Homegrown Catalan campaign extends to Eivissa. Next up: Menorca and Mallorc

Foto presentacio Histories del CatalaEarlier today in the conference hall of the Formentera Council's Office of Culture, local and regional elected officials gathered for a presentation of a Catalan language campaign that has recently experienced a revival: Històries del Català. CiF councillor of culture Susana Labrador was joined by her opposite number in Eivissa, David Ribas, the director general of the Govern Balear's language policy division, Marta Fuxà, and local councillors from various Eivissa ajuntaments (village councils). Representatives of Eivissa village councils included Marivó Mengual, from the education and language office of the Ajuntament d'Eivissa; Ana Costa, from the culture office of the Ajuntament de Santa Eulària des Riu; María José Guisado Costa, from the education office of the Ajuntament de Sant Josep de sa Talaia; Raúl Díaz Guerrero, from the community involvement office of the Ajuntament de Sant Antoni de Portmany; and Santiago Marí, from the culture office of the Ajuntament de Sant Joan de Labritja.

The creative minds behind the campaign set out to “represent the stories of people who have come to live on the island and are studying Catalan,” said Councillor Labrador. She recalled that the first campaign took place in 2011 under the aegis of the Formentera Council's language advisory service, or SAL. This year, the CiF office reached out to administrations on the larger Pitiüsa island and ultimately received interest from a host of ajuntaments. Having decided to hop on board as well, Menorca will also oversee filming of its own set of stories this summer. The SAL says the response from Mallorca was positive too. The Eivissa reps and Ms Fuxà offered congratulations regarding the initiative's success and thanked the Formentera SAL for engaging with them on a project like Històries del Català.

The project focuses on the story of 12 individuals on Formentera and 13 on Eivissa. They are people who, in addition to living in this corner of the Balearic archipelago, share the added particularity of having studied Catalan. The protagonists represent an array of differing origins; one hails from Madrid, another is a native of the Canary Islands and others represent Italy, Russia, Galicia, Slovakia and Morocco. The first part of the project involved creating the graphic and audiovisual material, which was unveiled today. Henceforth, each ajuntament and island council will be in charge of promoting their 'Catalan stories'. The Councils of Formentera and Eivissa came together to create a website to host a compilation of stories and videos from both islands: www.historiesdelcatala.cat.

Each village council assumed the production costs of filming històries in their area. In the end 25 stories were filmed at a total cost of 3,000 euros. The website, which receives funding from both island councils, has so far had a cost of 800 euros. The stories are also being picked up by the media, proof that Catalan remains a vibrant language used even by recent arrivals in their day-to-day life.Â