I confess that this moment has always captivated me, as well as disturbed me. It was historical and has been preserved thanks to photography.
Francesc Macià has just made a transcendental decision; With the energy typical of a great statesman, he takes a risk and goes out onto the balcony of the Plaza de Sant Jaume. It was April 14, 1931.
Seconds before, a man had preceded him who sang La Marseillaise with the bugle, and the people gathered there chorused it with emotion. Immediately afterwards Macià appeared, waited for complete silence to be imposed and proclaimed the Catalan Republic.
I wonder if those citizens at the foot of the square heard the brief statement that l'Avi shouted at his age without a microphone, although reinforced with an expressive gesture: bowed and arm outstretched. Damn no.
The country later found out properly thanks to the journalists who flank him and took note of his words to broadcast it on the radio and in the press.
A similar event occurred at the solemn inauguration of the Universal Exhibition of 1888, presided over by the Queen Regent. The royal commissioner Manuel Girona delivered the speech. His intervention was not banal; He affirmed that for the first time in the world the Maritime Section was presented before the sea. As a banker, and a very important one, he was used to issuing orders without having to shout. Hence, his voice remains of him did not reach the auditorium that filled the enormous Palace of Belles Arts: the city did not find out what he was saying until they read it in the press.
I evoke these two relevant cases, prompted by the reading of an original and revealing essay that deals with endless visual performances of power in public life: Power on stage, by Alan Salvadó and Jordi Balló (eds.); Gutenberg galaxy. The theme of the amplified voice and the microphone is treated in depth and with success.
Although the event that follows did not occur in these parts, it deserves to be told.
The famous journalist and writer Arthur Koestler, who had gained fame during the Second World War, already deserved a great tribute in New York in peacetime. When starting his speech, he broke the microphone. Outraged, he wondered aloud if this was really the country that claimed to lead the world. He threw that device to the ground and took off, leaving the audience standing.
