La Franja (, , ) is a term that refers to the
Catalan-speaking territories of
Aragon bordering
Catalonia, in
Spain. It literally means "the strip" and can also more properly be called
Franja d'Aragó or
Franja de Ponent ("Western Strip") in
Catalan (
Francha d'Aragón or
Francha de Lebán (Eastern Strip) in
Aragonese and
Franja de Aragón in
Spanish).
La Franja is usually considered to be comprised by a part of the municipalities of the following Aragonese administrative comarcas: la Ribagorza/Ribagorça, La Litera/La Llitera, Bajo Cinca/Baix Cinca, Bajo Aragón-Caspe/Baix Aragó-Casp, Bajo Aragón/Baix Aragó and Matarraña/Matarranya.
The thin strip of land is very diverse geographically, ranging from valleys in the Pyrenees to the flat lands by the Ebro, all are included under this umbrella term. La Franja does not have any official political recognition within Aragon, nor is it a separate historical entity in and of itself; the territories only have in common being administratively and historically Aragonese and linguistically Catalan. The term is mostly used in neighbouring Catalonia, especially within Catalan nationalism, though it has lately become common in Aragon too.
Origin of the names that refer to La Franja
The use of a term to refer to the eastern area of
Aragon bordering Catalonia as based on linguistic criteria is recent. It was in 1929 —when he christened these as
Marques de Ponent, "Western
Marches"— that Catalan
geographer Pau Vila used for the first time a term designating jointly the Aragonese area where
Catalan is spoken.
This term was maintained in the second half of the 20th century by Catalan philologists such as Joan Coromines, along with other terms such as Marques d'Aragó (in Spanish, Marcas de Aragón, "Marches of Aragon"), Catalunya aragonesa (in Spanish, Cataluña aragonesa, "Aragonese Catalonia") or la ratlla d'Aragó (in Spanish, la raya de Aragón, "the Aragonese Strip").
Whichever term is used, they all refer to the eastern Catalan-speaking area of Aragon, which borders Catalonia to the west. These terms all originated in Catalonia but later became popular in La Franja itself. They are therefore Catalonia-centered and hence the Ponent ("Western") reference in the term La Franja del Ponent, because these area lies to the west of Catalonia.
The term Franja de Ponent itself first appeared in the second half of the 1970s, during the Spanish transition to democracy:
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At the Second International Congress of the Catalan Language (Segon Congrés Internacional de la Llengua Catalana) held in 1985, the normative authority on the Catalan language, known as Institut d'Estudis Catalans, adopted Franja d'Aragó ("Aragonese Strip") as the denomination for the Catalan-speaking territories of Aragon for academic and linguistic purposes, while the denomination Franja de Ponent ("Western Strip") is used mainly in the political arena by some associations, groups and political parties associated with pancatalanism.
Later on, alternative denominations such as Aragón Oriental (in Catalan, Aragó Oriental), Franja Oriental or Franja de Levante (in Catalan, Franja de Llevant), all meaning roughly Eastern Aragon or Eastern Strip were created in Aragon.
Diverse meanings
While the term was created to designate a linguistic area, there are other issues in question:
The ecclesiastical sense
The linguistic sense
The political sense
The socio-economic sense
The ecclesiastical sense
Many parishes of what is now called
la Franja had been historically part of the Diocese of
Lleida, along with other, non-Catalan-speaking Aragonese towns. In 1995, Catholic church authorities, through the Papal
Nuncio to Spain, informed the president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference –
Archbishop of Saragossa,
Elías Yanes– of the decision of the
Holy See to align the
diocesan boundaries with the political and historical ones.
This meant that 111 parishes and a population of 68,089 were transferred from the Diocese of Lleida to the enlarged Diocese of Barbastro, whose name was then changed to Diocese of Barbastro-Monzón As for the reasons of the transfer, some Catalan ecclesiastical ranks considered that it was a result of the opposition of these Aragonese parishes to a short-lived debate on the convenience of creating a distinct Catalan Episcopal Conference, which would have been detached from the Spanish one. Other sources claim that the diocese of Barbastro (birthplace of the founder of Opus Dei, St. José María Escrivá de Balaguer) was losing population and needed to acquire neighbouring parishes from another diocese to be able to continue to exist .
The transfer of the parishes, specifically the ownership of the medieval artistic objects or sacred art comprised, originated an intricated series of lawsuits involving both dioceses (Barbastro-Monzón and Lleida), both autonomous governments (Aragón and Catalonia) and both legal systems canon and administrative law.
It was finally decided by the ecclesiastic canon judges in 2005 that the 113 works of art belong to the Barbastro-Monzón diocese. The Lleida diocese released a statement accepting this decision but, at the same time, announced that then the administrative process would be opened, later on, it stated that talks should be opened to reach an agreement, in the end effectively protracting the end of the dispute. In the meantime, the works of art remain located in the Diocese Museum of Lleida. The lawsuit is known as the conflicto del patrimonio eclesiástico de la Franja (the conflict of the ecclesiastical heritage of the Franja) or del Aragón Oriental (of Eastern Aragon), and though it began as a local debate, it has become in became a national press story, especially due to the confrontation between the political forces of Aragon and Catalonia.
On July 1, 2008 an agreement between the two dioceses was announced, again stating that the art pieces would return to the Barbastro-Monzón diocese. However, the situation remained stalled due to the continued refusal of the Catalan administration to issue an exit permit, something which eventually led to the Aragonese region president to open a criminal procedure in February 2009, thus effectively giving up on the resolved yet stalled civil procedure. Then the Vatican itself urged for the return of the pieces to Aragon, to no avail.
The linguistic sense
The
Catalan language is spoken by a significant proportion of the population of La Franja (about 90 %, the highest proportion of all the territories where this language is spoken). This despite the fact that it is not an official language and that it has a very limited presence in education (where it is only possible to study it as an optional subject), in administration and or public acts, which amounts for severe deficiences in writing competences of this language.
Territorial basis
The exact territorial limits of the
Franja de Aragón differ depending on the source, since there are some municipalities of
Ribagorza where there are doubts over whether or not to include them as Catalan-speaking or as Aragonese-speaking. The proportion of speakers of the two languages varies over time and with immigration according to the municipality, something which leads to different sources drawing slightly different linguistic borders.
According to the draft of the Aragonese Language Law
During the fourth session of the
Cortes de Aragón (the parliament of Aragon) (1995–1999) under the
PP-
PAR coalition government the
Special Commission Report on the Language Policy of Aragon was published. The report would be the basis for the
Draft of the Language Law of Aragon published the following session (1999–2003) under the
PSOE-
PAR coalition, where for the first time from the
Cortes de Aragón would detail those municipalities which formed part of a Catalan-speaking community, with the aim of recognising co-officiality and encouraging the use of Catalan in public life and especially in education.
The law was never approved due to protests and petitions in Aragon opposed to the co-officiality of Catalan, promoted in the main part by the Federación de Asociaciones Culturales del Aragón Oriental (FACAO), a conservative organisation which maintained that the local 'linguistic modalities' were languages and not dialects of Catalan, and the lack of consensus on the issue among the Aragonese political parties. There are other civic associations staunchly rejecting the Catalan filiation of the language
According to the list of municipalities which could be considered to be areas of predominant use of its own language or linguistic modality or areas of predominant use of normalised Catalan in the Second annex of the Second Final Disposition of the Avant-project of the Language Law, the Franja de Aragón would be composed of:
According to the Institut d'Estudis Catalans
From the point of view of the
Institut d'Estudis Catalans the territory is smaller, due to the fact the municipality of Torre la Ribera is not considered Catalan-speaking, and the municipalities of Azanuy-Alins, Isábena, Lascuarre and San Esteban de Litera are classified as transitional dialects. The Catalan-speaking lands are thus reduced to a total of 57 municipalities with an area of
4,137.2 km² with a population of
45,984.
According to the Gran Enciclopedia Aragonesa
The situation is reversed according the
Gran Enciclopedia Aragonesa (GEA) with the Franja having an area of
5,370 km² and with a population of
70,000. It should be mentioned that the GEA does not recognise the denomination
Franja but discusses its situation under
Catalan in Aragon, nor does it specify in how many or which municipalities where Catalan is clearly spoken nor the date of the census on which its figures are based.
According to the Gran Geografia Comarcal of the GREC
The Gran Geografia Comarcal of the Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana (GREC) classes the territorial area of the Franja de Aragon as larger than that defined by the Commission report although not as large as the GEA definition. All the municipalities which it adds to those of the Avant-project and of Ribagorza and therefore belong to the Province of Huesca. It adds a total of 8 municipalities and 3 population nuclei; Güell, Laguarres y Torres del Obispo, which form part of two municipalities; Graus in the case of the first and the third, and Capella the case of the second. The table to the right details the population nuclei and official area and population figures.
(1) Population centres belonging to the municipality of Graus. Population figures according to Ayuntamiento (no date given), area according to GREC.net.
(2) Population centres belonging to the municipality of Capella. Population 2004, area according to GREC.net.
(3) Population centres belonging to the municipality of Graus. Population according to Ayuntamiento (no date given), area according to GREC.net.
Comparative table and map according to sources
Toponymy
There is no unitary policy on official toponymy in the Franja leading to great variations between the local
comarcalización laws in comparrison with those proposed by the IEC. The following table details the translation of the toponymy in Spanish to the official version in the local vernacular and that proposed by the IEC. At the bottom are the municipalities which the GREC includes in its definition of the Franja and the poposed names which it offers opposed to the official names:
(1) Sources of the official denominations in Spanish and local vernacular:
Boletín Oficial de Aragón (BOA): Ley 10/2002, de 03 de mayo, de creación de la comarca del Bajo Aragón / Ley 12/2003, de 24 de marzo, de creación de la comarca del Bajo Aragón-Caspe /
Ley 20/2002, de 07 de octubre, de creación de la comarca del Bajo Cinca / Ley 25/2002, de 12 de noviembre, de creación de la comarca de La Litera / Ley 07/2002, de 15 de abril, de creación de la comarca del Matarraña / Ley 12/2002, de 28 de mayo, de creación de la comarca de la Ribagorza.
(2) Source of the denominations in Catalan according to the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC):
Lista de denominaciones en catalán aprobada por la Sección Filológica del IEC en reunión del día 15 de diciembre de de 1995, en la reunión de la Sección Filológica de 15 de enero de 1999 se decidió incluir en la lista el topónimo "Vensilló" al ser un municipio de nueva creación. En la primera reunión los municipios de Azanuy-Alins, Isábena, Lascuarre y San Esteban de Litera se excluyeron de la lista oficial de municipios de lengua catalana de la Franja de Aragón, listándose a parte como municipios pertenecientes a un área de transición lingüística.
(3) Source of the denominations in Catalan according to the Grupo Enciclopedia Catalana:
Political sense
. The road sign is written in Spanish and the graffiti says "En Català" - "In Catalan".]]
The Political significance of the Franja goes hand in hand with the catalanist political movement, which has always considered this part of Aragon as historical Catalonia, which through history has ended up detached from its cultural community, a community which is fundamental to the pancatalanist Catalan nation.
This new interpretation as part of the political connotation ascribed to the Catalan Countries emerged throughout the 20th Century - and especially after the 1960s - encouraged in the main part by the Valencian Joan Fuster. Pancatalanism demands the creation of a nation-state for the Catalan Countries in which the cultural unity is based on the Catalan linguistic community.
There has never been a political movement from the Franja promoting union with Catalonia, and separation from Aragon, in order to form a new political entity. In the same way, catalanist political parties do not participate in municipal or regional elections.
Socioeconomic sense
The socioeconomic meaning of the Franja relates to the economic region surrounding the Catalan city of
Lleida, which encompasses Catalan-speaking Huescan and Zaragozan municipalities and excludes those in the region of Teruel and includes Spanish-speaking municipalities such as
Alcolea de Cinca,
Binéfar,
Monzón, etc... The area of influence of Lleida is especially reflected in editions of the local Lleida press for example
La Mañana-Franja de Ponent and also of Aragon as shown by the digital publication
Franja Digital.
See also
Roman Catholic Diocese of Lleida
Ilercavonia
Lower Aragon
References
External links
;Ecclesiastic meaning
The ecclesiastical heritage in eastern Aragon, special issue of "Heraldo de Aragón"
The ecclesiastical heritage in La Franja, special issue of "El Periódico de Aragón"
The ecclesiastical heritage in La Franja, Observatory of the Spanish Historical Heritage
Image gallery and map with the dioceses borders
;Cultural meaning
ASCUMA Associació Cultural del Matarranya. Promotes Catalan language and culture in Matarraña.
CERIb Centro de Estudios Ribagorzanos. Studies and promotes Catalan language in Ribagorza.
Institut d'Estudis del Baix Cinca Promotes Catalan culture in La Franja.
Catalan in Aragon - News and resources about Catalan in La Franja
Map of Language distribution in Aragon, by Francho Nagore
The Western Strip Cultural Institution. Promotes Catalan culture in La Franja.
Acció Cultural del País Valencià - Its "Casal Jaume I" promotes Catalan culture in Fraga. Delegations on Fraga and Castillonroy
FACAO Federación de Asociaciones Culturales del Aragón Oriental. Analogously to blaverists in Valencia, they affirm that no Catalan is spoken in La Franja, but "Eastern Aragonese".
;Others
Cinca river as frontier in History About the frontier changes between Aragon and Catalonia in la Franja.
Franja de Ponent, entry on the Great Catalan Encyclopedia
Category:Aragon
Category:Catalan Countries
Category:Crown of Aragon
Category:La Franja
![Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote is considered to be the first modern novel.[146]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110906143858im_/http://cdn4.wn.com/pd/0e/0a/0cb1189e62f2f84f514b6f9ad15b_grande.jpg "Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote is considered to be the first modern novel.[146]")
![Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote is considered to be the first modern novel.[146]](http://web.archive.org./web/20110906143858im_/http://cdn3.wn.com/pd/0e/0a/0cb1189e62f2f84f514b6f9ad15b_thumb.jpg "Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote is considered to be the first modern novel.[146]")
