Human towers raise the voice of the Catalan people and demand the right to vote

The multi-city human tower day to demand the right to vote for the Catalans has come off without a hitch. The participating teams in the “Catalans want to vote” event, organized by Òmnium Cutural in eight European cities, successfully built human towers and displayed flags that read “CatalansWantToVote”: the Joves Xiquets de Valls, near the emblematic Tower Bridge in London; the Vella dels Xiquets de Valls team in front of Paris’ Eiffel Tower; the human tower builders of Vilafranca in Brussels in the Grand Place; the Xiquets de Reus, in Geneva; the Borinots from the Sants neighborhood of Barcelona, in Lisbon next to the Torre Betlem; the Xics de Granollers, in Berlin; the Bordegassos de Vilanova, in Rome; and the team from Sagrada Família, in Barcelona, were able to raise their human towers in favor of the right to decide on November 9th.

A symbolic showy event that aims to “internationalize Catalonia’s wish for democracy” is how Muriel Casals, the president of Òmnium Cultural, described it. “That’s why we’re encouraging everyone to go to see the event and join the call. 

in the end, there were seventy-one participating teams who all built a tower at the same time with a flag that read “Catalans want to vote” in the official language of each city. In addition to the announced locations, there were also human towers in Pamplona (coinciding with the Basque Way), Montreal (Québec), Santiago (Chile) and also Algemesí, where the Valencian Countries muixerangueres team gathered at the Central square “as representatives of Valencian popular culture, in favor of democracy and the right of citizens to express their opinion”.

The Xics de Granollers performed in Berlin, in the emblematic Alexanderplatz; the Castellers de Vilafranca, in the Grand Place in Brussels; the Xiquets de Reus were in the Place des Nations in Geneva; the Castellers de Sants, at the Torre de Betlem in Lisbon; the Colla Joves dels Xiquets de Valls, at the Tower Bridge in London; the Colla Vella dels Xiquets de Valls, at the Champs de Mars in Paris; and the Bordegassos de Vilanova, in Giancomo in Roma.

In Barcelona there were multiple performances. The Castellers de la Sagrada Família climbed in front of Gaudí’s famous church, and the Castellers de Barcelona, the Minyons de Terrassa and the Castellers de Sabadell, were in Barcelona’s central Plaça Sant Jaume, between the City Hall and the Catalan Government Generalitat Palace. And more than 50 teams built towers in 41 small towns and cities. 

The project would not have been possible without the support of the Human Tower Team Coordinator, who actively participated in the organization of the event. In addition, in each European city there was a “honorary spokesperson”, in charge of reading the manifesto in support of the initiative. These were Bayern (and former FC Barcelona coach) Pep Guardiola in Berlin, musician Jordi Savall in Paris, historian Paul Preston in London, playright  Helder Costa in Lisbon, actor Sergi López in Brussels, actor Joan Mompart in Geneva and Muriel Casals (Òmnium President) in Barcelona. 

In addition, forty plus Catalan towns and cities had their own performances of more than fifty teams. Here is the map of all of the events from this Sunday.

Mapa de les poblacions catalanes on diumenge s’aixecaran castells pel dret a decidir. #CatalansWantToVote @omnium. pic.twitter.com/qHoBot1a3g

— Jordi CalVís (@jordicalvis) June 6, 2014