Wikipedia Wednesdays - Socialist Union of Catalonia

The Socialist Union of Catalonia is, as one might imagine, a political party in Spain falling decidedly left of center. It was formed in 1923 after splitting from the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, because apparently Catalonia is an important enough region of Spain to merit its own branch. (I have no idea how important Catalonia is). It was absorbed into a larger union in 1936.

One thing my readers (all none of them) might notice is that most of the random entries on wikipedia focus on small, insignificant entities. At first this disappointed me, but I'm now fascinated by the many and varied cultures surrounding such - okay, yeah, I'm disappointed. Still, I only need to make it another month before school starts - just three more entries. I can do this.

The union was primarily led by one J. Comorera, and oversaw the Unió general de sindicats obrers de Catalunya, which I unfortunately could not translate on my own, despite my having taken four years of Spanish. According to a Google translation of the Spanish Wikipedia (La Enciclopedia Libre), it was a general union of trade unions in Catalunia and was led by Joan Fronjosta.

Now, me being the savvy researcher that I am, I also checked out the page La Enciclopedia Libre has on the Socialist Union of Catalonia (or, rather, the Unió Socialista de Catalunya). Curiously enough, this page claims that Joan Comorera (whose first name the English Wikipedia left out) led both unions. Well, get your shit together, La Enciclopedia Libre! Which Joan was it? Huh? Fronjosta or Comorera? Well, seeing as how Comorera's page makes no mention at all of the UGSOC, whereas Fronjosta's asserts that Fronjosta founded the group, I'm inclined to believe that Fronjosta is being unfairly slighted over at the USC page.

You know, I think I'm much better qualified to discuss the merits and legacies of two Spanish Socialist leaders than any Spanish scholar, not despite the fact that I've never heard of either one until twenty minutes ago, but because I hadn't heard of either one until twenty minutes ago. See, I am totally free of any pre-existing bias towards one or the other. In fact, I'm devoid of any background knowledge on the men at all. Plus, I must admit, this did make for a pretty interesting learning experience. I might rethink my outlook on the subjects I formerly thought of as insignificant, because they do teach me some very interesting lessons. For instance, on the differences between the English and Spanish Wikipedias. Or about how the source by which one learns of a man alters one's perceptions of him. Or about how Joan is a surprisingly common name for Spanish males.