#blaverism

I’ll add a quote by the Valencian sociologist Vicent Flor, who has studied the origins of blaverism: “[...] a la majoria de blavers no se’ls pot considerar nacionalistes valencians. Si de cas, regionalistes espanyols. En efecte, el debat identitari [al País Valencià] s’ha centrat en la filiació amb Catalunya, una cosa clara, i no en qüestions com ara el paper que el valencià ha de tindre a l’esfera pública. Hem discutit massa si cal dir-ne petit o xicotet i no tant de la necessitat que la llengua fora present als mitjans de comunicació, per exemple. M’agradaria que rere el blaverisme hi haguera un valencianisme sincer, però els meus estudis, malauradament, no apunten en aquesta direcció.” (taken from here) It’s important to remember that blaverism is a mask for Spanish nationalism, and is not a real Valencian nationalism.

Now I’ll talk about 3 arguments that seem to be central in blaverisme.

1. “They are different languages”

This is the argument that says Valencian and the Catalan from Catalonia are different languages, sometimes saying that Mallorcan is a third separate language, too. More absurd theories derive from this, such as “Catalans / pancatalanists want to impose Catalan when Valencians from x place always spoke Spanish” (mostly used in Alacant). All of this is, of course, false.

Valencian dialects are closer to the dialects of Western Catalonia than Western Catalonia’s are to Eastern Catalonia. (Below I include the map of dialects of Catalan-Valencian. The dotted line separates the Eastern block and the Western block, which are the most noticeable differences), so it makes no sense to separate Valencian and the Catalans from Catalonia.

The reason for that similarity is because the Catalan language originated in the North of Catalonia and spread to the rest of the territory in the Middle Ages with the conquests. When the Kingdom of Valencia was conquered, people from Western Catalonia moved in, who brought the Western Catalan dialect. In the same way, the Balearic Islands were repopulated with people from Eastern Catalonia who brought the Eastern Catalan dialect and accent. In fact, because of this spread, Catalan-Valencian is a pretty homogeneous language when compared to others.

There’s crazy theories such as saying that (and I’m not kidding) Valencian derives from Ancient Iberian, unlike Catalan which derives from Latin. That shouldn’t even need an explanation on why it’s false.

The most common conspiracy theory is that Valencian derives from the Mossarabic (Romance languages spoken by the Christians during the Islamic rule) spoken before Jaume I’s conquest. This is false, linguists and historians say Mossarabic had already been extinct for a couple of centuries prior to Jaume I’s arrival. What they spoke then in Valencia was Arabic, until the repopulation of the coast with people from Western Catalonia spread Catalan and the repopulation of the interior by Aragonese people spread Aragonese which later got replaced by Spanish. (Though Arabic remained one of the most spoken languages in many parts of the Valencian Country until the expulsion of the Moriscos, but definitely not Mossarabic).

The words “Catalan” and “Valencian” have been used interchangeably since the 15th century at least, and we have written documents that prove that. There are texts that use both terms to mean the same. Or for example, the Valencian writer Ausiàs March (1400-1459), who is sometimes pointed at by blaveros as a symbol of Valencianism, spoke the same way his grandparents from Catalonia did. So which language was that?

It’s obvious that it doesn’t make any sense to say that someone from València and someone from Tortosa or Lleida speak different languages, and it would be easily proven false by just... listening to the other. Many Spanish-speaking people from the Valencian Country who don’t speak Valencian-Catalan well believe Valencian and other forms of Catalan are different languages because they hear the Eastern Catalan accent and it sounds different. But just put sentences in Valencian and sentences in Eastern Catalan next to each other and they’re the same, there are very few different words besides two verb conjugations.

This doesn’t make any sense linguistically, but I honestly doubt anyone who goes as far as to deny that two variants with such minor differences are different languages would listen to arguments. It’s just so absurd. Maybe you could ask them if they think when Mexicans say “pinche pendejo” that makes Mexican a different language from Spanish.

Other things in this point that I think are worthy to consider:

The fear of a country’s language, history and culture being erased and having another one’s imposed is legitimate. València has suffered that, and so has Catalonia. But the imposition does NOT come from Catalonia, it comes from Spain (Spain as the homogenized Castilla). Why would they fear this imposition coming from Catalans (which are not doing it), but not fear it from Spain (who has been working against Valencian language and identity for centuries and continues every day)? One of the mottos of blaverisme is “no mos fareu catalans” (“you won’t make us Catalan”), but they don’t put any effort into a potential “no mos fareu castellans”.

If they’re worried about a standard version of the language (not necessarily the Central Catalonia standard, because the Valencian standard is the one used in books, media and schools in the Valencian Country) replacing “what people actually speak like” then that’s great, they could focus on preserving local variants, words, expressions... But the vast majority of blaveros have no interest in that, they only use this argument to charge against the Catalan-Valencian used in schools, TV, radio, books... That’s why they say that standard Valencian is copying Catalan from Catalonia (it’s not, it’s regulated by a Valencian academy), so they can attack even Valencia’s own publications and media, not only the ones that come from Catalonia or the Balearic Islands. Though, of course, the ones that come from Catalonia are a prime target.

For reference on the books, I’m from Catalonia, I have a family friend who has written novels for teenagers and young adults, and some years ago all his books were taken out of school libraries in the Valencian Country because of the complains of blaveristes who were mad that their children could read books in “Barceloní” (this writer is not even from Barcelona lol). Will these books be replaced by books in Valencian? Most certainly not. We looked up the website of the organisation that had protested against those books “in Barceloní” and their website is mostly in Spanish and the comments celebrating taking away the books from Catalonia were Spanish nationalist comments with little interest in preserving Valencian.

So is it really about preserving Valencian? How does isolating Valencian from Catalan (which definitely is the same language, but the point stands if it were just a very very very similar separate language) protect Valencian? It doesn’t, it only weakens it and makes its speakers feel like their language can be used in less settings, which is a step towards language disappearance.

Conclusion: Valencian and Catalan are variants of the same language, just listen to them and it’s obvious that they’re the same. History also explains why they are the same. And isolating speakers by denying them the opportunity to use their language in more setting and with more people weakens the language.

2. “We have no shared history”, “Valencia was a kingdom and Catalonia was never”

False again. As has been said before, València was an Islamic kingdom until it was conquered by Catalonia-Aragon, led by the king Jaume I on October 9th 1238. That’s why October 9th is Valencia’s national day, because it commemorates the foundation of the Valencian culture we know it nowadays. The Kingdom of València was independent, yes, because the Crown of Aragon was a federation (or confederation) of states, together with Catalonia, Aragon and the kingdom of Mallorca, and for a while also other territories in Southern Italy and Greece.

I talked about the “Catalonia was never a kingdom, it was part of Aragon [insert mental gymnastics to say Aragon is Spain so Catalonia has always been Spain, instead of recognising Aragon’s independent history]” in the reply on this post about a year ago. But, even though they bring it up often, that’s irrelevant. It’s a well known fact that the Crown of Aragon has a shared history (cultural history, political history, commercial relations, etc).

But most important of all in this “shared history” is probably the shared history of oppression by Spain. Linguistically, culturally, and economically.

And again, I want to bring up the consideration: why is it that they feel the need to repeat so much that Valencians have no shared history with Catalonia, while at the same time reclaim that Valencia be a region of Spain because its history is Spanish? It’s a huge double standard. Small differences are enough for blaveros to distance themselves from Catalonia, but of course Valencia has way more shared history with Catalonia and the Balearic Islands than with, say, Madrid or Castilla. So why is that enough to claim that Valencia not only has shared history with Spain, but is Spain, while way more proof is not enough that relationship with Catalonia?

As you can see, most of their arguments come down to Catalanophobia.

There are more arguments they use that basically boil down to “we’ve been taught to hate Catalans and want to distance ourselves from them as much as possible”.

3. “Valencian/Catalan is useless anyway, we should focus on Spanish so we can be citizens of the world”

One of the sentences I’ve heard more often. This is not only blaverist rhetoric, it can be heard in many other contexts, too. Basically, it’s the argument that says that in order to become a modern nation, the Valencian Country must abandon its language and embrace only Spanish.

First of all, what makes them think some languages are more “of the world” than others? Where do they think Catalan-Valencian is spoken, in Mars??

According to this argument, having the conversation about València’s place in the Catalan Countries is irrelevant anyway, because only Spain can bring modernity. The whole point of the “citizen of the world” speech should be recognising every single language and culture of the world as valuable, but instead they use this sentence to mean that only big entities have the right to exist. This imperialistic mindset is sometimes well-intentioned, but it’s a wrong conclusion.

I think those are the three main points, and others are derived from these three so I won’t add more.

The problem with blaveros is often that their attitude is not based on the facts, but they look for the specific facts that will justify their hatred. They will only listen to the arguments that they can use to impose Spanish over Valencian-Catalan, and not look at all the facts.

A very clear example of this was LAPAO. La Franja de Ponent has had a mixed relationship with political-territorial belongings (was for a long time politically dependent of Aragon, but only for a century have its parishes been under Aragonese control instead of Catalonia's control). But the Catalan spoken in La Franja is not much different from the surrounding areas. And yet, the Government of Aragon decided that to call the Catalan language spoken by the people from la Franja “Catalan” was pancatalanism, and officially declared it is not Catalan but “LAPAO” (which stands for “Lengua Aragonesa Propia del Área Oriental”: “Aragonese language from the Eastern area”). They can say “it’s not Catalan because it’s in Aragon” or “the law says that’s not Catalan, it’s LAPAO” and yeah, sure, that’s a fact. But there are so many more facts that are being ignored so that the conclusion will be the one they want.