We already know that, with very few exceptions, Spain has never understood its own plurinationality. But there is another more local incomprehension that we don't talk about as much, and in any case, we only do so from the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Country: that Catalonia, and especially Barcelona, with rare exceptions too, has not understood our common nationality. This lack, a mixture of disinterest, ignorance, and self-sufficiency, manifests itself in almost all areas of social, cultural, and political life, and is especially noticeable in the world of books. Balearic publishing houses make a great effort to publish excellent books that far exceed the interest they might have in the territory where they were published. I understand that a study on the profound and never sufficiently explored differences between the way of doing the heel-toe in the fandango dance between Ferreries and Ciutadella, should not be on the new releases table of the main bookstores in Barcelona. The problem is that on these tables we will find the nonsense of an author – not a writer – who had never published anything and whose only merit is a media (and ephemeral) fame achieved with anything that has nothing to do with writing or thinking, while essential books for the public cultural health of the entire country will be missing, but who have made the grave mistake of letting themselves be published by a label from any of its Islands instead of doing so by a good brand. From Barcelona, of course. We have a good dance. There are truly egregious cases. The book Political Trials under Spanish Militant Democracy. Analysis of Political Justice: Four Criminal Cases, by the Majorcan Doctor of Sociology Daniel Escribano, published by Documenta Balear, is a real gem. Of the four cases announced in the subtitle, only one refers to a Majorcan victim, the singer Valtònyc. Another chapter explains the case, in the eighties, of the Basque deputy Miguel Castells Artetxe, convicted for an opinion article. The other two cases analyzed are from Catalonia: the conviction of a group of activists from the 'Aturem el Parlament' encampment, carried out in Parc de la Ciutadella in June 2011 against austerity economic policies –Daniel Escribano dixit– and, finally, the main theme of the book, which occupies two-thirds of its total length: the general case against Catalan independence, otherwise known as the 'procés trial'. Daniel Escribano's text is dense, extensive, exhaustive. But what he explains is so poignant, so significant, and so well written, that it is read with the fascination of the best Anglo-Saxon judicial journalistic chronicles, so given to this genre.I attended the presentation of Daniel Escribano's book at Espai Mallorca in Barcelona, on September 27th of last year. Audience? Four cats and a dog, as we say in Menorca. A shame. The author was accompanied by the book's prologuist, lawyer Benet Salellas, who perfectly understands the subject as a very prominent member of Jordi Cuixart's defense team at the Supreme Court before the ineffable judge Marchena. After the presentation, I visited some of the largest bookstores in Barcelona. The book had been published and distributed just two months before. It was difficult to find. If by chance they had it, it was tucked away in a corner of a shelf. How is it possible that one of the best books explaining the epic of the most important political trial of the 21st century in Catalonia has gone so unnoticed? How can we aspire to be a normal country one day if the metropolitan capital is incapable of exercising its role as a unifier and promoter of the rich cultural diversity that is brewing throughout the national geography? How can we get out of this deadlock if, when you comment on this chronic, almost structural, imbalance, someone answers you with the name of a well-known island writer in Barcelona, as if the exception were the rule? Surely this perennial absurdity has explanations of a logistical, commercial, media, cosmetic, chemical, metaphysical, and quantum nature. Everything has an explanation, yes. But it is such a colossal, so pernicious anomaly and it has been going on for so long, that it should be an absolute priority for the highest institutional leaders and for the entire Catalan cultural ecosystem. But no. It is just a peripheral nuisance. A complaint from the nuts of the Gaulish village. A pain in the ass... of another. At the book's presentation, Benet Salellas maintained that, contrary to what is often said, today there is not a crisis of claiming rights, but a crisis of claiming the rights of others. There are many protests, he said, but each person complains about what affects them directly. I agree with this. The decline in the value of solidarity has given way to hyperventilation over my personal grievance. It must be that this surely explains more things than we are willing to recognize and admit. If it is true, the absence of important books published in the Balearic Islands would be the least important problem, but ultimately it would be an evident example. In Barcelona, we are the others.
