”
The video of the intervention – not available on the Catalunya Ràdio website – was shared shortly afterwards on the X account of Mantic el català (I maintain Catalan), an association that advocates monolingualism in Catalan. “The little ones in the house are also ‘maintainers’. Hooray for all of them and especially for the little ‘maintainer’,” commented the group in the ‘post’. And he recommended: “Let’s educate children with the habit of maintaining Catalan and we will have indestructible foundations”. The clip circulated widely in the secessionist world and, at the time of writing this piece, it had reached nearly 185,000 views.
Another example in which nationalism involved a minor in the linguistic dispute took place at the beginning of the month. On this occasion, the entity Famílies pel Català, focused on the exclusion of Spanish as a vehicular language in school, made public the letter from a father worried about his six-year-old son. In the letter, addressed to the tutor and the child’s school, the parent says that his son woke up crying because he couldn’t speak Catalan with all the children. And to alleviate the situation, he demands that the center help his “son identify the Catalan-speaking children in the classroom” to “sit them together.” Likewise, he proposes that students always address “teachers and monitors” in Catalan. The director responded that they took note of the proposals to “incorporate them” along with others that already applied.
As has been seen, it is not enough for the current defenders of linguistic nationalism that the vehicular language of the Administration and Education in Catalonia is Catalan. They also demand that Catalan-speaking citizens can live “fully in Catalan”. That is, without being forced to live with Spanish or ever use it. In this sense, the aforementioned entity, Mantic el Català, launched in April 2022 the challenge of speaking exclusively in Catalan—whatever the circumstances—for 21 days. It is the time that, according to experts, it takes to consolidate a habit. The controversial initiative was taken up a year later by the Generalitatwhich promoted it in different Girona towns such as Salt, Figueras or Blanes. And recommending, once the campaign is over, “maintain it for the rest of the year.”
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