Catalunya contra Castella

Jaume Vicens Vives stated that "the best interpretation of the Catalanist movement can be found today in the pages of Anton Sieberer: Katalonien gegen Kastilien". In Catalonia against Castile, published in Vienna in 1936 and now presented in Catalan, Sieberer has the virtue of exposing what he sees, from the outside, directly and with an anthropological look very free of prejudices. Initially interested in the survival of the Catalan language, the young Austrian linguist wrote this illuminating and persistent essay, which is not intended to be a history book, but to study a mentality and understand why the Catalan piece is its place in the Spanish project. Catalonia against Castile had a route and influence in the international arena and in the circles of exile, especially from the Spanish edition which, with some modifications, was made by the former leader of the POUM Jordi Arquer in 1944 in Mexico and that published with the title Spain in front of Catalonia. And it is an important contribution, in what is pleasing and in what is uncomfortable, to understand how the psychological springs of a not inconsiderable part of our society still operate today.