The Spanish Narrative of Identity

What is the meaning of being Catalan, or Spanish, or English for that matter? It is evident that the correspondent narratives of political identity express both a particular historical inertia and the very basic need for a group identity in order to function in an economic milieu. Those basic needs have deep roots in human emotional nature and imply old narratives fully equipped with hard metaphysics. And so we heard, in a not too distant past, of a unity of destiny in the universal in relation to Spain, or of a manifest destiny in relation to the British Empire.

A nationality expresses, unavoidably, a set of metaphysical beliefs, for the very concept grew up in the middle of a particular European milieu, linked to particular Institutions. To declare oneself Spanish or Catalan, would be merely the expression of a belief in certain Institutions, a rather accidental question related to the place where one happens to be born or live. However, in modern Europe, and even more so in contemporary EU, the notion of the distinct and unique identity of the people living in one of its territories fails to make sense beyond  local gastronomical variations, and even that has disappeared in the cities. The question of the linguistic differences simply veils the common roots of most of its languages and what is more important, the common roots of its main myths and economic actions both in the European continent and abroad.

The freedom to choose a political identity is a corollary of the Human Rights Declaration. Such statement implies that, somehow, the one that makes the choice has a definite identity previous to the choice, something which in turn implies that there is a unity in such identity, but this is senseless in political terms, and can only be derived from the imposition of a political majority to the rest of a society. Thus, the independence obtained by secession can never be more than an act of violence, and the minority forced to independence is the victim of such aggression. On the other hand, if political unity can only be achieved at the price of repressing the will for a metaphysical self-determination, such unity will be weak and unstable, furthermore will violate fundamental principles of Human Rights.

Will Spain be able to elaborate a new narrative of collective identity that could include the metaphysical aspirations of its different people?  Despite the fact that the EU is failing as a political project, the people of Europe (and Spaniards and Catalans certainly are Europeans) are condemned to understand each other or to succumb to Asia’s momentum.