Look, I know the situation was awful for the characters. But this made me happy in a way I cannot properly express.
This is Montserrat:
Anyway, time to yap about it under the cut.
It's one of the most important religious sites in Catalonia where I live. It's about one hour away from Barcelona and it is absolutely beautiful.
The building you see there? It's an abbey that has there for over a thousand years. It has survived invasions, fascist dictatorships and many other things and it is still at the center of catalan culture. It has one of the biggest libraries of the country and the oldest boy choir in Europe.
I have an uncle who is a high-ranking monk there so, we have known for years that Lucasfilms was doing something there but until recently we didn't know it was Andor. And I couldn't be happier with the result. I'm not a religious person, but I'm very close with my culture and Montserrat is part of it. Again, it is not that what was in the episode was a terrible situation, but still there were a couple of details that I loved.
The first was the wedding hike. Many people do a pilgrimage to Montserrat, you can get there walking (though if you go I recommend taking the train) and even if it was in a different context I loved seeing this element included in the episode. Also, the part were Mon Mothma says: "Gaze through the ancestral lands, some children sing, the elder waves her hand and we are all purified." Yeah, that sounds exactly like Montserrat. Again, terrible situation for the characters, but it's there! They filmed some scenes in Montserrat and incorporated elements that feel like it!
The other one was the statue that was unveiled in the wedding. Though there is certain tones of colonialism to the gesture, if you know ANYTHING about catalan culture and it's history, you know how to this day, Spain and France have done their best to erase or assimilate it. The language, the culture... The day this episode came out was Sant Jordi, which is one of the most important festivities in Catalonia, one which Spain has been trying to assimilate as "El dÃa del Libro", but traditionally, it has been a catalan festivity.
Montserrat has also been affected because of that during it's long history. And what do they return? They return is a statue!
Guess what's inside Montserrat?
This is La Mare de Déu de Montserrat (Our Lady of Montserrat) or La Moreneta. And, alongside Sant Jordi (Saint George in English) is the patronness saint of Catalonia. It has been in the abbey since it's founding, and although it has never been stolen like the statue in Andor, it has been hidden several times to protect against invaders. It's one of the most important symbols to our people.
So yeah, even though the situation of the characters in Andor it's shitty and not good, I can't believe that it took Montserrat to become Chandrila to see one of the pieces of my culture represented in a big production.
It's kind of bittersweet, because again, it's a terrible situation for Mon Mothma and Leida, but the bits and pieces that relate to Montserrat i found them beautiful and even more respectful than Spanish and French media usually depict (catalans are usually depicted as cold and greedy people who only think of money, when we are not erased all together from the narrative).
If you want to know more, this user has several posts about it:
Search results for montserrat
Thanks!
