[Battlemesh] building and supporting imaginary

[Roger Pueyo Centelles | Guifi.net]

Hi,

Catalan here. I only participated in the construction of a castell (not 
"castella", this is something else) twice, pushing from the base (this 
is called "fer pinya", sort of translatable as "help to build up") to 
keep the structure above compact and stable. A concentration and 
energy-demanding effort, like putting a routing protocol under test, but 
fun to be part of.

Pedro already gave a nice glimpse of what castells mean *nowadays* in 
popular culture. Men-only castells were a declining tradition only a few 
decades ago. As soon as inclusive "colles castelleres" (i.e., teams of 
castellers) appeared in the late 80s, the castells tradition flourished 
again and became an open, welcoming, family-friendly, intergenerational 
activity. This meant not only more fun, but also better castells. I 
think Catalan society learnt a valuable lesson from that. I found this 
nice article (in Catalan 
<https://revistacastells.cat/2018/03/les-dones-han-fet-els-castells-mes-grans/>) 
discussing it [1], which you may want to translate with your favourite 
translation tool.

Now, I'd like to bring the whole castells topic into the Battlemesh 
discussion. As you may imagine, the higher the castell goes, the bigger 
and sounder the base (i.e., the "pinya") needs to be. This requires lots 
of people supporting the tower from the bottom. Even in the most 
signified castells competitions, which occur regularly, it is *common 
practice* that members from one colla castellera (and also friends, 
family, supporters, etc.) help a competing colla castellera to "fer 
pinya" 
<https://castellscat.cat/ca/descarregar/fem-pinya/CCCC_Fem_Pinya_2019.pdf> 
[2], so that all the castells that are build during the event become 
more solid and robust. Isn't it the whole purpose of putting the 
protocols at test during the Battlemesh, to make them more solid and 
robust through collaboration of all participants?

SAX!

Roger

[1] 
https://revistacastells.cat/2018/03/les-dones-han-fet-els-castells-mes-grans/

[2] https://castellscat.cat/ca/descarregar/fem-pinya/CCCC_Fem_Pinya_2019.pdf

El 27/4/23 a les 22:07, Federico Capoano via Battlemesh ha escrit:
> We could have had this discussion before, but it's too late now to 
> change course on the logo and I honestly don't see anything offensive 
> in it.
> Having lived in Catalunya myself for some time, I have seen this 
> peculiar thing they do there, it's just part of their culture.
> Ignifugo, as you may know the local team are volunteers and they have 
> enough to do, try to put yourself in their shoes, they are doing their 
> best to deliver this event.
> I recommend sticking to the technical discussions which is what most 
> people in this community are really interested in.
>
> Peace.
> Federico
>
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