Viento de grop

"'Viento de grop' is a chronicle of a specific time and place—the 1950s and 60s Costa Brava—testifying to a changing reality that risked disappearing."

Aurora Bertrana (1892-1974) was an atypical and unconventional figure in Catalan letters, known for her independent spirit, adventurous life, and profound commitment to women's rights and social change. Viento de grop (Stormy Wind), published in 1967, is a pivotal work born from a promise to fellow writer Caterina Albert. It critiques the burgeoning mass tourism on the Costa Brava and its multifaceted impact on the traditional fishing communities of Catalonia.

The novel, set in the fictional town of La Cala, is divided into two parts, depicting the initial arrival of tourists in the 1950s and the subsequent overwhelming impact of the tourism boom in the 1960s. It explores themes of generational conflict through characters like Rafel, a young fisherman yearning to escape tradition, and his father Met, resistant to change. The narrative highlights the clash between the liberal customs of foreign tourists (like Mabel, the English visitor) and the strict, traditional values of the local population.

Bertrana, a committed feminist, uses the novel to expose the pervasive machismo and double standards of Francoist Spain, where foreign women were seen as sexually available while local women faced severe moral scrutiny. The work also poignantly details the erosion of Catalan language and cultural identity under the twin pressures of Francoist repression and mass tourism's homogenizing effects.

This Stockcero edition, expertly introduced by Silvia Roig, captures Bertrana's distinctive voice, with her direct, colloquial, and often ungrammatical (deliberately so) Catalan, reflecting the authentic speech of the Ampurdán region. It also critically analyzes the commercial film adaptation, La larga agonía de los peces fuera del agua (1970), which significantly distorted Bertrana's sharp social critique. Viento de grop remains a crucial text for understanding the socio-economic and cultural transformations of 20th-century Spain, offering a powerful, early critique of mass tourism and its enduring consequences.

ISBN: 978-1-934768-04-3

Pages: 232 (In Spanish)

Editor: Silvia Roig

Price (Print): $43.90

Price (Evaluation): $28.54

Price (Online): $9.99

By Aurora Bertrana

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