On September 11, the official holiday of Catalonia, la Diada, was celebrated as every year since 1886. . Although the party was born to honor the Catalan resistance of September 11, 1714, for a few years it has become an unequivocally sovereign party that may have a turning point on November 9... or not. In the center of hurricane Artur Mas , the man who can go down in history as the hero or the villain who dismembered Spain. And, due to those vagaries of history, another Catalan also surnamed Mas was one of the greatest defenders of the Iberian Union .
The protagonist of this story was called Sinibaldo de Mas , Sinibald de Mas in Catalan, and was born in Barcelona on September 4, 1809. He received a humanistic and scientific training, and from a very young age he excelled in the study of languages -he spoke 20 languages-. In 1834, with the support of the Bishop of Astorga Félix Torres Amat and thanks to his mastery of languages and his training, he was appointed translator and diplomatic attaché in the « question of the East «. Mas's job consists of writing dispatches with information regarding trade and the general political situation of the countries he visits, as well as the position of the European powers (France and Great Britain) in those places. The first leg of his diplomatic/informative adventure was Constantinople, from where he traveled to Beirut, Aleppo, Palmyra, Damascus, Baghdad and Greece. The next stage would take him to Egypt where the first problems begin to receive his pay from Madrid and he must make a living. Thanks to his knowledge of Arabic, he intervenes as a translator in some mercantile businesses and even collaborates in the construction of a poultry farm next to the Nile following an old procedure of local incubation that would take him to Europe.
In 1838 we have our protagonist in India, where collection problems persist and in Bengal he has to earn a living as a portraitist. During his stay in the Indian subcontinent he fell ill with dysentery and was convalescing for 6 months. Although still weak and with hardly any resources, he decides to continue his journey to the Philippines where he stayed for more than two years. Thanks to the economic problems that he continued to suffer, he had to dedicate himself to photography and in the Philippines he is remembered as a pioneer in the introduction of photography in the former Spanish colony. Of course, he had to live for several months on the charity of Father Manuel Bueno. Upon his return to Madrid in 1842 he published «Report on the state of the Philippine Islands» , a devastating analysis in which he advises getting out of there as soon as possible due to the economic burden it entails for Spain.
After China's defeat in the Opium War, and the subsequent Treaty of Nanjing in 1842, the Asian giant opened up to foreign trade. The rest of the powers begin to have their presence in China and the Spanish government sends its best man in these matters as chargé d'affaires and Consul General of the Spanish legation in China. Although the role of Spain will be secondary and our legation will be very modest, in 1844 Sinibaldo obtained the accreditation of the emperor and diplomatic headquarters in Beijing when only France, Great Britain and the USA had it. The diplomat's reports make it clear that Spain must increase its presence in the area, and Madrid reacts by appointing him Minister Plenipotentiary in China, based in Macao, in 1846, with the aim of establishing a commercial treaty with China similar to those signed by the European powers. years ago. But he holds the position for several periods and manages to create a network of consulates in Canton, Xiamen, Hong Kong, Sahghai, Fuzhou...
In 1851, on one of his many trips to the peninsula, he published «La Iberia. Report on the desirability of the peaceful and legal union of Portugal and Spain» , a detailed report of the political, economic and social advantages of the union of the two peninsular monarchies in a single nation. Sinibaldo became one of the greatest promoters of Iberism (Iberian Union), a movement that promoted the union of Spain and Portugal into a single political unit and made it a strong entity from the political, economic, social and cultural points of view. In addition, he provided the banners of the new nation:the shield would be that of Spain and Portugal united and the flag would have the colors white, blue, red and yellow.
In 1868 he died while performing diplomatic duties for the Portuguese government in China. Despite dedicating his life to diplomacy and "selling the Spain brand", he still had time to publish several works: Aristodemus or Nicaea , Musical system of the Spanish language , La Chine et les puissances chrétiennes , Art of writing in Spanish letters , Art of writing English letters …
Sources:University of Navarra, Perched on the net
Image:Flickr