What It Feels Like to Make History

On Friday, May 8th, at 2:00 in the afternoon, the group of castellers of which I am incredibly proud to form a part, the Arreplegats de la Zona Universitària, changed the history of castells. That sounds overly dramatic, and maybe it is, but it was one of the more incredible experiences I've had, both here in Catalunya and elsewhere. In the best actuación the colla has ever had, we completed (descarregat) two castells never before done by university teams, the 3 de 7 per sota (lifted up from below) and, the biggest of them all, the 4 de 8. To round it all off, we also made a 5 de 7 (one of our best castells for the Anniversary in December, and now it was the smallest!) and two simultaneous pilars de 5. To try to describe to you all what it was like, I'll focus on the 4d8.

I think that the most amazing part of that castell, besides the fact that it was physically really impressive (and REALLY TALL!), was that it was a culmination of what, 13 years ago when the colla was founded, and even 7 months ago when I entered, seemed like a faraway dream. After our Anniversary in December, when we made a 4d7 amb l'agulla, 3d7, and 5d7, the tècnica (the team of people that directs the technical aspect of making castells) started to think seriously about whether we could do it. We had a general meeting - I think it was in February- and debated for a good 3 or 4 hours the merits and risks of aiming for the 4d8. We'd had a great rhythm for the first half of the year, and it felt like nothing could stop us - but of course, there were possible disadvantages. Aiming for the biggest castells meant a lot of work, concentrating even harder and having even more people at practices than in the fall, and sacrificing time that might otherwise go to training new people in smaller castells. Even though we would approach it with the same caution we always have, it could be dangerous - falling from the top of 8 stories of people is a long way to fall, and our top levels are heavier than the top levels in "conventional" castells of 8 stories. And then there was the question of how we would feel if, after all we dedicated to it, we just weren't ready on May 8th - would it be worth it to have spent so much time practicing if we didn't achieve our goal in the end?

After a long debate, we resolved that, despite the risks, the spirit of the Arreplegats was to aim as high as we could, and that all of us would regret it if we didn't go for it when we had the chance. With that decision made, we started down the road to the 4d8. We did our first trial run of the pinya during the joint practice with the Castellers del Riberal when we went to Perpinyà, the last weekend in February. Many practices, many trials of the pinya for the 4d8 and the 4d7 net (without pinya), much recruiting of friends and random passers-by to help spot, and many encouraging e-mails later, we arrived at the month of May. We had a week left: two practices. Time to give it everything we had. Tuesday seemed to be "Bring your foreign friend to practice day" - in addition to two girls from Sweden who had started coming a couple of weeks before, we had a group of Germans who had never come before, plus an entire section of "spectators" sitting on the grass, whom we kept trying to make get up and help us! My friend Vitxi even commented, "Are we in a tourist guidebook or something?? It seems like it, from the number of 'guiris'!" (Guiris = slang for foreigners). Happily, she quickly added, "Of course we don't consider you a foreigner anymore, Sarah!" I had to laugh. It was a good practice; we did the 3d7 per sota, the other big one we were working towards, complete for the first time, a 4d7 net up to acotxador (the 2nd to last story), and a 4d8 up to quints (the 5th story) with the dosos (the 6th) climbing halfway up, then coming down. We all left focused on Thursday, our last practice before the Diada.

By chance, I didn't have class Thursday morning, so I spent the morning anxiously awaiting 2:00. Happily, there were a lot of people at practice, both all of the familiar faces I expected and a good number of unfamiliar ones, whether friends who had been convinced to come lend a hand or legendary past Arreplegats who had come back to help with the final push. It was an intense practice, full of important trials, but we all knew what we needed to do. Several trials of the 4d7 net, the first a bit shaky but then improving, a pinya for the 4d8 that went up to dosos in position, 3d7 per sota up to the acotxador (2nd to last story), and finally the pinya of the 5d7. I was crossa in both the 4d8 and 5d7, meaning my shoulder was under the arm of one of the baixos, the people directly on the bottom of each column making up the castell, and I helped keep them in place and support some of the weight. Needless to say I was a bit sweaty by the end of practice! When we officially ended the practice, Kelet, our cap de colla, announced the program for the next day: we would start with the 3d7 per sota, if all went well go on to the 4d8, then end with a 5d7 and 2 pilars de 5. I headed off to catch the metro as everyone said goodbye to each other with a very loaded "Fins demà!" (See you tomorrow!)

I found myself at home on Thursday night at about 10, needing to prepare for a group project the next morning, but only able to think about what I would be doing starting at 1:30. Several people sent motivational e-mails that gave me goosebumps and really made me realize the significance of what we were about to do. I'll quote/translate a few sections, to give you the gist:

"We've got the technique and the force; let's take advantage of it and work with confidence... I think our only enemy on Friday could be nerves, so let's not let them get the better of us. Arreplegats have, throughout all of these years, overcome all the challenges we've proposed to ourselves and we've never stopped ... let's keep going like that. Let's make history."

"...And that's the Arreplegat spirit. Knowing that everything we want, with strength, balance, courage and sense, we can accomplish. Everything that we propose in this life."

"You dream this dream knowing that many have dreamed it before you, and that it's you, the fortunate ones, who will make it reality. All of the generations of Arreplegats are watching you, don't doubt it. Now, when the dream is about to take form, maybe we realize how incredibly grand it is, not only for the size or the ambition that it implies, but for the quantity of people who have dreamed about it and who in silence, maybe inconsciently, have waited for it for years."

"My position at the UPC allows me to 'legally' be an Arreplegat until I retire ... but I always said jokingly that I would leave the AZUs when my daughter joined the colla in order to avoid complicated situations at the parties! When I started in 1999 all that about having kids seemed really far away, but I've already started down that road and in less than 15 days there will be another project for the Arreplegats! Make me proud to bring to the Arreplegat family a girl who will be born in the post-4d8 era!"

And finally, from Paretas, a biology doctoral candidate who's been an Arreplegat since the colla was founded:

"Tomorrow is one of those days that will make us different from the rest of the mortals.

Because there are people who have enough with just dreaming, and others who really fight and persevere, to keep going upwards, keep going forwards...

And you'll transform with me these dry tears for the people who constructed the colla dreaming about tomorrow, building that to which we have arrived, that which makes possible the greatest, tallest dream..."

And so we arrive at Friday. I got there, to the Campus Nord of the Polytechnic University of Catalunya, feeling a mixture of excitement, impatience, and nervousness, telling myself that above all I needed to be calm. Finally we started, around 2:30. There were lots of people in the plaça, including members of conventional collas that had come to watch and a fair amount of press! We started with the 3d7 per sota, as planned. I watched from the outside as they raised it up from the bottom. It went well; a little bit slow towards the end, but we got it up, then closed pinya, everyone providing pressure to lock it into place, and it was complete. Descarregat. Celebration, everyone yelling "Un pis més!" (One more story!) I went over to talk to some members of Poble Sec who had come and asked them what they thought. They were impressed and congratulated me, but one of them said, "OK, you celebrated that one, now what about the 4d8?" It was yet to come.

We had to wait for all the other collas to take a turn, though it was hard to concentrate on helping them with their pinyas while thinking about our next castell. Finally it was our turn again. The baixos got into position and Kelet squared them off; I already knew where I went, so I stood next to Ubi, my baix. Just like in practice, we closed the pinya: "Contraforts, ens agafem! Rengles a tocar! Cinquena agulla dins! Agulles de davant i de darrere, dins! Altres agulles preparades... altres agulles dins! Crosses preparades ... crosses dins!" That was my cue; I got a firm hold on the bottom of the faixa of the contrafort, Pep, who went right behind Ubi, squatted down to go under the joint arms of the baixes, then came up into the center of the pinya, thoroughly squished between Ubi and his agulla, Adrià. There was some adjusting of positions, then the segons (seconds) climbed up onto the pinya. I heard, "Obriu mans!" (Open hands!), and then the feet of Paretas, who was the segon on top of Ubi, appeared on his shoulders. At this point I couldn't see anything but feet and the face of the crossa across from me, Ester - I was experiencing the castell through sound and feeling.

Terços (thirds) went up, they double-checked that the proportions looked good, then as the quarts (fourths) started up, the gralles started to play. I could feel my heart beating faster and tried to focus on breathing and supporting Ubi as steadily as I could. I heard someone yell, "Dosos col·locats!" Already?? There were only two people left to go up, Neus, who was the acotxador, and Núria, who was the enxaneta. I heard the trill of the gralles - aleta! Carregat! I grinned inside the pinya, but it wasn't over yet - now we had to get everyone safely down. Obviously I couldn't tell who was coming down exactly when, but I there was a moment that I think was in between dosos and quints (fifths) coming down when I heard people yelling, "Va, va, va!" (Come on, come on!) and everyone kind of squished together even more, and I thought for a second, "It's going to fall!"

But it didn't! Quints came down, then quarts came down, then everyone started yelling, including Ubi, who at first was shouting, "Be quiet!!", but then just started to yell in celebration as we all realized that we had done it!!! People started jumping up and down before everyone was even on the ground, and I actually got knocked over - it was the scariest moment of the whole thing, because for a second I was afraid I'd get trampled by the very people I'd just been standing under! But then Ubi was there shouting, "Help her up!" and lots of hands reached down to lift me to my feet, and then we were all jumping and shouting and hugging each other, and Kelet was crying...

And that, my friends, is how the Arreplegats made history. I'm still in awe with it all. I am so impressed with all of these people, with their incredible strength and potential, with their ability to believe in themselves and transmit that belief to others, and above all with the fact that I'm a part of them! When I wrote on my facebook wall, "Sou increïbles!" (You're incredible!), more than one person wrote back, "Sou, no; SOM!" (Not you're; WE'RE!). That's what makes me the most amazed and proud. As Vitxi wrote to us afterward, "History is, definitively, GREEN!"

Thanks to all for putting up with that long and somewhat dramatic chronicle - I hope I've been able to let you have some idea of what it was like. I'll leave you with links to the videos of the castells on youtube:
3d7 per sota: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UvTrHH0p3w&feature=channel
4d8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd7ogw-LJ1E
5d7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3aPWPqUccM
2 pilars de 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYUvJFhNrdU
And the hymn! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6CEir9xFA8

Salut i castells!
-Sarah