This is the story of how a sardana aplec, in a town with an agricultural soul, La Selva del Camp (Baix Camp), became a space of cultural and political resistance of Catalanism in the face of Franco's persecution. Paretdelgada's Aplecs (1959-64), almost as if they were a story, hide amazing stories. One of them places Jordi Pujol dressed as a peasant dancing sardanas, camouflaged with other of his colleagues, in search and capture after the Fets del Palau de la Música (1960), three days before the second Aplec de Paretdelgada.
In the last three years, part of the memories of meetings capable of bringing together in one day, next to the Paretdelgda hermitage, five couplets, 3,000 people and great singer-songwriters have been recovered. They were much more than a massive sardana dance. They became an act of resistance and they did so under the protection of the Church.
Part by part. Faith served to shield it, but the ecclesiastical hierarchy is part of why it was never celebrated again after that June 14, 1964. Why the most successful edition, due to the number of attendees, impact and level of the singer-songwriters , with references from the nova cançó, was it the last?
Among all the events of that day, one more important fact. Above Castro, archbishop of Tarragona (1949-1970), highest ecclesiastical authority in Catalonia, wanted to inaugurate the monument of homage to John XXIII, promoted by the aplec. It was planned that it would be Abbot Escarré, since Montserrat had a close connection with Paretdelgada, but he was relieved.
During Arriba Castro's homily, someone, who until now had not been known, cut the cardinal's microphone cable. Risky act of resistance. The Civil Guard showed up, there was fear, but the archbishop continued with his speech as if nothing had happened, although he could barely be heard.
At the end, the spotlight went to a singer-songwriter that a few people were in charge of going to look for at the Selva del Camp exercise house. Raimon, who had just arrived from his trip, was rested because he had to perform in the afternoon.
After the cardinal's silenced speech, which recalled the “25 years of peace” celebrated by Franco in 1964, a song that would become an anthem began to be heard loudly sung. They say that Arriba Castro was left alone while Al vent of a Raimon singing with his guitar on a stone margin was playing, acclaimed by the public.
The singer-songwriter from Xàtiva had published his first album only a year before (1963) and that performance transcended.
The incident did not go unpunished, even though the police and informants of the Franco regime never managed to identify the daring person who had pulled the cable. There was widespread persecution and repression, fear spread, they still remember in the Jungle.
“All that brought retaliation, there was a lot of pressure and a fine, although it was not paid; It was the last aplec, first due to repression; later because the organization split into two groups: one did not want the importance it had, they wanted to stay with the sardanas,” recalls Joaquim Masdeu Guitert, a brilliant local chronicler. It was proposed to move the aplec to Poblet. It came to nothing.
In the Aplec de Paretdelgada, sardanas were danced, yes, but a literary competition was also held: Miquel Martí i Pol, Xavier Amorós or Joan Fuster; the few books that were published in Catalan were sold; and great singer-songwriters performed: Josep Maria Espinàs, Salvador Escamilla, Quico Pi de la Serra and other members of the Sixteen Judges. Some records will be published with the best songs from the Jungle Song Contest.
“They were manifestations of Catalanism within the framework of a repressive political regime. The Holy Thorn was sung and the sardanas stopped or the Xiquets de Valls made a pillar and the senyera was displayed. They were made under the protection of a Church close to the people against the ecclesiastical hierarchy, with the help of a conservative bourgeoisie but with a strong feeling of a resistant country,” argues Masdeu.
Such a wonderful exercise in historical memory was opened at the outbreak of the pandemic by a book, Els Aplecs de Paretdelgada (Carrutxa), the work of Masdeu himself, and has been followed by a valuable documentary (directed by Antonio Mellado and Lluís Cuartero (Televisió de la Selva ), with protagonists still alive from the aplecs. And it is discovered who cut the thread, with scissors, to the cardinal: Lluís Maria Sunyer. He hurriedly took a moped to the town and changed his clothes. Master move.
It is surprising that it could be held for six editions despite the fact that the Francoist police knew what was happening there. The distance from Barcelona and the centers of power and the strong religiosity that was in the air, with banners that were proclamations of religious fervor, helped. Of course, in Catalan: Catalonia will be Christian or it will not be,
“Both because of the experience of other years and because of the nature of the tribute and the confidences received, such a demonstration, although duly authorized, has a marked nationalist meaning,” details a police report (1964) recovered by Masdeu. “It was very important for the history of Catalonia; “If it had happened in Barcelona it would be in all the history books,” he adds.
The Paretdelgada Gathering will be held again, coinciding with the 60th anniversary, in 2024, thanks to the enthusiasm and tenacity of the Colla Sardanista Germanor, refounded in 2022. Isidre Fonts, the founding soul of the entity, was the great gathering activist.
But was Pujol or wasn't he in the Paretdelgada Aplec of 1960? “The Fets del Palau group was linked to the aplec, they were in search and capture and they took refuge here because they thought that among so many people they would not be searched for. It was not the case with Jordi Pujol,” says Masdeu. They hid among the couplets. “There are still pieces to fit together, no image was recorded,” adds Mellado.
It is known that “Jordi Pujol helped finance some of the projects,” says Masdeu. Documents and evidence aside, it is still said in La Selva that Pujol arrived fleeing from Barcelona and was picked up on a road; He changed his clothes to mingle among the members of the copla and play, as if nothing had happened, some sardanas.
