The Neo-Latin Peoples: The Catalans

PART OF THE SERIES ON THE NEO-LATIN PEOPLES
The neo-latin peoples are descendants of the European populations latinized during the Roman Empire.Their languages, part of the Romance branch of the Indo-European language family and as such, share many similarities. This series is devoted to them, attempting to show:
a)Folklore, traditions and culture
b) Faces of ordinary people of today, human landscapes
c) Famous people of that ethnicity, in different fields.

All racist or otherwise hostile and derogatory comments will be promptly deleted, as will any history and politics-related polemics. The purpose of this video is to show people and their culture(s), their beauty and inherent dignity.
NB All images in these videos are in the public domain or used with permission.
CATALANS

The Catalans are descendants of the inhabitants of the Roman province of Tarraconensis. They inhabit Catalonia (an autonomous community in North-Eastern Spain, between the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean) and the Principality of Andorra in the Pyrenees. A similar language is spoken in other areas that once belonged to the Kingdom of Aragon:the Autonomous Communities of Valencia and the Balearic Islands (where, for historical reasons, it is called Valencian and Balear respectively).Catalan is also spoken in the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France and a Catalan-speaking exclave is the town of Alghero/Alguer in Sardinia (Italy)
Thank you Flickr user wenwen04_2 for your permission to use the photo at 00:10.

Famous Catalans (from 02:40):
King Alfonso II of Aragon (1157-1196), poet (troubadour) and patron of the arts
Jacint Verdaguer (1845-1902), Catholic priest and poet, instrumental in resuscitating Catalan as a literary language
Isabel Clara Simó (born 1943), journalist and author, former Culture Minister of Catalonia
Pau Casals (1876-1973), musician, renowned cello virtuoso
Peret (stage name of Pere Pubill Calaf, born 1935), musician, inventor of the rumba catalana style
Antoni Gaudí (1852-1926) world famous Modernist architect
Salvador Dalí (1904-1989), surrealist painter
Joan Miró (1893-1983), painter, sculptor, ceramist
Jordi Pujol (born 1930), politician, former political prisoner, President of the Catalonian Government (1980-2003)
Pasqual Maragall (born 1941), politician, former Mayor of Barcelona and , President of the Catalonian Government , President of the Organizing Committee of the 1992 Summer Olympics.
Arantxa Sánchez Vicario (born 1971), tennis player
Josep Guardiola (born 1971), football /soccer player and coach, iconic figure of C.F. Barcelona
Pau Gasol (born 1980), NBA basketball star
Music: El sirventés de la nostálgia de la Contesa Dama de lunicorn sung and played by Els trobadors catalans

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Catalans
• Catalunya
• Catalonia
• Barcelona
• Girona
• Figueres
• Sabadell
• Calabuig
• Mataro
• verdaguer

[dodapus]

isn't carles puyol a catalan? or he's just not that famous? but i didn't know about catalonian until carles puyol. well, just wondering, no big deal.

[cristixav]

@dodapus of course Carles Puyol is Catalan, but you can't get all Catalan celebrites in half of a 1/2 hr video. Besides, as I recall, I couldn't find any public domain photos of him at the time. There are copyright laws that must be respected when you post a public video.

[cristixav]

@nomajdha Glad you liked the video. “Neo-latin” is a consecrated term in the scientific community to refer to ethnic and linguistic communities derived from the ancient Romans. I avoided the synonymous term “Romance” for reasons that should be obvious  And neo-latin peoples are by no means confined to Western Europe or the Mediterranean area.