Castells

Castellers de Sants

We learned about the language, we heard some of their music, but one thing that stood out for me the most about the Catalan culture are the famous and breathtaking castells or human towers. This Catalan tradition of building human towers originated in Valls, near the city of Tarragona, in the southern part of Catalonia towards the end of the 18th century. Later this tradition developed with other regions of Catalonia following, such as in Vilafranca del Penedès, Tarragona, Terrassa, Mataró, Barcelona, etc., and even got popular in the Balearic Islands.

This Catalan tradition of the castells includes people of all races, sexes, religions, social classes and most importantly ages. Indeed it brings a whole community together to build a magnificent form of art that not only shows teamwork, unity, strength, but also power and bravery to reach to the finishing point. The structure of the tower is composed of different stages: first, in the tower there are the members of the pinya or the bulk, which set the base of a tower. These individuals are much older and mostly composed of men. The middle base is composed of both men and women and finally the top base with the lighter members of the team climb to the top. For the finishing touch, there are the enxaneta or the rider that usually is a young kid in a big helmet that climbs at the very top of the tower, like a star in a Christmas tree, and raises one hand with four fingers to symbolize the four stripes in the Senyera, the Catalan flag. Towers can be up to ten levels and in the end the castellers descend in highest to lower order until the tower has dismantled. All in all for fun and to strongly maintain a piece that demonstrates the Catalan culture.

JOHANNA AVELAR