Homage to Barcelona
Life in Barcelona on Either Side of the Independence Debate
Journalist Eric Campbell settled in Barcelona in 2016. But his home soon became his next assignment, exploring centuries-old cultural tensions as Catalonia mounted a full-scale bid to secede from Spain.
In 2017, the Spanish government cracked down on Catalonia's illegal independence referendum; elderly voters were clubbed and civilians were shot with rubber bullets. "They were fighting against us like 300 years ago", a local man remarks. But for every fervent independentista, there’s a Catalan who wants to stay in Spain. "Pro-independence people have a lot of power over the media but we still have a majority", says unionist Fernando Gracia. The independence push has spurred the explosion of a new far right party called Vox. "Vox is chauvinist, racist, all the ‘isms’ that belong to fascist ideology", one Vox protester exclaims. Three years on, Eric leaves a community divided politically but united by a passion for its culture - a nation within a nation and a world of its own.
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