Fall meeting
by ViTo • November 23, 2006 No commentsWhen living in a foreign country it is normal to feel lonely. Before finding your new place, you tend to join people in a similar situation in order to overcome your worries and fears. What a better way to do that than with people from your home land. That’s what we do in California. There is a Catalan community around LA, which organizes several activities throughout the year and gets together in a big meal at fall and spring. For some reason, there is a special bondage between Catalonia and California, and the catalan community in California is one of the biggest outside our main land.
This last October, I happened to assist to one of these meetings. As new (and young) members of the community we were assigned some chores like arranging all the tables, cooking the paella and preparing the music. More than 200 hundred people showed up. Most of them, are catalans who arrived here many years ago and created their families, but they do not want to let go their roots. These events allow to collect some money (not much) which will pay for the usual activities of the community.
I have to admit it was comforting and fun. So there I was cooking a paella even though I had no idea of what to do… there were some complaints about too little salt but in the end what matters is to get together and have a good time. And I certainly did have a good one!
One of the oldest catalan traditions are the Castells (literally it means castles, yet I guess an appropiate translation would be human towers). There are people who take that tradition really seriously, and 10 level castells have been achieved. We are simply students so we don’t get close to that point, yet we have been able to build a 5 level structure. It requires both technique (for the people climbing) and strength (for the people on the bottom). I’m not that light, so my natural position would be on the base, but unfortunately despite my young age I have some back problems (both my parents had 2 hernias each which required surgery), so I cannot participate. Before coming to Irvine, I had never been interested in these elements of the catalan culture, yet now I regret not being able to join my castells mates. As most traditions, it requires special clothes and in this case I think you’ll easily spot the orange shirts, the scarf in the head, and the faixes (a kind of back belt).
Another tradition is the typical catalan dance known as Sardana. I’m not going to explain this one. I think it is better if you see by yourselves…
It may seem funny, but I think I am embracing my catalan roots more, now that I am away, than when I was back in Barcelona.
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