Pere Cuxart: “When I was young, at school you were taught only in Spanish, but elsewhere it was all in Catalan; now it’s the other way round”
He was a pioneering supporter of the use of the Catalan language in the justice system, but he admits that the situation now is as bad as it was during Franco’s regime. He was an early promoter of Catalunya Ràdio and TV3 (the Catalan public broadcasting corporation) but he prefers to share out the credit. He has recently received an award and he can’t understand why …
Retired lawyer Pere Cuxart (Barcelona, 1926) has received the 10th Agustí Juandó i Royo award, an honour given by Catalonia’s Council of Lawyers, for his support to the Catalan language in the legal system. Mr Cuxart was also the first Director-General of Catalonia’s Public Broadcasting Corporation (Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals).
How does it feel when your lawyer colleagues pay homage to you?
I didn’t think I deserved it, I thought they’d overdone it. Of course, that doesn’t mean that I am not flattered. At first I thought there was a mistake and the day of the homage I told them: “You really must’ve struggled to find someone important, if you’ve decided to pick me”, he laughs.
Do you think that the Catalan language is healthy nowadays?
No. In the streets of Barcelona you hear more Spanish than Catalan, and Barcelona city is key. Cities have always pulled in what surrounds them. So if Barcelona switches to the Spanish language —which it hasn’t yet—, we will be in danger. The Catalan language is in danger.
In Catalan schools, Catalan-medium teaching aims to protect our language. Do you feel that something like that is also needed in other areas of our society?
It is very important for schooling to be conducted predominantly in Catalan and that is my hope for the future. Having said that, when I was a young lad, at school you were taught only in Spanish, but elsewhere it was all in Catalan; now it’s the other way round.
As things stand today, is independence the only way to protect the Catalan language as you’d like or could more be done for our language by staying a Spanish region?
Frankly, I don’t know, because the future depends on many things which we don’t even know. Still, independence would be the best way forward and it would be easier to save the Catalan language with it.
One of the main caused you were involved in as a lawyer was supporting the use of the Catalan language in the justice system. This is an area where we’ve not done well at all.
Absolutely. I remember the last trial I attended, where I was the private prosecutor, and I began speaking in Catalan. Two people seated among the general public —I didn’t know who they were— asked me to speak Spanish because they couldn’t understand me. I didn’t want to, but the judge said I had to, for the sake of those two strangers.
One of the most frequent complaints is precisely that: to work as a judge in Catalonia you are not expected to know the language …
That’s why we need to be independent, because then the knowledge of Catalan will be a prerequisite. In the justice system things are as bad as back in Franco’s days. Catalan will never have the place it deserves in justice unless judges are expected to know the language.
In other areas, such as media, schools and so forth, the Catalan language has managed to find a spot of its own. How come this hasn’t happened in the justice system? Did Catalans simply not try or did they defeat us, despite all our efforts?
Out of the three state powers, the justice system is the only one that’s not been devolved to the regions and, therefore, it is an exclusive power of the State. How can a judge simply not understand the language of the citizens he is to try in court? No wonder we get what we get. A judge once said to me (in Spanish): “You have a right to speak Catalan, but you should know that I won’t understand a word”. What was I supposed to do? Things have not got any better since then.
You became the first Director-General of the Catalan Broadcasting Corporation. Where would our language be today without TV3 and Catalunya Ràdio?
Gone. Radio and tv are very important. People give me all the credit, but I was only the director. It was Alfons Quintà who truly fought to start them.
Why were you offered the post, if you were a lawyer?
Well, I don’t know. President Jordi Pujol wanted me for the job.
One of TV3’s problems has always been that it’s had to pay for films to be dubbed into Catalan because production companies refuse to.
The thing is, what they do everywhere is they subtitle movies, rather than dub them. It was Franco who wanted films dubbed into Spanish. Perhaps that is why people think it is normal to dub them into Catalan.
What are your memories from that time?
I recall that we asked to receive Eurovision’s original signal and they said that would be ok, although they wanted to ask Spain first, out of courtesy. Well, Spain wouldn’t allow it. That’s why at first we had to send a courier on a motorcycle all the way to Perpignan to collect the tapes. Later, thanks to Telefónica, they used to arrive on the Madrid-Barcelona shuttle flight.
During the early years of Franco’s regime you were a member of Front Universitari de Catalunya, until 1949. I imagine this was one of the few resistance groups at the time.
Sure. And we used to hang Catalan flags anywhere we could … To think that now people put them up wherever they fancy … [he laughs].
What do you think when you see so many flags on people’s balconies?
I’ve grown used to it now.
