Under the vibrant Baroque fountain, Rosa María Durán, 98, and Belay Vilar, 92, remembered Catalan exile in Mexico. Backpack of pain, but also the benefits of miscegenation. The courtyard of Casa del Risco, in the Mexican neighborhood of San Angel, was the scene of Sadiq’s tribute on Sunday president Salvador Illa wanted to renew some vows of brotherhood between the two peoples. “Our roots are in Catalonia, but our fruits are in Mexico,” explained Duran, 98, who works as an interpreter. “We work here,” said Villar, an otolaryngologist, referring to his contribution to the knowledge of the Catalan language. Both arrived as children fleeing civil war in the 1940s. “Mexico has saved lives and a large part of Catalan culture,” the head of government declared to an audience made up of children and grandchildren of exiles.
Gabriela Lopez, director of the Casa del Risco Cultural Center, emphasized that “exile was not just a moment of darkness and loss, but also a bridge.” The space couldn’t be more representative. It was owned by diplomat Isidro Fabela, who along with former Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas was among the main facilitators of the arrival of thousands of Catalans fleeing fascism. “Thanks to this solidarity, entire families were able to rebuild their lives and enrich Mexican culture with their presence,” Lopez recalls.
One of Cardenas’ sons, Cuauhtémoc, also participated in the event. The engineer wanted to go beyond the big names in culture and politics and focused on simple people who had the possibility of rebuilding their lives in Mexican territory, fleeing Franco’s rule. “A lot of people came to work in the fields, laborers and printers,” he recalls. “A little bit of everything and a little bit of everything was distributed throughout the republic.”
Duran, 2022’s Creu de Sant Jordi, made use of the musical interpretation of migrantwritten by Cento Verdager (“Sweet Catalonia, home of my heart, when it is far from you, it dies of longing”) to embody what exile meant to her, which began for her in 1942. He explained: “We Catalans who arrived in Mexico did not die, we came from hell, civil war and World War II. We found a country that welcomed us with sweetness and kindness. Cultures do not cancel each other out, cultures add.” He added: “In fact, our roots are in Catalonia, but our fruits are in Mexico.”
In the same vein, Vilar remembers how as a young child he had to leave his father’s house on Barcelona’s Gran Via, near the Plaza de España, to start the road to France, with cold and difficult nights, full of lice, in Prats de Molo (France). He arrived in Mexico in 1949. “But today is a day of joy, not of sadness,” he said, expressing his regret at the news he had received about the decline in the social use of the Catalan language in Catalonia. “We work here,” he emphasized, explaining their promotion of the language.
“It is necessary to renew Catalonia’s gratitude to Mexico,” said an enthusiastic Illa. He explained that this gratitude should not just be “an exercise in nostalgia” but “present and future” as well. He explained: “In the aggressive world that some want to impose on us, Catalonia and Mexico must be examples of a new brotherhood.” “A new era in which understanding and institutions prevail above all else, creating a space to meet again and understand each other,” he said.