"El País" on Franco's stolen children

The story made headlines this week: between the 1950s and the 1980s hundreds, maybe thousands, of children were taken away from their mothers -often very young, unmarried, in the process of divorce, or considered social outsiders- immediately after birth and sold to affluent couples who couldn't have children of their own. The biological mothers were told that their child had been born dead; they were presented with a death certificate but never shown the corpse. A lot of the children never knew that the parents they had known as theirs from earliest memory were not their biological parents. Involved in this massive robbery of children were nurses, nuns, priests, and officials of the birth registries. The Spanish daily El País has this article on the topic, in English.

Finally a pension reform for Spain

An important story for the national news today: Spain's central government, trade unions and the employers' representatives have finally agreed the pillars of the future public pension system. Tomorrow, the government wants to present its proposal for the public pension system's reform; this then has to be put into law and agreed on by a majority of the Cortes (national parliament) where the ruling Socialists do not have a majority of their own but are dependent on the supporting votes of small, "nationalist" parties, such as CiU from Catalonia, PNV from the Basque Country, and Coalición Canarias from the Canary Islands.
The main points are these: if you want to retire with a full pension at age 65 you have to have worked 38.5 years paying contributions into the social security system. If you want to retire at age 67 with a full pension you have to have worked for 37 years contributing. To calculate a worker's old age pension the government will take into account his or her income during the last 25 years. That is positive for those who lose their jobs shortly before reaching the retirement age but bad for those who earn high wages only late in their working life. Working women who interrupt their working life to bear children will get a bonus of nine months for each child in the computation of their contributions with a maximum of two years (= 2, 66 children - sic).
The age for retiring early will be pushed from 61 to 63.
The introduction of these measures will start in 2013: from then on, workers who want to retire need to contribute an additional one and a half months each year to reach retirment their retirement, i.e. instead of retiring on their birthday they have to work six weeks more - and so on until by 2027 the general retirement age is hoped to have reached 67.
To get the trade unions' agreement the government has promised "active labor policies" for the unemployed aged 55 and above; if they participate in these programs they will receive a benefit of around 400 EUR per month (a ridiculous sum if one lives in a big city where the cost of life is close to northern European levels).

The original story from the Spanish daily El País is here.

Remembering the Cultural Life at the Kennedy White House

As the performance by Catalan cellist Pau Casals was one of the highlights of cultural events during the JFK presidency we reproduce here what National Public Radio had to say about a memorable evening at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.:

At Kennedy Center, An Arts Legacy Alive At 50

by Nina Totenberg

Perhaps no president in American history celebrated the arts more visibly than John F. Kennedy. So it seems only natural that the performing-arts center that bears his name is staging a star-studded arts festival to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his inauguration.

For those of a certain age, the image of that day 50 years ago is tattooed on memory. A blizzard had whitewashed the city and nearly ground traffic to a halt. The sky was so crystal clear, the white snow so dazzling and the glare of the sun so blinding that poet laureate Robert Frost couldn't read the poem he had composed for the event. So he put aside the wind-ruffled pages and recited from memory another of his poems, "The Gift Outright."

Frost was the first poet asked to recite at an inaugural — a harbinger of things to come.

B. Anthony Stewart/National Geographic/Getty Images

Robert Frost recited his poem "The Gift Outright" at President Kennedy's inauguration — a dazzling winter's day in Washington, so bright and windy the poet laureate had to forgo his prepared text and work from memory.

'Our Contribution To The Human Spirit'

"I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for the victories or defeats in battle or politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit," President Kennedy said in November 1962, in one of his many speeches promoting the arts. And then almost a year later, less than a month before his death: "I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business and statecraft."

"The Kennedys really believed that the people who make art, the people who write books, the people who have great scientific thoughts, had a very important role to play in society, and they honored them by focusing on them and putting a spotlight on them," observes Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser.

This was a time, remember, when there were almost no regional theaters in America — or dance companies, or operas. There was no government support for the arts or humanities, no National Endowment for the Arts. Indeed, in the nation's capital, Congress had only just appropriated money to build a cultural center — a center that would, when it came to fruition years later, be called the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Now, 50 years later, the center is celebrating that pivotal moment for arts in America. The project, which continues through Feb. 6, has been on the drawing board for five years.

The Kennedy Center's Kaiser says that in planning such a festival, there is no point in being "encyclopedic." Rather, the aim is to hit artistic highlights, from jazz to classical music, from ballet to tap dance.

The events in this particular sampler include a new symphonic work featuring the words of President Kennedy, with Morgan Freeman and Richard Dreyfuss narrating. There are performances by the American Ballet Theater — the organization that Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis chaired until her death — and exhibits featuring the work of artists with disabilities, because the Kennedys were such proponents of opportunity for the disabled. There are events featuring young artists, as well as established ones.

Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Casals (speaking to President John F. Kennedy, center, with First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy at left) was at 85 one of the world's greatest living musicians — and a Spanish exile who had long refused to play publicly in countries that recognized Spain's authoritarian government. He accepted Kennedy's White House invitation after much soul-searching, as a signal of his hopes for the new president's administration.

'The Most Glamorous Event Of The Year'

Though the Kennedy presidency would be just a shooting star in the firmament of U.S. history, it would light up the arts in America as never before. And no event would more symbolize that than the 1961 White House concert played by cellist Pablo Casals, by then almost 85 years old.

From The White House Concert

Casals Plays 'El cant dels ocells' (Song of the Birds)

[3 min 25 sec]

A Spaniard in exile, Casals had refused for years to play publicly in the United States, or any country, that recognized the Spanish government of dictator Francisco Franco. But in the first year of his presidency, Kennedy sent an emissary to Casals' home in Puerto Rico to see if the cellist would relent and play at the White House.

Casals widow Marta Casals Istomin says her late husband struggled with the invitation. Finally, he sent a letter to the president declaring, "May the music that I will play for you and for your friends symbolize my deep feelings for the American people and the faith and confidence we all have in you as leader of the free world."

And so, on a November night in 1961, a glittering audience of women in ball gowns and men in white tie and tails gathered at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Among the guests was Alice Roosevelt Longworth, daughter of Teddy Roosevelt — the last president for whom Casals had performed, nearly 60 years earlier at the dawn of the 20th century.

There were all the big names in American music: composers from Leonard Bernstein to Aaron Copland, conductors from Eugene Ormandy to Leopold Stokowski.

"There was electricity," says Casals' widow. "There was something [in the air] — that people were here for something important."

She admits she was nervous.

"Casals was 85 years old, and although I knew he was all right — you know, these emotions can sometimes affect you."

Then he put bow to string.

"When I heard the first few notes," Marta Casals Istomin says, "I knew it was going to be all right."

At the end of the program, there was silence, then explosive applause. Casals walked over to President Kennedy and said, "Now I will play for you the 'Song of the Birds,' which for me means my nostalgia for my country, and my hope for freedom and peace."

The Spanish folk song was Casals' signature piece, one he had played at many benefits and humanitarian concerts over the decades. Sung at Christmas in Spain, it was traditionally a cheerful song, its tempo fast. But Casals had slowed it down, transforming it into a heartbreakingly mournful ode. On a recording of the White House concert, you can hear that emotion — not just in the music, but occasionally in a tiny sound Casals himself makes, a sound close to a small cry.

The next morning, a photograph of the concert would be emblazoned across the front page of The New York Times. The Kennedy Center's Michael Kaiser was a boy then, but he remembers the excitement the evening generated.

"It affected the way all of us viewed culture," Kaiser says. "This was the most glamorous event of the year." And, he says in amazement, "It was a cello recital!"

ABC's Diane Sawyer, in Washington for the opening of the Kennedy Center festival last week, remembered the huge buzz caused by the Casals recital. It penetrated even her teenage consciousness in Kentucky, though she confessed she had no idea then who Casals was.

Tuesday night, the pieces Casals hand-picked for that night in 1961 — music of Couperin, Schumann, Mendelssohn and Beethoven, plus of course that melancholy Spanish song — will sound again within earshot of the great bronze bust of the late president that stands watch in the Kennedy Center foyer. Emanuel Ax will be at the piano, on a bill with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. And the man bowing the cello? Yo-Yo Ma.

You find the audio document, including the piece "Cant dels Ocells" [Birds' Song] performed by Pau Casals, here.

If you want to know more about Casals, the Wikipedia has to say this.

The Pau Casals Foundation's website is here.

Tasting Catalan wines for the "Wine Advocate"

Jay Miller, co-worker of the "wine pope" Robert Parker, made theCatalan TV news this week with a visit to Falset, capital of the Priorat county. He came to taste about 70 wines of the local denomination of origin "Montsant" for the next "Parker's list" (Wine Advocate), to be published in April. What struck spectators here as strange was that he could see which wines he was tasting, i.e. it was not a blind tasting.

The news story in Catalan is on the D.O.'s official blog archive, here.

Black Barcelona 2011 - Crime Novel Week

If Catalans or Spaniards talk about "black" novels or literature ("novel·la / literatura negra") they do not have dark-skinned authors in mind, nor do they think about gothic or more sinistre stuff - it's only crime novels they have in mind.
And to celebrate this genre, a specialized bookstore in the picturesque, seafront Barceloneta quarter (literally "small Barcelona") called "Negra y criminal" (you get the idea) a few years ago started a crime literature festival that awards the Pepe Carvalho Prize to an outstanding crime novelist.
This year it will be held from January 31 to February 5, and there will be all kinds of book presentations and roundtable discussions on various aspects of crime literature from around the world.
One of the highlights will surely be a talk with Swedish author Mari Jungstedt on Thursday, Feb. 3, at 4 pm at La Capella (Carrer de l’Hospital, 56) in Barcelona.

The organizers of BCNegra 2011 have these proposals:

More than 50 crime authors and specialists from, among other places, Barcelona, Sweden, Germany, the Basque Country, Florence, Trieste, Marseille.

Six days and more than 30 events, such as talks, roundtables, readings, movies, exhibitions, workshops, and gastronomy - all with a reference to the crime novel.

26 publishers participating: Alba, Algaida, Almuzara, Alreves, Ariel, Columna, Ediciones B, Debate, Debolsillo, Destino, Duomo, Edebé, Empúries, Erein Argilatxea, Grijalbo, Maeva, La Magrana, Martínez Roca, Planeta, Mondadori, Pàmies, RBA, Roca Editorial, Seix Barral, Siruela i Viceversa.

Andreu Martín, this year's winner of the Pepe Carvalho Prize will be honored on Feb. 3 at the celebration hall "Saló de Cent" of Barcelona's townhall.

Gastronomy in "black": crime novel dishes and cocktails. For the first time, the gastronomic world will fully enter BCNegra. 6 restaurants and 9 cocktail bars invite to taste their creations inspired by crime novel authors or personalities.

A talk with judge Baltasar Garzón, former public prosecutor José Maria Mena and journalist José Martí about organized crime and the political and economic powers.

We will discover the "Kriminalroman", the crime novel that comes from Germany, with the help of two famous authors from that country: Zoran Drvenkar and Volker Kutscher [I have never even heard their names]; and we will get to know why there is so much lethal crime in Sweden, with Mari Jungstedt and José Luis Correa.

Sinister historic Barcelona will also have its space at BCNegar with a roundtable that brings the audience nearer to the assassinations and intrigues of late 19th century and early 20th century Barcelona.

The author Manuel Vázquez Montalbán will be honored in a double way: there will be a series of crime movies dedicated to Pepe Carvalho at the Filmoteca de Catalunya, and we will study the journalistic work of the writer.

Red Dani with "Confessions of a gangster from Barcelona" through his experiences will show us the criminal Barcelona of the Sixties and Seventies.

...

You find the full program at "Negra y Criminal"'s blog, i.e. here.

Catalan literature on the American market

These days, a small American publishing house, Dalkey Archive Press, has made the news in Catalonia because they are starting a series of Catalan classics translated into English.

This is what their website tells us about the project:

The Catalan Literature Series at Dalkey Archive Press presents modern classics of Catalan fiction in English translation, featuring exceptional authors at the forefront of Catalan letters. The Series aims to bring English-language readers closer to one of Europe's oldest, yet still relatively unknown bodies of literature, with a history stretching from medieval times to the present day, thanks to Catalan authors' persistent belief in the power of literature to express the complexity of individual and cultural identity.

The series is published in cooperation with the Institut Ramon Llull (www.llull.cat), a public consortium responsible for the promotion of Catalan language and culture abroad.

The Dolls' Room

Llorenç Villalonga, Deborah Bonner

A classic of contemporary Catalan literature, and a haunting and satirical portrait of a vanishing age, Llorenç Villalonga's The Dolls' Room concerns the decline of Don Toni and Dona Maria Antonia Bearn: aristocrats, cousins, husband and wife . . .

This is good news as there is in general very little literature by non English speaking authors translated into English - and a lot of good English speaking literature translated into other languages... If you are outside of the US you can surely find these titles on amazon.com or your local equivalent.

Price increases and predictions for 2011

2011 starts for Catalans (and Spaniards) in a usual though very annoying way: prices and fees controlled by the government go up. Standard postal letters will be one or two cents more expensive, not really important in the age of electronic communication. Train and metro rides will cost around 3% more, as will highway tolls. Natural gas for heating and cooking will go up, the electricity bill by a hefty 10%, the use of public bicycles in Barcelona by even 15%. These increases exceed inflation by far, and ordinary "salarymen" (those lucky enough to have a job in a country with a 20% jobless rate) and pensioners will see their purchasing power decrease.
Families will no longer receive 2,500 euros for the birth of a child; anyway an ineffective way to stimulate population growth and not really "just" as it was the same sum for the rich and the poor alike. And people won't get the same tax reductions for the purchase of a home as before.
Bitter medicines to keep Spain away from the risk of default as the government does not make progress in reducing corruption, tax evasion and social security fraud, and cutting spending where it should, not in research and education as it did last year.

But it has finally seen the light on smoking. From January 2 smoking will be prohibited in all closed public spaces in Spain, i.e. bars and restaurants, discotheques, hospitals and even open-air playgrounds. And it has announced a further increase in tobacco taxes, currently among the lowest in the Euro area.

I saw two predictions in a list by the Financial Times that I thought worth reproducing here:

Will social unrest worsen in Europe?

In all probability, yes. Across the European Union, governments are cutting spending and unemployment is rising. This month, violent protests erupted across Europe. The immediate cause varied, but economic austerity was the common backdrop. That climate of austerity is likely to worsen and spread in 2011, as Greece and Ireland press on with International Monetary Fund-backed cutback programmes – and Portugal, Spain and perhaps Italy and Belgium struggle to ward off sovereign debt crises. Cuts will also be the order of the day in Britain. Meanwhile, the unpopularity of President Nicolas Sarkozy in France and his allegedly “bling” style – plus the approach of a presidential election in 2012 – makes unrest probable. Europeans have demonstrated in the past (1848 and 1968 spring to mind), that an atmosphere of social disorder, protest and unrest can easily spread across the continent’s national boundaries. Gideon Rachman

Will there be a global food crisis?

Yes. The global bill for food imports will surpass the $1,026bn record of 2008 and prices of several agricultural commodities will also top their previous record. The Food and Agriculture Organisation’s benchmark food index will also set a new high. Among key crops, wheat, corn, barley and oilseeds such as soyabean will see large increases; only rice will have limited gains.

Behind the spike is a string of supply problems related to bad weather. Demand is also strong, partly boosted by biofuel consumption. But there may be fewer food riots than in 2007-08: African crops have been abundant, shielding poor countries from the brunt of surging prices. Javier Blas

As to the Spanish stock market: the IBEX fell by 17% in 2010; if you compare this to a 9% gain in the FTSE 100 during the same period, there is a lot of margin for a rise in 2011.