Today I really wanted to tell you about the beautiful town of Collioure, so in the south of France it is almost in Spain. It is, in fact, part of the Catalan region. Today I really wanted to tell you about the streets that inspired Matisse. The seascapes that dominated the middle ages as the kingdoms of Aragon and Mallorca triumphed for supremacy over the Mediterranean.
Today I really wanted to...but history/reality took over. Even beautiful places have dark tales - and given the date and the current times and news, I Had To. Because once again this is the dark history of my people. The dark history that explains why an insanely amount of my family members Don't ive in Spain...and why so many Spanish people visit, besides the sights.
Collioure, in the midst of the Spanish Civil War became a common destination for exiles and refugees. You see, the majority of the Spanish Levant had been cut off from the Republican government by the nationalist rebels. People were terrified. Over half a million Spanish people fled over to France seeking asylum. France at this moment in time was actually run by a left wing government and, perhaps to the surprise of many reading this, it was this left wing government that decided to keep my people in "special camps" or "camps d'estrangers".
You see, despite the people fleeing Spain being of the same political denomination than those ruling France, the propaganda by the nationalist far right made French people scared. They said that the Spanish refugees were dangerous, often communists, anarchists and other terrorists and troublemakers...half a million people of pure chaos, right? Half a million people who had been deprived of their homes, their democratic government, their choices etc...and since the French were scared, the thought that if these Spanish troublemakers mixed with their own at bay but existing communists, anarchists etc, then France would be in turmoil encore...
...and that is how the beautiful castle of Collioure, which is part of the Vauban fortresses in Europe, one of the gems of the Kings of Mallorca, bastion of Louis XIV, etc, becomes a half point into a refugee and concentration camp for Spanish people fleeing a war they did not start...
...Collioure is also well known for being the final resting place of Spanish national treasure Antonio Machado, our great poet who, like those 500000 people had to leave his country, despite being severely ill, and die in Collioure, where he is remembered with high honours...And Republican Flags. Because his Spain - my Spain, if I'm very frank, has a flag with 3 colours, not 2. The generation of the 98 as we call it in Spanish history produced great voices of literature that advocated for Spanish freedom, our culture, values and took accountability for the mistakes of the past. Lorca belonged to this generation (or rather the follow up of the '27) just like Machado. None of them would see a Spain where their work is still studies in schools. Where their work is synonym of culture, education, and fighting for what's right. Where knowing a verse of either of them and recite it well, is a sign of national pride without the toxicity of the awful events that led to the displacement and deaths of millions. Many still unaccounted for.
I know you don't need me to know things like this, you can turn on the news and know stuff like this is ongoing. But you perhaps only thought people of certain political views did things like this. Perhaps you thought issues like this came from very specific events. But the common denominator to all this is fear. It was fear that made the French betray their social values and perform this act of cruelty. It was that same fear that would lead to the heavy handed collaboration they had with the Nazis just a few years later, and that ended with a similar treatment of their Jews.
...but the French, unlike my people, aren't afraid at least nowadays of making this common knowledge, without being scared of tarnishing a beautiful place like Collioure with the sadness and grimace of war and persecution. So...I guess what I'm trying to say is, be like the French, don't hide from what was, has been, is and may be. And even in the darkness, find that beauty of the sea, of the mountains, of community, so that at worse this may just be a wind of melancholy. And at best the wind of changes for tomorrow.
Thank you for reading this. And thank you to all the brave people I know, away from home because of war, persecution or destruction. Courage my friends, because I believe your legacy is that of Machado🙏💜
"Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
Caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace el camino,
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante no hay camino
sino estelas en la mar."
(Walker, your footprints are but a pathway, nothing more. Walker, there is no set road, you make the path as you go along. And as you walk this road and turn to look back, you see a path never to step on again. Walker, there is no set road, just wakes over the sea).(my own rough translation - Joan Manuel Serrat has a song with part of this poem and it's general message).