The People of Cerbère Speak
Alexander Alland Sonia Alland
In 1996 we taped interviews with thirty-six people in Cerbère. The sample used was neither random nor stratified. Most interviews were conducted with single individuals, but there are a few exceptions to this general rule. We taped some married couples together,...
/oscar-static/img/favicons/darwin/apple-touch-icon-92e819bf8a.png
SpringerLink
In 1996 we taped interviews with thirty-six people in Cerbère. The sample used was neither random nor stratified. Most interviews were conducted with single individuals, but there are a few exceptions to this general rule. We taped some married couples together, and on three occasions, we interviewed groups of four individuals with more or less the same set of interests or social standing. I have selected nineteen of these interviews for inclusion in this chapter. Like the Portbou interviews these have been edited for continuity; furthermore, certain material, either too sensitive to include or irrelevant for this study, has been eliminated. What I have chosen to include from the tapes illustrates the general malaise felt in Cerbère concerning the well-being of the village in the future given the changes that have occurred in recent years. The interviews also provide some insight into the wide range of viewpoints in the village concerning personal identity in the context of possible Spanish, French, and Catalan identity. In Cerbère, somewhat unlike Portbou, we favored interviews with people who were associated with its stable population and who more or less saw themselves connected to Catalan culture. I do, however, include some interviews that reflect the feelings of the transient population of the village as well.

Cerbère is a theatre set because someone has decided that the frontier is really a frontier. Between Catalunya and el Rosselló [French Catalunya] there is no real frontier so the French have created a false scenic one. The urbanism of the village has been consciously created to signal the difference. Because of the absent border they have created houses with roofs that are un-Catalan and markedly French. If you go further north into France (Banyuls, Collioure) you will find typical Catalan roofs like the roofs found throughout the south. But in Cerbère they have to be different.

—Josep Pla, “How the French Established Their Identity in Cerbère.” Contraband i Altres Narracions. Barcelona: Edicions la Butxaca: III.