The Catalan Institute of America released a statement supporting Parliament’s recognition of Catalonia’s sovereign right to choose its future. The Catalan Institute urges all sides, as well as the international community, to embrace Catalans’ inalienable right to vote as the key to a democratic, negotiated and peaceful outcome -and to honor what the Catalan people decide in a free and responsible manner.

In a crucial step toward a referendum on independence, the Catalan Parliament approved today, by a two-thirds majority (final vote: In Favor: 85, Abs: 2, Opposed: 41), a historic declaration that affirms the sovereignty of the Catalan people and their right to self-determination.

This declaration comes less than two months after pro-referendum parties won elections that were widely labeled as a vote on the issue of sovereignty, and five months after a massive pro-independence rally in Barcelona on Sept. 11 that attracted more than 1.5 million people, one of Europe’s largest demonstrations ever.

The Catalan Institute of America supports Parliament’s recognition of Catalonia’s sovereign right to choose its future, and urges all sides, as well as the international community, to embrace Catalans’ inalienable right to vote as the key to a democratic, negotiated and peaceful outcome -and to honor what the Catalan people decide in a free and responsible manner.

Catalan speakers in the United States also celebrate that the notion of a wider Catalan-speaking community is recognized in the declaration. The document affirms that the history of the Catalan nation has been shared with “other territories sharing common historic, linguistic and cultural bonds” with Catalonia, a reference to Valencia and the Balearic Islands.

The Catalan community in the United States has been following this process with great enthusiasm. Recently, the Catalan Institute of America organized an election night viewing event at a Midtown restaurant, and was overwhelmed by the attendance and interest. “The energy we have witnessed in the last few months is truly unprecedented,” says Jaume Soler, President of the Catalan Institute. “The Catalan community here in the tri-state area has never been so engaged with the political process in Catalonia.”

You can now pay your tuition via Paypal by clicking here.

LOCATION: TRS, INC.

40 Exchange Place, 3rd Floor

NY, NY 10005

LEVELS:    Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced

10 WEEK: January 21st – March 28th 

CLASSES:  10 classes (3 hours per class / once a week)

WHEN:        Monday, 6pm-9pm

Thursday, 6pm-9pm

Friday, 11am-2pm

Please send us your preferred option. We will try to accommodate everyone.

TUITION:  $350 – members of the Catalan Institute of America

Non-members must first become members ($35 regular membership)

PAYMENT:   Once levels and number of classes are confirmed, we will let you know the payment options

We hope you and your family are having a wonderful holiday season.

The newly elected Board of the Catalan Institute has an ambitious and exciting program of activities for 2013,  with a focus on increasing the diversity and quality of events – from conferences to Catalan pop-rock bands.  In addition, we are making efforts to ensure the voice of Catalans in the United States can be heard at such a historic moment.

As a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization the Catalan Institute depends on the generosity of committed individuals like you to accomplish these and other endeavors.

We hope you will join the valued individuals who have responded to our year-end  donations appeal and who share our commitment to strengthening the bonds between Catalonia and the United States.

To make your gift today, click here.

Best wishes in this special season, and we look forward seeing you at our upcoming events in 2013!

As is becoming usual, the same facts have been given a different spin by the Spanish media. Aligning themselves with the views of the political class in Madrid, most commentators have placed the accent on the setback suffered by Catalan President Artur Mas. This has been portrayed as a defeat of the secessionist agenda –and yet the Spanish government is adamant in denying Catalans the right to say how they feel about independence in a referendum that it is afraid to lose.

Although Mr. Mas did not get the solid majority he was seeking, his coalition remains by far the leading force in Catalan politics. His new government will have a harder time running the affairs of a complex society in a time of crisis, but that wouldn’t have been made much easier by an absolute majority in Parliament. And for once the chief opposition party is not a hostile entity bent on undermining the administration’s every move. These two forces –Mr. Mas’s Convergència i Unió and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, led by Oriol Junqueras, a relative newcomer– will need to reach difficult compromises on many issues, but the essential part of the deal will be something that they –and others– basically agree upon: drawing a road map for the transition to full sovereignty for the Catalan people.

***

The people’s right to decide about their future as an independent nation was the central issue in this election. An unprecedented participation –close to 70 per cent of eligible voters– has produced a more accurate picture of where Catalan society stands on this, as two big unknowns have been largely dispelled.

First, the extent of the unionist vote. In spite of massive backing from the national media and after an unscrupulous campaign staged by the political forces in Madrid and echoed by their client parties in Catalonia, that option has obtained just over one third of seats in Parliament.

Second, it had been predicted that many of the longtime supporters of Mr. Mas’s right-of-center party wouldn’t go along with the more radical line he was taking. In fact, the middle-class backbone of Catalan society has renewed its support to a very large extent –with over 1.1 million votes.

The more conservative layers of society have come to realize that –in the words of Jordi Pujol, the elder statesman of Catalan politics– “in the present financial, political and institutional conditions imposed by Spain, Catalonia is not viable”. On this, they have joined others that had traditionally been more explicit in demanding wider freedom for Catalonia. With exceptional results: the aggregate vote for parties favoring the Catalans’ right to decide has won the day by almost a two-thirds majority.

Perhaps the main message sent by voters in this election is that setting off on the road to independence is not the exclusive project of one party or one leader, but the shared aspiration of a majority of the people. Catalans have now entrusted their leadership with finding a way beyond a status quo within Spain which they consider unsustainable. And if this election’s results are read as an early proxy for the inevitable referendum on becoming a new state in Europe, it can be said that the process leading to Catalan statehood is already on its way.

http://www.collectiuemma.cat/article/1485/after-the-elections-in-catalonia

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 29, AT 6:30 PM

INSTITUTO CERVANTES NY   211-215 East 49th Street   New York 10017 

THE INSTITUT RAMON LLULL AND THE ASSOCIATION XAVIER MONTSALVATGE COMPOSER CORDIALLY INVITE YOU TO A ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION ON THE LIFE AND WORK OF XAVIER MONTSALVATGE

PARTICIPANTS:

Antoni Bassas, Washington correspondent for TV3 Catalonia Television, as moderator

Roger Evans, author of the recent biography of the composer

Fred Plotkin, cultural commentator

This event will be conducted in English. Free admission.

While there, you can also visit: 

From November 15 to December 12.

An exhibition reviewing musical and cultural life of the second half of the twentieth-century in the Spanish state.

Xavier Montsalvatge is one of the most important musical figures of the period from the Second Republic, through the dictatorship, to the democratic transition. But he is also an intellectual personality of the first order that relates to the most significant artists and thinkers of the twentieth century. 

Catalans in the United States have followed this process with unprecedented enthusiasm. In Manhattan, the Catalan Institute of America organized an election night viewing event at a Midtown restaurant, and was overwhelmed by the attendance and interest. “The energy we have witnessed in the last few months is truly unprecedented,” says Jaume Soler, President of the Catalan Institute, “the Catalan community here in the tri-state area has never been so engaged with the political process in Catalonia.”

On the other hand, frustration at Spain’s overseas voting system and a sense of disenfranchisement were also evident in the Catalan community here in the United States. Onerous requirements under Spain’s new overseas voting law, as well as unacceptable delays in mailing the necessary forms by the Spanish Central Board of Elections have effectively prevented most Catalans residing here from exercising their right to vote. Protests from Catalan-American groups such as the Catalan Institute, as well as pressure from the Catalan Government forced Spain’s Central Board of Elections to grant a one day extension to the voting deadline for Catalans in the U.S. However, absentee ballots never arrived for over 98% of the eligible voters consulted by the Catalan Institute of America, leaving them effectively disenfranchised in the most important election in their lifetime.