February 21, 2010

Catalan... now in Canada

I've been reading Catalunya - One Nation, Two States, and I'm finally getting some ideas about a paper. Like I said before, I'm interested in how spread out Catalunya is, how it's in Spain and France too, and in Andorra, and even a bit in Italy and in Canada. Yep, apparently there's a small but substantial Catalan community in Quebec. One Nation, Two States is mostly a comparison between two communities in Catalunya - one Spanish (Portbou) and the other French (Cerbère). They are right across the border from one another and are indeed so closely linked that women from Cerbère often get their hair done in Portbou. Both cities have had challenges in maintaining their Catalan language and culture, but Portbou seems to be managing it better than Cerbère, which the author of this book blames the French government for to a large extent. So, that's interesting. The idea of a Catalan state as spread out from Spain to France to Andorra to Sicily to the Balearic Islands to Quebec, how the culture and language have managed in each place, and why. Something like this might work, but of course I need to focus it. It would be very easy to do Spain vs. France, but I'm also intrigued by the others. Especially Andorra - no one talks about Andorra.

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