DRUMS AGAINST GUNS

Nothing better to depict some good values of a society, than a young boy who saved a village from the attack of the enemy in one of the worst periods of a culture. That was in the beginning of 19th century in Catalonia, where the conditions started to be quite difficult to the people from there. As a border territory between Spain and France, this part of territory has a history with a lot of battles and conquests. During the expansion of the Napoleón Bonaparte's Empire, in the war called "The war of the French", his army entered Spain by the Catalan border, arriving in few days in Barcelona.

They had the new values of reason since the French Revolution, against monarchy and religion, and they destroyed the traditions of the place with violence, burning churches and killing monks; so the modernity was imposed there in a unnatural way, and people, especially in the countryside, did not agree with them. Catalonia was suddenly a new part of the French Republic, with their administration and laws, and was organized in “departments”, the French system that centralize Paris. This changes did not bring only new ideas, but also poorness with a hard economic crisis. So people was angry, and in two small towns they burned papers and banknotes with any French symbol as a protest. Around eight thousand French soldiers went to conquer the rest of Spain leaving from Barcelona, and passing by this towns to punish their rebellion during the way. Both parts of the conflict met in Montserrat, a very singular mountain range with a special geological conditions, concretely in a place called Bruc. But people from towns did not have much guns, and they were only one thousand men, approximately, so for them it was quite hard to fight. However, they won this battle against their enemy, becoming one of the only successful examples of resistance to Napoleon's soldiers.

Those are the historical facts, but the legend starts when the peasants explained how they managed to defeat one of the most strong armies. There was a boy, about sixteen years old, who did not have a gun but had a drum during the battle. He was hidden in the stones of the mountain, and when the attack started he played his instrument very toudly. The sound boomed in the rocky place, and French soldiers thought that a Spanish reinforcements had arrived, so the general of the French battalion ordered the retreat.

This youngster became a hero for people in Catalonia, called the Drummer of Bruc. He was young, and poor, and he had only a drum but, most of all, he was astute. And he demonstrated that this can defeat a powerful army. His figure bring the idea of humility as a feature of Catalan people and culture, as one of the most important values of society. Not only this, it brings also the idea that it worth resisting even if all seems lost, and that bravery is necessary to defend a culture.

As with all legends, part of it is true and there is a part that people imagine and like to add to. This battle happened for real in 1808, and it is true that people from these towns won, and it can be proved that there was a young boy, called Isidre Lluçà i Casanoves, who carried a drum. However, probably he was not the only one who had an instrument like this: it is possible that people who lived in the convents in these mountains also played a lot of kinds of drums, and the same for people in the battalion, because it was a common and important instrument in battles of this period.

Anyway, people from Catalonia can be very humble and brave and resist a lot of hard situations, but they can also be smug and cowardly. Like everybody, everywhere. But in any case, the Drummer of Bruc became a legend which depicts good values, that people like to remember.

 Núria Curcoll