Analyses in the Shower

Listening to totally nude strangers analyze today's Catalan excitement while shampooing makes as much sense as the speech they were analyzing.

I went swimming late today (partly because of my empadronamiento appointment), so when I left the pool it was nearly 9:30, and the only people in the showers were adults.  The absence of teenagers meant that everyone had cheerfully removed their bathingsuits, and had brought along shampoo, conditioner and in a couple of cases bath sponges.  Naturally everyone was very excited to hear about Carles Puigdemont's much-heralded speech in the Catalan Parlament, which a number of women had not heard about because of spending a fair amount of time in the pool.  (The speech was supposed to be at 6:00 and then was pushed to 7:00 and I imagine that he didn't get around to actually saying anything until nearly 7:30, so if you were working and then hurrying to swim you might have missed it.)  When I arrived in the showers one woman was explaining that she had heard on Twitter that Puigdemont had "declared independence but suspended it for several weeks."  The general reaction was shock, and uproarious amusement.  "No!"  Someone exclaimed.  "Declararla para suspenderla?  No puede ser!"  There were several comments about how "los suyos" must be very disappointed in Puigdemont, and a few sympathetic agreements that he was certainly a sinverguenza.  The general feeling I got was that while few people were in favor of Catalan independence, they all thought that at least up until this point Puigdemont had been a worthy opponent, and that he had now made himself ridiculous.  When told of the central government's reaction one woman simply laughed and said that she was going to "secede from this country, just like the Catalans, I want my own."


Some of the hilarity was probably unacknowledged relief, since people here have worried that the "la cosa se pone feo" ("things are getting ugly"), and no one wants to think about the possibility of actual armed conflict or more accurately guerrilla tactics that would work out to repeated terrorist attacks, since that is a real and recent memory of the Basque conflict.  The fact that the Catalans are finally bowing to the reality of international consensus is a relief, but their obvious reluctance to do so has led to some unintentionally funny moments, and I suspect that the shower chatterers were glad that they could once more make jokes.

An older gray-haired lady started talking to me about Puigdemont apropos of asking if I could move my bag over a little bit so she could put hers down while I was getting dressed, and ended up detaining me after I was fully dressed for about five minutes to give her opinion.  While I didn't agree with her assessment of some other European leaders (Sarkozy is not someone I have ever found it possible to admire), I was impressed that she was careful to say that "yo no soy anti-Catalan, ni mucho menos.  Estoy de acuerdo que podemos tener una república, como la francesa."  I pointed out that Spain actually had been a republic, and she proudly pointed out that it had been twice and added that she thought the king's speech a few days ago had added fuel to the fire and had been a terrible mistake, but that "we should all be a republic together, not just the Catalans."  I assume (based on her approval of Sarkozy and low opinion of Pedro Sánchez) that she represents more or less the right wing of local opinion though she was careful to say about Sánchez that she was in favor of "ni Juanito ni Pepito" in other words that she is equally not a fan of the PP ("Pepito").  If so, I remain impressed by the relatively calm lack of vitriol of the right wing here.  Perhaps things really have gotten "polarized" in the US (though I hate that term), to the point where I'm surprised that people are relatively courteous even when they have strong opinions about their opponents.  But genuinely I suspect that a good deal of the so called "círculo de odio" is something invented by the media, who are anxious to turn this into a football game.

In any case, I'm sure that there will still be another development in the never-ending saga tomorrow, but for now, I am amused that pool friendliness now takes the form of lengthy political discourses while showering.  (And also while getting dressed.)  Perhaps it's just that swimming makes people relaxed and happy, and that's why there was general amusement and good humor while discussing the subject.  In which case, there should be a movement Pools for Peace.  (But since we're accepting of all we could call it Polideportivos for Peace, and let in people who use the weight rooms and basketball courts too!)