Publisher’s Note: As the Spanish government takes increasingly aggressive steps to prevent Catalonia from exercising its right to vote on peaceable secession and sovereignty for its people, the Vermont Independent spoke with Alexia Salva, a Catalan student studying at the University of Vermont this fall 2017 semester, about the roots of Catalonia’s drive for autonomy and independence, and what comes next.

Thank you for speaking with us, señorita Salva. Please describe Catalonia’s uniqueness as a place and a culture. Many of our Vermont Independent readers do not know much about Catalonia.

Thank you for your interest. Catalonia is a 7 million people autonomous community of Spain, located on the northeast side of the country. It’s capital and largest city is Barcelona, the 12th most visited city in the world. Catalonia is popularly known as a great tourist destination especially for its beaches at the Mediterranean Sea.

Catalonia not only has its own culture, but also its own language: Catalan. It is the official language together with Spanish, so you can find yourself speaking any of the two at any time of the day. Classes in school and university are taught in Catalan except during Spanish and English courses, which happen for three hours a week. Catalonia has its own public TV channel which uses the Catalan language too.

Local culture (not found in the rest of Spain) include castells (human tower building), sardanes (a local dance), correfocs (fire festivity) and my favorite: La Diada de Sant Jordi. On April 23rd, Catalonia celebrates love with books and roses.

Why is Catalonia seeking independence from Spain?

Catalonia has felt repressed by Spain for many years, even centuries. Catalans have a different mentality, different ways of getting things done, different standards… even a different language. And we (speaking for the Catalan population), obviously, feel like our way is the right way to do things.

As the Spanish government makes pretty much all decisions regarding anything happening to and in Catalonia, we the Catalans often feel like we are forced to follow the “Spanish way of life”, which we do not relate to. We believe that if these decisions were left to the Catalan government (La Generalitat), things would be better off. And the only way to make this happen is through independence.

The financial aspects are a very controversial topic on this matter as well. Catalonia is one of the most economically developed regions of the country, but Spain likes to take credit for that and, who wouldn’t, they like to take the generated money as well.

A 20% of the central government’s budget comes from Catalonia’s contribution. From the total budget, only a 10% is given back and invested in Catalonia. That means that we are giving away almost 20 million dollars yearly, fully generated in the Catalan region, that are never coming back.

In your mind, what are possible PROS of independence from Spain for Catalonia?

Following up on the previous question, we believe that being able to regulate ourselves and not having to comply to Spain’s orders would give us much more freedom to decide how we want Catalonia to develop in the future, how we want to spend our own money and just have the opportunity to take care of our ourselves, mostly because we do not feel like Spain is taking care of us (More like it is taking profit of us).

In your mind, what are possible CONS of independence from Spain for Catalonia?

There seem to also be a certain amount of Catalan citizens who do not support independence. If it did happen, we would definitely have some unhappy population.

Also, it is unsure whether we could be able to join the European Union. Not that it is essential to our prosperity (some of the strongest countries in Europe, such as Switzerland or Liechtenstein, are not a part of it), but it would definitely be a challenge for our new and inexperienced country.

Explain, specifically, HOW Catalonia is seeking independence from Spain – what is a “referendum,” and why use this process as a political strategy?

It is commonly known that a number of Catalan citizens would support independence. For the past five years, millions of people have protested in the streets on September 11th to get Spain’s attention. There is no official information, though, on the actual amount or percentage of Catalans who would support separation. Not that we haven’t tried, but the Spanish government has never let the Catalans have a say in this. They say it’s ‘unconstitutional’ and they keep warning us of the disastrous effects that voting would bring (really?).

In any case, the Catalan government has organized a referendum for October 1st. That is basically giving Catalans the chance to vote on whether they would support the process of independence or not. It sounds like a pretty fair first step, well deserved after more than five years of active protest. The idea does not seem to convince Spain though, who keeps banning us from our right to vote.

Why would the Spanish government punish hundreds of Catalonia elected officials for supporting democracy and the referendum process?

Despite all the threats constantly being received from Spanish officials, Catalans are too excited for this referendum and are not going to let this opportunity pass. Spain has been aware of the situation for many years and has never been willing to come to an agreement, so at this point Catalans feel like “You’ve missed your chance – Now it’s our turn.”

In a moment of panic and impotence, the Spanish Government thought it would be a good idea to arrest hundreds of elected officials, mostly town mayors, for supporting the referendum, which is considered to be illegal and an attack to the country’s constitution.

They were released with no or minor charges, but it did make the Catalan population even more convinced of their independence beliefs.

What happens if Catalonia is NOT able to hold the planned October 1 referendum? What then?

Even if theoretically the referendum is not able to happen, Catalans have gotten creative to make it possible with anything that’s on their hands. For example, Spain officials have confiscated all voting ballots. No problem, Catalans are printing them themselves at their homes. It is quite definite that some sort of voting will happen, or at least Catalans will go out in the streets and protest like never before. After that, it will be a matter of making Spain realize that this is getting real and that they are not getting away with calling everything we do “against the law.”

We here in our emerging 2nd Vermont Republic wish you all the best – thanks to Catalonia for leading in the global conversation about decentralization and autonomy.

You are most welcome. Thank you for your interest in a free and independent Catalonia.