Background
After Francisco Franco's death in 1975, Spain began its transition to democracy. Under Franco's rule the Catalan language had been banned, the culture suppressed, institutions abolished and people imprisoned for their political beliefs. In 1977, the president of Catalonia in exile came back to Catalonia and the Generalitat of Catalonia was restored. Following the approval of the Spanish constitution in 1978, a Statute of Autonomy was promulgated and approved in referendum. Catalonia was organized as an Autonomous Community.
Not satisfied with that level of autonomy, some organisations started to demand the full independence of Catalonia. The demand for an independent Catalonia had been present since the beginning of the 20th century but after the end of the dictatorship, it gained more notoriety among the Catalan society. This would lead to many people using violence to achieve that goal.
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Famous quotes containing the word background:
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)