The Transition (1975 - 1980)

With art, I think the painter who speaks most to me is Joan Miró. Joan Miró can be difficult to understand at first. I didn’t. It took me a while. But then it clicks. And you start seeing his work, his sculptures, everything he’s done. I think there is a strong spiritual side to him. Spiritual, meaning spirit, as opposed to Christianity, for example. When you find that connection it gives you a sense of well-being. Joan Miró, for me, is the painter, par excellence. There are many contemporary artists. I like Miquel Barceló a lot, and paintings of others, as well. But if I had to choose one, for me, Miró is able to express his world in a singular manner. And now, when someone paints that way, it looks like a copy. He knows how to put himself out there. Picasso said, “I paint what I see, but you paint your world.” Which is different, right? I see him as a fantastic painter. He was like a kid, right? This child-like side told him what to put on those sculptures. And when you look at them, it makes you laugh. Because there’s a sense of humor in it. In Miró, you see all of that.

Well, this was 40 years ago. Well, what led me was that I felt different from others. I knew it was a boy, a boy, but I had a female part, as a girl, as a girl. That at that time, they were the end of the first 60 of the 70, because that was what I had to hide. It couldn’t be because you thought you were a kind of weirdo, a monster. At that time the female part could not get it out. But when I started with adolescence, I realized that I had a very female part. There was nothing at all what was the drag queen phenomenon or transvestism. Then I led as a hidden, double life, with 17, 18 years in which during the day I was a normal boy, who went to school, then went to university, because I did industrial psychology. And at night, then I put on makeup, I was getting… well I was getting more exaggerated. I put on makeup, put on more and more extravagant hats, ambiguous feminine clothes. And I went out at night to the few places that began to have an atmosphere around here in Barcelona. And of course, over time I realized that if I didn’t hurt anyone I couldn’t continue living this farce, that lie. And that it didn’t hurt anyone by externalizing a femininity that it had. That’s how I started to dress as a woman, to mix feminine and masculine clothes, and that already led me … Then he took me to work. At the time, I went everywhere like that. I woke up in the morning and the first thing I did was take a shower, shave, shave, put on makeup, choose the clothes that I put on and so I went out to do my day to day: to buy, to university, everywhere I went like this. Then over time, over the years, I started working on this, and of course, now I don’t take it to such an extreme. At that time it was like a social rebellion. We lived in a world that Barcelona and Spain began to open a little. But we came from a dictatorship and a world where people’s mentality was not prepared for this.

For example, ever since the II Vatican council mass and religious ceremonies are carried out in Catalan, despite thOnThose were the years of the Grays. I studied architecture. I’m an architect. Studying architecture at the university was a bit hard. There was a year with almost no classes. And another year when you were surrounded by men clad in gray. That was the national police, in every classroom. The year we had no classes, classes would start, but then the Grays would start beating people, and we’d hit back. My sister declared herself communist, and I was more an anarchist. Often, you’d be at street demonstrations and the Grays would show up. The grays would come, smacking people around. They wore gray uniforms and helmets, and rode in gray vans. We called the vans Yogurteras. Yogurteras. Yogurt. Basically curdled milk. The Grays came to distribute spoiled milk. “Hey, the Yogurteras are coming!” So, when they were coming, you’d head inside. Or you’d take to the streets.

Those were the years of the ‘grises’ [lit. grey ones]. I studied architecture, I’m an architect. I studied architecture and it was a bit hard in universities, there was a year that there were almost no classes. And another year that you always had a grey clad man, who was a national cop, in each classroom. The year we had no clases, classes would start, but then the ‘grises’ came and starting hitting people and we the ‘grises’ as well. Then with my sister, who was a convinced communist. I was more anarchist. There were demonstrations on the streets quite often. You’d go there, the ‘grises’ would came and bam, bam, bam, handing out smacks.

The Castellers were another part of the Corpus Christi procession. Some say it started, originally, with the Valencia Ball, but I would say, in the last 30 years, it’s become an important symbol of Catalan culture. It’s interesting because two festivities have grown to become most patriotic. The Sardanes preceded the Castellers. In the early 20th century, in Catalan culture, the Sardanes were very symbolically important. But after the war, the Francoist Falange regarded the Sardanes as folkloric. It lost any meaning it formerly had. Today, the Sardanes are betwixt and between–restored, but lacking importance. However, Castellers, formerly on the periphery, mostly in the Camp de Tarragona, now has huge importance, because the acrobatics and physicality has inspired a constellation of new forms. To me, the Castellers are, practically, a new festivity.

There are many anecdotes from the Bikini Club. The bikini sandwich is probably most important. Ham and cheese, hot ham and cheese, as it’s known throughout Spain. The man who set up Bikini was Belgian, and offered croque-monsieurs, made with two slices of bread, ham and cheese, but he made it a double. Barcelona people, when they went somewhere, would say, “I want a sandwich like they make at Bikini.” So here, in Barcelona, the ham & cheese became known as the Bikini. It spread throughout Catalunya, and if you ask for a Bikini in Spain, some recognize the origin, and some don’t. The name comes from Bikini, the club.

I was born in 1972, so Franco was still alive. The problem was that with Franco Catalan was a forbidden language, and Catalan names were not allowed. When my parents had me, they named me Arnau, a Catalan name. But naming me Arnau was forbidden, so when they couldn’t register me as Arnau, they resgistered me as Arnaldo, the Spanish version of Arnau. When Franco died in 1975, the first things my parents did was go change my name on the registry so that I would again be named Arnau, my original and actual name.

I was in Paris by then so I can only tell you how my family and the Spanish people I knew reatced. We were waiting for something to happen. It was like: “Well, and now what? What’s going to happen? What are we looking forward to?” We were looking forward to freedom, to a split, which wasn’t the Transition. We wanted a real split. We wanted a pre-constitutional period where the people had voice and that from here, a open, clean and clear Constitution would come out. This didn’t happen. The ones that were already inside made up a Constitution because Suárez, had already been the general director during Franco’s reign. I totally respect him for what he did, but it wasn’t enough. The military was always on point to attack and what happened? The Fathers of the Constitution, such as Miquel Roca and Jordi Soler Tura, were determined/conditioned by the military. There’s an article that is causing much trouble today about Spain’s unity, that was imposed by the military. We are talking about a Constitution that was completely conditioned by them. It wasn’t a real constitution made by a nation in a pre-constitutional period. I remember that in 1978, while I was working in El Diari de Barcelona, people were talking about the Constitution. I wrote 2 articles complaining about the fact that the Constitution was monarchical. We didn’t vote that. I wrote 2 articles and, by the time I was writing the third, the director told me: “Enough Dolors. Don’t follow this path. It’s enough”. Did censorship exist? You tell me. Auto-censorship existed, too. And the director was up to here with us.

Emotion. An era was over. Finally a grey world was over and the color came. At least officially, because actually we had been living in another world for a long time. And then, those who were happy I think was the 30%, not more. And the other 70%? It was Francoist, that’s the truth. Because Franco created the middle class, people were thankful. That’s not told, but it’s the truth. Now it’s changed. That’s why Felipe Gonzalez won, why the transition was easy, because people was already ready, especially in Catalonia and areas where there was more exchange with tourism, more traveling, more access to books, to culture. Culture is always what… But there were many Francoists. Many people grateful for the sepulchral peace that Francoism imposed.