Preliminary Note

‘The Ritual Making of Central Catalonia’ is a two-part essay, subdivided into two independent chapters, Chapter 2: ‘National Identity and the Hanging of the Donkey’, and Chapter 3: ‘Comparses and the Dynamics of Inclusive Nationalism’. They are very closely related. The division has been made for editorial reasons. I strongly recommend reading them both as one sole study.

INTRODUCTION: SOLSONA AND THE SOLSONÈS

The town of Solsona (population 9,000) lies at the core of its comarca, Solsonès (population 13,000), which in turns lies at the geographical core of Catalunya. If, on the one hand, the comarca is located on the margin of the historical region of ‘Catalunya Vella’ (‘Old Catalonia’), on the other the general feeling in the area is that of being part of ‘Catalunya Profunda’ (‘Deep Catalonia’). For example, the village of Pinós, in Solsonès, some 25 kilometres (16 miles) from Solsona, is considered the geographical navel of Catalonia and is proudly thought of as that by many locals. Pinós is also, as is stated on its website, ‘a remarkable geographical reference of the most profound and traditional Catalonia’ (‘un referent geogràfic remarcable de la Catalunya més profunda i tradicional’: Turisme Solsonès 2019).

This geographical centrality and its rurality are widely translated by both the locals and the distant urban dwellers into symbolic centrality, its perceived cultural representativity associated with genuine rustic life. Catalonia is a country particularly proud of its economic and historical connection with ‘la terra’ (the ‘earth’, ‘land’, ‘soil’) and of its capacity to keep culinary and folkloric traditions alive. While Barcelona is usually described as populated by ‘heterogeneous and hybrid identities’ (Dowling 2018, 76), central Catalonia in general is widely associated by its own inhabitants and by other Catalans with tropes of authenticity, typicity, traditionality, and greater cultural homogeneity: the veritable cradle of Catalan nation and identity (Llobera 1997). Hence, it comes as no surprise that the comarca of Solsonès is commonly considered as one of the true bastions, together with the nearby towns of Cardona and Berga, of catalanisme and independentisme.