Spanish views from a small town

There is an immense political hullabaloo going on this month in Spain. The central government, run by the conservatives, is butting heads with the Govern, the regional government of Catalunya. The knocks are becoming more serious as the month progresses and October 1st nears. I fear that one of those knocks might leave one, the other, or both unconscious. For some time, the parties that promote Catalan independence have been gaining ascendancy in the autonomous region. Catalunya has always felt itself to be separate, and merely allied to the central government of Spain. It was independent once upon a time, though some may dispute that. From the tenth century until the twelfth, the counties that made up the Spanish March once established by Charlemagne owed allegiance to no king. The counties were loosely allied under the Count of Barcelona, who was the feudal lord until his marriage with the daughter of the King of Aragon in 1137. From then on, the feudal lord was the King of Aragon,...