For a Solution to the Regional Problem of Catalonia

Abstract

The number of proposals and the diversity of definitions regarding the scope and scale of a comarca (region)—almost all of them based on history or the physical environment—that have arisen in Catalonia since the mid-19th century have led to a rich but dispersed and sometimes confusing debate. To lend solidity and rigor to this discussion, in 1931 Casa del Vallès promoted a series of lectures delivered by experts led by Pau Vila, who gave his talk a few days after the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic. According to Vila, this accelerated events, as it opened an excellent opportunity for autonomous Catalonia to break with the discredited provincial dynamic. When the lectures were published in book form weeks later, Vila added an appendix with a proposed territorial division based on counties and regions, which became an inspiring guideline for the subsequent work of the Committee created by the Generalitat to draft the map of the regional division. To obtain «a practical delimitation»—a division that would serve the administration, management, and governance of autonomous Catalonia—Vila’s proposal advocated disregarding natural and historical counties, which he considered traditionalist and nostalgic, and introducing an evaluation of economic elements, social relations, and current mobility, through the study of market centres frequented by local populations and the communication routes leading to them.