Jordi Pujol i Soley (Barcelona, 1930) is a key figure in explaining Catalanism not only during the last democratic stage but also during Franco’s dictatorship. It was precisely at this stage that his political and social ideology was formed, which was complementary to his Catholic and Catalan activism. Indeed, the years of Jordi Pujol’s education as a Catholic, Catalan and Democrat help to understand the evolution of the future president of the Generalitat, in the same way that they constitute a central contribution to the study of Catalanist Catholicism during the Franco regime. Without neglecting the sociopolitical context in which this Catholic and Catalanist opposition is influenced by Franco’s regime, Janete Silveira Abrao makes an interesting contribution to the intellectual and political formation of Jordi Pujol and his first theorizations on national identity.
The research work ‘The Recovery of Catalanism and New Catalanism under Franco’s dictatorship (1946-1963)’ is part of a broader study framework, that is, it is part of a research project in which seeks to analyze the evolution and limits of the political and ideological discourse of the former president of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Jordi Pujol i Soley, based on his views on the Catalan nation and Catalanism – his idea of Catalonia – Spain and Europe, and the challenges of Catalan identity in the face of the globalization process. The relevance of the study of Catalan and Catalan national identity, in the context of globalization and of new Catalanism emerging in the second half of the twentieth century, can contribute to Brazil great contributions in the field of studies on nationalism. Catalonia is a nation that struggles secularly to maintain its national identity, which rebuilt the nation and regained its Catalan identity in the postwar period, and currently struggles for greater autonomy and participation in a world of large regional blogs.
