Reason 2: Still today Spain doesn't allow us to exist

Sport is a great phenomenon that strengthens the common spirit of cultures. When sports are played internationally people defend the motherland they belong to.

But what is my motherland? I don’t see Spain as my motherland. Is Russia the motherland of the Chechen people? Is Sweden the motherland of the Sami people? Is Turkey or Iran the motherland of the Kurds?

Several imperialistic countries have taken the land of smaller countries and have tried to destroy these cultures in order to enlarge their own. One would think this was the rule in the ancient times. Unfortunately still today many countries suffer the injustice of such nationalistic arrogance. And one of them is Catalonia.
Spain has tried to destroy Catalan culture for 300 years several times and still today it is trying to do so. During the Franco dictatorship Catalan language was forbidden, it was also forbidden to have a Catalan name, so my parents had to give me a Spanish name instead. Now it is finally changed into Catalan, but many Catalan people died and their official names where in Spanish language. Today there are Spanish politicians that are avoiding the normal development of the Catalan language. They are against Catalan being an official language in the European parliament (a language spoken by 10 million inhabitants!), they want to impede Catalan TV to reach the Catalan speaking citizens of Valencia, etc. Catalan is spoken by 18,5% of the Spanish citizens and yet Catalan language is not allowed in the Spanish parliament.
A huge list of incidents against our culture and language are tangible prove of Spanish nationalism.

I guess it is clear enough why Catalan people cannot be happy and proud to belong to Spain. How can Catalans feel close to a country that is showing so much hatred and aversion towards us?

Obviously the feeling of a motherland for Catalan people is Catalonia. Catalonia is my motherland. Catalonia loves me. And I love Catalonia.
Spain does not love me and therefore I don’t love Spain.

So, Catalans want to be represented by Catalan teams at international competitions. At this moment we don’t feel represented, we cannot participate, we cannot shout for our sportsmen and women. We cannot hear our anthem when a Catalan sportsman wins. And we feel neglected.
If Catalonia were an independent country our people would represent us. And when a Catalan sportswoman would win we would hear our anthem and not an anthem that represents all these people who does not tolerate us and wants us to disappear. Only in some unknown sports we have international teams. But even when we win the international organizations mention Spain, not Catalonia.

Reason 1: only independent cultures are taken into account

In Catalonia not one car brand sells its products in Catalan language. And that, while Catalan is the 9th most spoken language in Europe. I found out that neither the only car brand in Spain (SEAT) writes to its Catalan costumers in their own language. I sent an e-mail asking them Catalan information. They told me that SEAT means Spanish Society for Automobiles. And therefore they only sold their cars in Spanish language. Not in Catalan.

SEAT says no to Catalan costumers in Spain. If we go to their web site we will only find information in a language that is not ours. But then I thought: what do they do in Andorra?

I went to the SEAT web site and discovered that for an independent country with only 70.000 inhabitants they do have a Catalan web site. In Spain, where there 18% of the population speak Catalan at home (± 10 million inhabitants) they don’t!

The conclusion is simple: If we want to be taken into account by companies Catalonia will have to be an sovereign country.