In his book, Homage To Catalonia, the author George Orwell describes the time he spent fighting in Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War. The experience would be his inspiration for Animal Farm. Orwell became disillusioned almost immediately upon describing, “the kaleidoscope of political parties and trade unions, with their tiresome names,” which he gamely invited readers to skip.. “Compared with the huge miseries of civil war, this kind of internecine squabble between parties, with its inevitable injustices and false accusations, may appear trivial ... (but) I believe that libels and press-campaigns of this kind, and the habits of mind they indicate, are capable of doing the most deadly damage.”

This was Orwell’s up close encounter with the Catalan region of Spain during a time of great political, economical and social unrest in the years 1936 - 1939.

November 2023: Echoing the streets of cities all over Spain could be heard chants of tens of thousands of protestors. “Spain is Christian not Muslim!” Some sang Ave Maria. Some prayed the rosary. Some held signs calling the current acting PM, Carlos Sanchez, a traitor.