It could be the title of one of those choral novels, written with a view to being made into a movie. The phrase belongs to Santi Vila (1), who claims he feels like an instrumental separatist. He says that he “might have affective and sentimental bonds with a united Spain” but “we would be better ruled, if we ruled ourselves”.
Being an instrumental separatist makes as much sense as buying local produce. What’s the point of bringing strawberries from god-knows-where when we have plenty here? Likewise, it makes no sense to send our tax money all the way to Spain’s capital so that, once there, someone decides to dish it out any way they fancy and give us some back as if it were a handout. I understand and share the reference to the affective bonds with Spain. It’s not my case, but I can safely say that I have more in common with someone from Madrid than with someone from my village. It’s like many Catalans who lived under General Franco’s regime and developed an affective bond with France and its culture that will never be broken, even though France is not their country.
I’m an instrumental separatist, an instrumental feminist, an instrumental animal rights advocate, an instrumental supporter of childhood, an instrumental supporter of gay rights. Once we are normal, I won’t need to anymore. I am not overcome by a wave of emotion when I see a national flag or I hear El Cant de la Senyera or El Virolai (2). My only concern about Catalan independence is that our anthem actually has lyrics and we will get sick and tired of singing it during England’s Premier League matches, once Barça starts playing there. You can’t begin to imagine the hassle we have saved ourselves because the Spanish national anthem has no lyrics to it. I can picture Soraya, Llanos de Luna, Alícia and Rivera, with their right hand on their chest, singing it “with no qualms”. Meanwhile Rajoy --who would still struggle to remember some verses-- would lip-synch along.
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(1) N.T. Santi Vila is a minister in the Catalan government.
(2) N.T. Two patriotic Catalan anthems.
