While the Catalan language is a central element of Catalan culture, it is not an unconditional one. Yet Catalan is a language politically charged and the cultural expressions coming from Catalonia that are not in Catalan (or in ‘correct’ Catalan) are often questioned as not belonging to Catalan culture. Our panel explores how language contact between Catalan and Spanish has being reimagined in the last few years. The first presentation, “Is this Norma(l)? Linguistic Normalization Campaigns for the Preservation of Catalan” by Silvia Colas will discuss the role that the controversial Català Light might play in the survival of Catalan in the digital era. In 1982, the Generalitat de Catalunya launched its first linguistic campaign - El català, cosa de tots- for the normalization of Catalan after the end of Franco’s dictatorship. In 1986, following the continuing effort to reduce the use of Spanish words in Catalan, a debate ensued between the supporters of a more colloquial, less normative language, labelled as Català Light, which included the use of Spanish terms, and the formal, more normative Català Heavy, that entailed the elimination of such terms. This debate is still ongoing: in December 2020, the Generalitat announced a new linguistic project of Artificial Intelligence, Aina, conceived to promote the use of Catalan in the digital world. The project was announced after a study placed Catalan on a list of 20 European languages facing digital extinction.

In “The Sandals of Rosalia’s Catalan Grandpa” Eloi Grasset explores how Catalan media and politicians have reacted to Rosalia’s global success. In early March 2021, international superstar Rosalia posted on her Instagram feed her new collaboration with Nike. In a short video, she appeared lacing up a brand-new version of the Air Force One model, one of the most popular sneakers in the world. The most striking feature of Rosalia’s design - the “AF1 Espadrille”- is the extra-long white laces which she ties around her ankle, just as a traditional Catalan espardenya should be worn. This presentation examines Rosalia’s case, paying particular attention to the way in which different political and cultural narratives among the independence movement have approached it. Even though the Catalan cultural field aspires to integrate, agglutinate and transcend the existing wide variety of cultures (Marín & Tresserras, 2019), the need for international recognition that the Catalan independence movement has shown has rigidified significantly the existing correlation between culture and identity in Catalonia.

The third presentation continues with the case of Rosalia and compares it with several concurrent literary works: in “From Rosalia to El càstig: Hybridity Catanyol in Contemporary Catalan Culture,” Isaias Fanlo will explore recent artwork that use Catanyol as a means to reach verisimilitude. In July 2019, Rosalia released a new song: “Milionària.” Performed entirely in Catalan, the song immediately became a major success. However, while “Milionària” became the video in Catalan language with more hits in the history of the streaming platform YouTube, in Catalonia it sparked controversy for the way Rosalia used a Catalan contaminated by Castilian language. This presentation will also address a number of plays, mainly by Marc Rosich, from N&N to A tots els que heu vingut—the scenic arts have embraced a linguistic hybridity that other disciplines have so far ignored. Which kind of catalanitat—understood not only as a language model, but also as a way of articulating a culture—do these works foster?

The last presentation will be by Ignasi Gozalo-Salellas and it is entitled “Who are Today’s Other Catalans? Xarnegor and the New Transgender Space”. In 1964, the immigrant writer Paco Candel published Els altres catalans. In it, Candel stated: “Being Spanish is easy, what is difficult is to live in Spain; living in Catalonia is easy, what is difficult is to be Catalan.” Half a century later, in a liminal point between an ‘inside’ and an ‘outside’, the ‘charnego’ figure continues to be central in Catalan society but neglected as a cultural expression of its identity. Today, a new wave of female artists, with thinkers such as Brigitte Vasallo, writers such as Najat El Hachmi, and global phenomena such as Rosalia, call this figure into question as a form of exclusionary inclusion.

Each presenter will be given 15 minutes for their presentations, which will ensure that we have time for the unstructured discussion after. This session offers a reading of very recent events that make evident how the contact between two languages, Catalan and Spanish, continues to be politically charged.