Exposed to waves of immigration over decades, authorities in Catalonia decided to promote the Spanish region’s cultural singularity to try and bring everyone together.
They were successful - so much so that Catalans emerged with a strong sense of national identity, which in turn stoked nationalism and the current longing for independence among part of the population, analysts say.
“For new generations, the idea of Catalonia as a nation is now quite a deep-rooted idea as it’s present from (the start of) education,” says Catalan philosopher and political analyst Josep Ramoneda.
“And for them, it’s logical that if you’re a nation, you have a state.”
That’s exactly what students at Barcelona’s central University Square think, as they hand out information on an independence referendum planned for tomorrow, but banned by Madrid.
Sitting at tables near a giant separatist Estelada flag that hangs on the Neo-Gothic facade of the University of Barcelona’s humanities faculty, they help mainly elderly people to find out where they will be able to vote.
Having been banned by Spain’s Constitutional Court, authorities have shut down websites promoting the vote so this information can only be found in clandestine web portals.
Humbert Blanco, a 19-year-old geography student, proudly says he’s the grandson of immigrants from the sprawling, poorer southern region of Andalusia, from where many emigrated to Catalonia last century in search of a better life.
He says they “would never go vote in the referendum.”
His mother is pro-independence and his father remains “neutral.”
Analysts say Blanco’s example is an illustration of the impact of various identity politics implemented in the wealthy region which for decades attracted immigrants from southern Spain, north Africa and Latin America.
Gabriel Colome, politics professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, says the fact that all children learn Catalan is “a way to integrate all the different parts of Catalan society,” and “avoid social fragmentation.”
Repressed during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco from 1939 to 1975, Catalan later burst out of the family circle where it had previously been confined into the public sphere - the legal system, economy, science and films.
During much of that time, from 1980 to 2003, Catalonia’s regional governments were led by a nationalist coalition, Convergence and Union.
Now in public schools, all subjects - apart from Spanish literature - are taught in Catalan.
“It’s obvious that language immersion has played a very important role in building the Catalan nation,” Ramoneda says.
Regional public television has also been important.
Created in 1983, it has developed over the years with channels dedicated to sports, culture, information and children.
“Television is the great transmitter of cultural and political socialisation in the country,” says Colome.
In the football world, “the Barca also acted as a binder,” he says, pointing out that fans of the football club are not “only in Barcelona but in the whole of Catalonia.”
The discontent was made worse by decisions like that made in 2010 by Spain’s Constitutional Court, which cancelled part of a status granting Catalonia greater autonomy.
And the ban of a referendum which more than 70% of Catalans want - even if under half want independence according to opinion polls - has bred even more resentment.