THE CATALAN ROOTS // OVERVIEW

For most of the 19th Century, Spain was immersed in a period of economical, social and political instability. Many Spaniards decided to emigrate looking for a better future or due to political persecution by the authorities. But only the most adventurous found the courage to leave their families and start a new life on the other side of the world. Why did they leave? Did they ever look back? Would you be able to do the same? Where would you go? This is the story of a group of Catalans who decided to cross the world and start a new life… in Australia. But did they know where they were going? Was it hard to leave their homeland? What did they expect? What do YOU know about Australia?

the Catalans were the first ones to commercialise the meat pie in Australia?
JOSEPH VILLÀ
Joseph Villà decided to leave Montsolis in 1910 to start a new life with his second cousin and his wife
JOSEPHINE CANALS
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FRANK POWER
After Mr. Power left Spain the family was separated for the next six years
FRANCISCO DALMAU
Little did Francisco Dalmau know he would never return to Catalonia
MARY DALMAU
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RALPH BONAMUSA
he was 20 he had to go to the military, and he didn’t want to go
Carme Ferré
“My grandmother was a very strong woman. I think she had to have been strong to have left a beautiful city like Barcelona in 1922 and come to Australia. She had little comprehension of where she was going. She bought a lot of winter clothes because ‘Austria is very cold’."
JOANNE TAPIOLAS
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Video: “What do you know about the Antipodes?”
The Portrait:
Torrents, the anarchist from Mataró
"Muchos son los que hablan de los asuntos de España y tendrian su trabajo si les preguntaran a que parte del planeta tierra se encuentra cituada”
The Catalan Diaspora
by Dr. Peter Gerrand
The emigration of Catalans to Australia from the 1850s to the present can be understood in historical context by considering the root causes of the Spanish regional diasporas in general