Extract

Josep M. FIGUERES

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

An analysis of the perception of Catalonia among the world of political exile. The selected setting is a broad spectrum of the initial group and the first generation of Catalans in exile in Mexico, which took in a significant contingent in 1939. Using a dual method – in-depth interviews and closed questionnaires – relationships were established with around a hundred exiles in Veracruz, Guadalajara and Mexico City in 2005. All of them were interviewed as a means of obtaining personal impressions, real-life testimonies and perceptions of opinions and feelings. The interviews formed the basis of the radio programme, Veus de l’exili (Voices from Exile), divided into 35 chapters. Recordings of the exiles themselves were used as a testimonial documentary representation of exile alongside the historical account. In 2006 complete transcriptions of the accounts of some twenty interviewees were gathered in the book of the same name. Using both of these resources – original interviews and publication in a registered source – life experiences and perceptions were evaluated in order to situate and fix the identity of Catalan origin in a remote setting. It gives a diverse and complex image, which has undergone a process of fixation and evolution up until the time of the interview, seventy years later.

Our aim is to provide some references of a biographical nature which can help to configure the notion of Catalan identity, where language, history and culture conform the essential traits in accordance...