#spanish independence

[nipuni]

Photos at Madrid's Victory ball! 💃

We attended our first ball! It was such a dreamlike experience!! It was also our first time doing Regency reenactment so it was a challenge. We haphazardly put together some looks, had a great time learning more about the fashion and the dances and met a bunch of lovely people from all over the world. The palace was stunning, the live band was wonderful and the food delicious, it was an unforgettable night 🥰

[sarielsnowings]

Preview of my piece for the Claveles Zine 🩸👁️ [PREORDERS NOW OPEN!]

An amazing project showcasing a bunch of incredible Spanish artists ✨

Preorders will open next week (check it out here) and it’ll be available as digital and physical zine in different languages, along with beautiful merch goodies!

[feasibilities]

Tenoch Huerta Mejía and Iliana Fox Las Aparicio (2015) Directed by Moisés Ortiz Urquidi

[mxwhore]

feliz 18 gente

[crepegosette]

Can we get something with Canada and Uruguay? Heard they're similar in historical aspects

they'd be a funky duo

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

National Treasure (2004, Jon Turteltaub)

27/06/2024

[useless-catalanfacts]

1st of March, 1936.

People on the streets of Barcelona (capital city of Catalonia) welcoming the president of Catalonia Lluís Companys and other members of the democratically-elected government of Catalonia, who had been arrested and jailed after the October Events (Fets d’Octubre) of 1934.

Context: As the Spanish government became more and more conservative, leaving important decision-making positions to fascists and reactionary monarchists, Catalonia was leaning every time more towards the left and republicanism (anti-monarchy). The Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) party had won the elections in Catalonia and the anarchist union CNT kept growing in members. The difference was absolute. And it got even worse when the Spanish Government cancelled the newly approved law of the Catalan Government that protected landless agricultural workers against the abuses of landowners (the Spanish Government claimed that important decisions like this were exceeding the power of a regional government, even when Catalonia’s inhabitant massively claimed in favour of this law).

To put an end to this situation, the government of Catalonia organized a Revolutionary Committee (Comitè Revolucionari) with people from many different Catalanist organizations to prepare a response. Most trade unions declared a general strike against the Spanish government and, on October 6th, Lluís Companys went on the balcony of the Government of Catalonia (the balcony overlooks a big square where a huge crowd had gathered) and declared the Catalan state inside the Spanish federation.

As a response, the Spanish government declared the state of war in Catalonia and sent the army to arrest all the Catalan government. The Spanish army shot against the population who was defending the institutions, killing 74 people and injuring 252, including members of the Catalan Proletarian Party, the Communist Party of Catalonia, Catalan State, the Workers’ and Peasants’ Block, the CNT, and other civilians. On the other side, the revolutionaries who defended themselves from the army killed 12 soldiers and 2 military policemen (guardia civil), and 10 civilians who died as part of crossed fire.

The Catalan State only lasted 10 hours. The Spanish army, on top of killing and injuring all those people, also arrested more than 3,500 people, including all members of the democratically-elected Government of Catalonia, many mayors and MPs, and leaders of other Catalan leftist parties and unions. The members of the Government of Catalonia were judged and sentenced to 30 years of prison, the Government of Catalonia was abolished and Catalonia became direct subject of a Spanish military governor chosen by the Spanish government. 129 city councils around Catalonia, where the election winner had been ERC, were also abolished and given to conservative parties. The Spanish government also used the opportunity to once again impose Spanish as the only language to be used in official documents in Catalonia (during the Republic, Catalan had been legalized); ban many of the most popular Catalan newspapers, including La Publicitat, L’Opinió, La Humanitat, El Diluvio, Solidaridad Obrera (this one is the CNT’s newspaper) and La Rambla; turned the Parliament of Catalonia into a military barrack; prohibited the activities held by pro-Catalan/leftist parties, unions and associations and closed their headquarters. Of course, they also made sure that the law that protected the agricultural workers remained illegal, and did 1,400 trials against landless agricultural workers affected by this law to evict them from the fields.

The Spanish Government didn’t lift the state of war in Catalonia until April 1935. The Government of Catalonia was restored but with little power, it wouldn’t get back the power that it had before the October Events (which, as you saw, already wasn’t that much) and restore democracy in Catalonia until the general elections of February 16th 1936. The leftists won the elections and the people in prison for the October Events were given an amnesty, this is where the pictures you saw above are from.

However, this reinstalled (partial) democracy did not last for long. The fascist Spanish nationalists are sore losers and couldn’t accept that the right-wing had lost the elections in Spain, so they did a coup, starting the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). The war would be won by the fascists, starting a fascist dictatorship that lasted until 1978, based on the concepts of national-Catholicism, anti-labour, hatred of national minorities like Catalans, and strict patriarchal gender behaviour codes.

Knowing that they would be killed if found by the fascists, Lluís Companys and the rest of members of the Government of Catalonia left Barcelona at the last moment, when the fascist troops were entering the city. They escaped to France, but the Spanish fascist government asked the Gestapo (secret police of Nazi Germany) to search for them and sent them to Spain. In August 13th 1940, the Gestapo found Lluís Companys in Paris, arrested him and sent him to Madrid (Spain’s capital city). He was judged by a military court-martial and sentenced to death, and the next day he was executed. He was 58 years old. His last words, right before getting shot, were “for Catalonia!”.

Lluís Companys is the only democratically-elected president to have been executed by a fascist government in Europe’s history. Between the entrance of fascist troops in Barcelona (January 26th 1939) and Lluís Company’s execution (October 15th 1940), the Spanish fascist government had already officially executed 2,760 people in Catalonia, and more would follow.

In the centre of the photo, Lluís Companys (the one wearing a beret) receiving a flower bouquet upon his return to Catalonia after the amnesty.

(Photos: Arxiu Fotogràfic de Barcelona)

[grecoromanyaoi]

AFAIK Portugal still allows requests of citizenship based on Portuguese Jewish heritage, Spain is the one that stopped doing it.

ohhhh what i heard is that like started doing it bc they wanted more citizens then realized the majority of ppl getting said citizenships were lower n middle class brown israelis n they went like u know never mind actually

[roxyteal]

This started as a funny silly musings shitpost, then stopped. Oops

---

Gonzalo does his best to remember the cultural norms of every country he travels to. But sometimes, he forgets or his instincts kick in.

After a only few weeks of knowing Bob, he accidentally greets him with one of his patented bearhugs, kissing both his cheeks with a laugh like all is well. Bob is frozen in place.

Then Teresa comes barrelling out of the house, and punches Gonzalo so hard he is sent spinning vertically until faceplanting into the pavement.

"Dear, you can't punch someone just because they… Well, did that." Bob manages, once he composes himself.

"They learn faster that way." Is her only response, dark green eyes coldly observing her target.

"But he's my client, he's probably going to cancel on me now-" Bob cuts off when Gonzalo finally reacts. Instead of outrage, as would've been expected, he's. Laughing. Like someone just told the best joke in the world.

"By God! That was amazing! I think she fractured something! How did she do that?!" He's also making a ton of noise.

"Mixed martial arts. Started in first year of secondary school."

Meanwhile, from inside, Billy tearfully dials the Shy household's number, voice and body shaking as he blubbers to John, "Mother attacked the Spanish man!!!" He meant to say "Spaniard", but he can be forgiven.

Luckily, for a while, things settled down.

---

Months into building the submarine, Bob is able to tell Gonzalo about how terrible the occupation of his country is.

He takes the well-made builder gingerly by the hands and says, sounding genuine, "You should run away with me to Spain!"

And gets punched clear out into the tide, Teresa's brunette hair flowing behind her.

"Dear, he wasn't serious!" Bob pauses, unsure. "I don't think… Or perhaps he meant all of us…" Trying to be charitable.

He's laughing again. That amused, almost prideful laugh of his.

"Mother, why do you hate Mr. Gonzalo?!" Billy tries not to cry, while John sits there, jaw slack at what they just witnessed. Moments ago, the two children had been attempting to sculpt something in the sand.

"Little Bilis," She coolly says, "He thinks he can say whatever he pleases. He isn't above consequences."

"At least visit sometime! Like a vacation! ¡Trae a la familia! It'll be fun!" Gonzalo's words are difficult to parse through his mirth, but it clarified enough.

"See? He's only trying to be kind…" Teresa sighs at her husband.

"You won't really move away to Spain, will you?" John is unnerved by the idea.

"And lose you? Never!" Billy immediately says, then looks at his parents again, for assurance. "Right…?"

Bob tries to answer, but Teresa beats him to it. Her voice is much softer now, as she approaches them and pats their heads with tenderness. "It is unthinkable. Do not fret."

---

"So!" Gonzalo brings up suddenly, while he and Bob are having drinks, alone. "Mrs. Lė…"

"Oh, no, not 'Mrs. Lė'. She prefers 'Mrs. Teresa'."

"Why is that? I don't know what else to call her! She never told me her maiden name…"

"We don't speak of them."

"What?!" It sounds incredulous to Gonzalo. "How come?!"

"It's not my story to tell," Bob is muffled by his shot glass, "All I will say on the matter is this: She didn't add mine to hers - as is tradition - because her family would find out. Then, they'd beg for everything I earn. Not quite like leeches, but she opposed regardless." He meets eyes with him, then adds, as if to bury the topic, "Į sveikatą. You're up next."

He downs it. Afterwards, the glass is put down.

Gonzalo is surprisingly quiet, frowning as the gears turn in his mind. However, he does follow Bob's lead, but doesn't return the phrase. "What about your familia?"

Bob had said too much. He wasn't going to be let off the hook that easily. He sighs. "Never would've approved of anything I did - our marriage, our livelihoods, our child. Especially since he has… Special needs." He grimaces, hating the way it sounds.

"Frankly, we do too, but only up here," He continues, pointing to his cranium briefly. "Young Billy's case is more obvious, more physical. They would've hated him. Why, I'm convinced that when I was his age, they despised me too. 'Difficult' was their favorite complaint."

This time, Gonzalo has to process the information for a short while. He cannot fathom coming from a homelife so wretched and unloving. What's even the point of having kids and parenting them if they're going to be so heartless about it? But for once, he doesn't say these things aloud. Despite the alcohol he's consumed in the past two hours, he calculates his next response more sensitively.

"Lo lamento," A pause. "I'm sorry, Robertas. I had no idea."

"Don't pity us."

"No!" A small glare forms on his face at the thought. "It's not pity! It takes great strength to blaze your own path! Much will! Lots of patience! To endure!" He jumps from his seat, grabbing Bob's shoulders. "You were all built from nothing, with no one! And here you stand, resilient and defiant against the hand you were dealt! This is not pity, this is empathy! Do you hear me?"

Bob doesn't know how to reply. Gonzalo's grip hurts, but it doesn't deter him or make him want to flee. Accompanied by his words, the stinging instead makes him feel… Alive.

Still, all he can think to do is nod. Gonzalo notices what he's doing, and releases, sitting back down. "Sorry, again. But my point is: All of you are very courageous. I hope that one day, you won't need to be anymore."

As the moment passes, the remnants of the pain sets in, and Bob is unable to suppress the urge to nurse one of his slightly harmed shoulders. "Then, in that case, thank you."

Meanwhile, he is pouring another round of shots. Mirroring what Bob did earlier, he proclaims, "Don't mention it! Now, as you say… Į sveikatą!" His pronunciation is off, but he's only heard it a few times, so it's a decent try.

But Bob appreciates that earnest attempt. He manages a grin, and follows suit. He's starting to finally understand Gonzalo, he thinks.

[theersatzcowboy]

Bloody Moon / Die Säge des Todes (1981)

Cult horror maestro Jesús “Jess” Franco blends the beautiful and the abhorrent with this visually stunning cult slasher once branded a “video nasty.”

Director: Jesús Franco

Cinematographer: Juan Soler

Starring: Olivia Pascal

[strike-another-match]

yall im so happy... ive had my differences with my dad over the years (<- understatement) but my parents are currently living in like, the most inaccesible apartment ever (4 flights of old stairs, no elevator) and he's disabled and it's been breaking my heart to see him leave the house less and less. my mom just told me that they found a ground floor apartment for even cheaper than their current place so they're moving next month!!! i legit thought my dad would die in that apartment locked out from the outside world. it will be a lot easier for me to visit them and our cat too since the place is close to my place and i'm disabled too so the stairs are a huge deterrent, a lot of times i feel really lonely but i can't go visit my mom because physically i can't handle those stairs without needing to rest the rest of the day. i hate that apartment so much i feel like our QOL for me and my dad plummeted after we moved there (bc of money we didn't have a choice. our previous apartment was GREAT but way too expensive and the landlady would mentally torture my mom T_T). anyway!!! it's such random good news i'm so happy!!!!! yay!!!! *does a spin*

[nipuni]

At the Retiro park on may 4th for more battle reenactments and a picnic! There were several hundred reenactors! it was a record number this year and walking around the park seeing soldier camps and groups of both gentry and working class reenactors as far as the eye can see you could tell!! We played historical outdoor games with sticks and hoops, danced to live music played by some of the soldiers who joined us and brought some instruments, had a delicious meal and ice-cream at the park and then tea at a restaurant, a lovely day! 😊

[feasibilities]

Tenoch Huerta Mejía as Comandante Benjamin Bel Canto (2018) Directed by Paul Weitz

[v2berconfessions]

The Vtuber of The Day and final VtuberOTD for 2024 (at least where I live) is CrayonVT! She is themed after a koi fish! She recently re-debuted. She streams on Twitch in Spanish as an indie.

[rabbitcruiser]

Catalonia declared independence from Spain on October 27, 2017.

[vroom-vrooms]

Happy Birthday to this beautiful man 🌶️✨