Barcelona and Barca

We landed in Barcelona and rushed downtown to meet our friends, Alan Tate and Kerry McCuaig, at the apartment we were to share for the week. We had to hurry because our plane landed at 6:00 pm and we had tickets to see the legendary Barcelona soccer team at 8:00 pm. We dropped off our bags and hopped on the subway, heading for Camp Nou stadium.

The Barcelona soccer team has a long and rich history. It was founded in 1899, by a Swiss, John Gamper, as a democratic organization, and is still actually a club, now with over 100,000 members, who directly elect the team president and board of directors. Over the years Barca (pronounced Barsa) came to be regarded as a potent symbol of Catalan nationalism. Catalonia was an ancient kingdom, with its own language and culture, and Barcelona was its capital city. For many years the Catalan language was suppressed, along with its nacent union movement and the left-wing parties. In 1923, a visiting orchestra playing prior to a Barca match struck up the Spanish national anthem and was roundly booed and jeered by the fans in attendance. The dictatorial regime, embarrassed, expelled Gamper from the country in retaliation.

During the Spanish civil war 1936-39, Barcelona was a centre of resistance by left-wing and republican forces to the attempted military coup by the Fascist Generalissimo Franco. After the Franco forces defeated the troops of the legitimate elected government, they repressed all dissent. They executed thousands of innocent people, including the President of the Barca team, who was also a left-wing member of parliament.

Throughout the Franco years, the club was regarded as a symbol of hope by Barcelonans. They especially cheered any victory over Real Madrid, a team that was closely identified with the regime. When the team needed a new stadium in the 1950's, team supporters flocked to the team's offices, and lined up to donate money and to buy the bonds the team issued to finance the project. This effort resulted in Camp Nou which can hold 98,000 fans.

Today, the Catalan language is in daily use in Barcelona, rivalling Spanish (Castillian). There are TV stations and newspapers in Catalan, and the culture now thrives in the theatre, songs, and its own literature as well as being spoken as the daily language of many thousands of people. They all still love their team. The Barca team has its own TV channel, broadcasting 12 hours per day in Catalan.

When we arrived at the stadium, we were treated to a league game against lightly regarded Recreativo de Huelba, which Barca won handily, 2-0. We had great seats at field level. After a very early first goal, they cruised through the rest of the first half, then turned it on in the second until they scored the insurance marker, despite a sometimes plucky defence and a couple of good scoring opportunities by the outmatched Recreativo.

It was an exciting beginning to our week in beautiful Barcelona.