The Parliament this Tuesday afternoon marked the 150th anniversary of the birth of the Catalan cellist Pau Casals, whom the president of the Chamber, Josep Rull, has pointed out as a reference for his defense of “placing peace over force, dignity over imposition, and humanity over any conflict.”
Rull also stressed that Casals was “one of the thousands of Catalans who had to go into exile as a consequence of Francoism” and that, after leaving the country, he was never able to return in life to his hometown, in El Vendrell (Tarragona), according to the statement issued this Tuesday by the Parliament.
The councillor for Culture, Sònia Hernández, brought to mind the renowned speech by the cellist at the headquarters of the United Nations, where “he wanted to explain to the world that Catalunya had always been a land of peace.”
Along these lines, she has emphasized that, in an international context marked by armed conflicts such as the one currently unfolding, culture and artistic expressions become “powerful tools for promoting dialogue, coexistence, and respect among peoples.”
The tribute event was opened with a musical performance by Mariona Camats and Yoko Suzuki. Next, the general director of the Fundació Pau Casals, Jordi Pardo, welcomed the attending public, and then a roundtable discussion was held with the president of the Acadèmia Catalana de la Música, Esther Bonal, and the historian Joan Esculies, moderated by the journalist Xavier Mas de Xaxàs.