75th anniversary of Miguel de Unamuno's death

He was a Spanish writer, philosopher, etc. from the Basque country, specialized in Portuguese culture and also interested in Catalan literature. He had a lot of quarrels with right-wing authority, and he died half a year after General Franco's coup that he originally welcomed. One finds more information in the Wikipedia article in English here, a lot more in the Spanish one here.

Catalan brands: a work in progress

Munich "Gresca" 2005

A few weeks ago I started this article on Catalan brands. Some of them are really famous and maybe you weren't aware that they were Catalan. As I do not find the time to write a complete text in one go, I will start with some notes and go on as I find the time.
Borges are dealing in nuts and other dry fruits. They are headquartered in Reus, Tarragona province.
Chupa Chups, maker of lollypops, might be the best-known Catalan brand worldwide (second only to FC Barcelona, of course). They started out in Barcelona but the original owners sold out. One can find their corporate history and more information on their official website in Spanish here, or in the Wikipedia entry here.
If we stick with an alphabetical order, the next brand would be Custo Barcelona (corporate website and online store here). I guess that the city of Barcelona really subsidised some of the fashion designer Custo's projects to have the city name as part of the brand.
Next in line would be Desigual, another fashion brand coming from Barcelona (corporate website here).
Munich started out as a sports-shoe maker and then discovered the market for high-priced fashionable sports shoes (their corporate website is here).
Mango was started by a Turkish entrepreneur residing in Catalonia. Their online shop is here.
Seat is the only "Spanish" automaker, though owned by Volkswagen.

all real Cava sparkling wine comes from Sant Sadurni d'Anoia, close to Barcelona

El País recently had this article on top Spanish retail companies.