The Catalan Countries are those territories where the Catalan language is spoken. They include the Spanish regions of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Valencian Community, and parts of Aragon and Murcia (Carche), as well as the Principality of Andorra, the department of Pyrénées-Orientales in France, and the city of Alghero in Sardinia (Italy). It is often used as a sociolinguistic term to describe the cultural-linguistic area where Catalan is spoken. In the context of Catalan nationalism, the term is sometimes used in a more restricted way to refer to just Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands. The Catalan Countries do not correspond to any present or past political or administrative unit, though most of the area belonged to the Crown of Aragon in the Middle Ages. Parts of Valencia (Spanish) and Catalonia (Occitan) are not Catalan-speaking.
The Catalan independence movement is a social and political movement which seeks the independence of Catalonia from Spain.
Tossa de Mar is a municipality in Catalonia, Spain, located on the coastal Costa Brava, about 100 kilometres north of Barcelona and 100 kilometres south of the French border. It is accessible through Girona Airport, some distance north.
Espinal is a Colombian municipality and town located in the Department of Tolima, 146 km southwest from Bogotá. It is the second most important town of the department and is the rice capital of the center of the country. It is flanked by the Magdalena and Coello rivers. El Espinal is known for the manufacture of typical musical instruments and its cuisine is known for tamales and the suckling pig, which are the typical dishes of the region. It has a total area of 231 km2, an urban area of 4.26 km2, and a rural area of 212.74 km2.
Anti-Catalan sentiment is the collective name given to various trends in Spain, France and Italy that expresses disdain, discrimination, or hatred for Catalonia, to Catalans, Catalan culture, Catalan nationalism, Catalan language or its history. It can also be referred to as Anti-Catalanism or Catalanophobia.
Spanish-style bullfighting is a type of bullfighting that is practiced in several Spanish-speaking countries: Spain, Mexico, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, as well as in parts of southern France and Portugal. In Colombia it has been outlawed but is being phased out with a full ban coming in effect in 2027. This style of bullfighting involves a physical contest with humans attempting to publicly subdue, immobilize, or kill a bull. The most common bull used is the Spanish Fighting Bull, a type of cattle native to the Iberian Peninsula. This style of bullfighting is seen to be both a sport and performance art. The red colour of the cape is a matter of tradition – bulls are color blind. They attack moving objects; the brightly-colored cape is used to mask blood stains.
Portuguese-style bullfighting differs in many aspects from Spanish-style bullfighting, most notably in the fact that the bull is not killed in front of an audience in the arena. The cavaleiros and the forcados are unique to the Portuguese variety of bullfighting, as well as the participation of horsewomen (cavaleiras) in the routines.
Pilar Rahola i Martínez is a Spanish journalist, writer, and former politician and MP.
The Plaza Monumental de Tijuana, and popularly known in English as the Bullring by the Sea, is a bullring in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Its opening was held on June 26, 1960. The stadium holds 21,621 people. In addition to bullfighting, the bullring frequently hosts boxing matches, concerts, cultural, and sporting events. It is located just 60 meters from the Mexico–United States border and one block from the Pacific Ocean.
CAS International is an international non-profit advocacy group which aims to end bullfighting. CAS International was founded in 1993 as Comité Anti Stierenvechten, with the help of ADDA from Barcelona, Spain, De Dierenbescherming and the international animal welfare organisation WSPA originally aimed at stopping Dutch tourists from going to bullfighting.
Bullfighting is a physical contest that involves a bullfighter attempting to subdue, immobilize, or kill a bull, usually according to a set of rules, guidelines, or cultural expectations.
Bullfighting was banned in the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia by a vote of the Catalan Parliament in July 2010. The ban came into effect on 1 January 2012. The last bullfight in the region took place on 25 September 2011 at La Monumental. The ban was officially annulled for being unconstitutional by Spain's highest court on 5 October 2016. However, despite the overturning of the ban, no further bullfight had taken place in Catalonia as of July 2020.
Póvoa de Varzim Bullfighting Arena was a bullring in Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal. It is located on Avenida Vasco da Gama, on the northern waterfront of the city. Bullfighting, horse shows, and concerts are held in the arena.
The 2015 Catalan regional election was held on Sunday, 27 September 2015, electing the 11th Parliament of the autonomous community of Catalonia. All 135 seats in the Parliament were up for election. This was the third regional Catalan election in only five years, after the 2010 and 2012 elections and the first one in over 37 years in which Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC) and Democratic Union of Catalonia (UDC) ran separately, after the dissolution of Convergence and Union (CiU) in June 2015 over disagreements on the coalition's separatist turn.
The Declaration on the Sovereignty and Right to Decide of the People of Catalonia was issued on 23 January 2013. The declaration asserted that Catalonia is an autonomous entity and agrees "to initiate the process to exercise the right to decide so that the citizens of Catalonia may decide their collective political future in accordance with the following principles: democratic legitimacy, transparency, dialogue, social cohesion, Europeanism, legality, role of the Catalan Parliament and participation". The declaration was passed with 85 votes in favor, 41 against and 2 abstentions in the Parliament of Catalonia.
Víctor Barrio Hernanz, known as Víctor Barrio, was a Spanish bullfighter who died at the age of 29 when he was gored in the chest by a bull named Lorenzo at the Teruel bullring.
An independence referendum was held on 1 October 2017 in the Spanish autonomous community of Catalonia, passed by the Parliament of Catalonia as the Law on the Referendum on Self-determination of Catalonia and called by the Generalitat de Catalunya. The referendum, known in the Spanish media by the numeronym 1-O, was declared unconstitutional on 7 September 2017 and suspended by the Constitutional Court of Spain after a request from the Spanish government, who declared it a breach of the Spanish Constitution. Additionally, in early September the High Court of Justice of Catalonia had issued orders to the police to try to prevent the unconstitutional referendum, including the detention of various persons responsible for its preparation. Due to alleged irregularities during the voting process, as well as the use of force by the National Police Corps and Civil Guard, international observers invited by the Generalitat declared that the referendum failed to meet the minimum international standards for elections.
The Catalan declaration of independence was a resolution that was passed by the Parliament of Catalonia on 27 October 2017. While the text proclaims the independence of Catalonia from Spain and the establishment of an independent Catalan Republic, the declaration itself did not receive recognition from the international community and it produced no legal effect.
The Puigdemont Government was the regional government of Catalonia led by President Carles Puigdemont between 2016 and 2017. It was formed in January 2016 after the resignation of Puigdemont's predecessor Artur Mas and it ended in October 2017 with the imposition of direct rule following the Catalan declaration of independence.
The Alliance Anticorrida is a law association founded in May 1994 in Nîmes which works for the abolition of bullfights, the suppression of injuries and mutilations inflicted on animals used during bullfighting shows, and the protection of minors.
