Since last year, the ACG has awarded the Néstor Luján Prize for Gastronomic Journalism to recognize the work of dissemination and support for the sector and that this 2023 has been achieved by Marc Casanovas, a regular collaborator of the Comer La Vanguardia channel, who has been awarded for an article entitled ” The resistance of the last sung fish auction in Catalonia” published in Comer in July of last year. Casanovas has published numerous reports on good nutrition in La Vanguardia, in many cases focusing on little-known characters whose work contributes to a healthier and fairer diet. This journalist has recently joined the team of the NGO Justícia Alimentària, from where he communicates and investigates, and has published the book No sóc un dels vostres (ARA Llibres) focused on the figure of the chef Àlex Montiel. You can read the full article below:
The soundtrack of the church of Sant Joan de Montgat does not give rise to doubt. It is almost one o’clock in the afternoon and the white, sky blue and navy flags that hang in the streets of the old town denote that the hangover from the verbena will be eternal. The second peal of bells arrives and, with the reverberation, the starting gun of the last sung fish auction in Catalonia. Of the thirty remaining fishermen’s associations, Badalona’s was dying with this same system before disappearing in favor of digitization. But Montgat resists and has been left alone between danger and expectation.
Nobody is late here because a fundamental impasse cannot be missed: the exposure of the genre to silently gauge the quality, quantity and costs of the treasure that is coveted alongside the competitor. This time there was no need for a draw among fishermen to decide the order of the auction. Only one has been presented for the occasion; alarm signal in times of scarcity of fishing, yes, but especially of fishermen. The singing voice is led by Ángel Domínguez, who with the good help of Javier Matons in the management, auctions how little or how much he has taken in the morning with his boat from an increasingly sick Mediterranean Sea. “Is there someone new?” he says in his punished voice. “Is there someone new?”, he repeats, impatient knowing the answer. Wait a second more for the two shy to raise their hands and expose themselves to the eyes of the old people of the place.
In the Montgat sung auction everyone knows each other. The rookie gets caught up quickly by not knowing the paraphernalia of verbal and non-verbal language necessary to avoid getting scalded at the first change. Therefore, the fisherman shells without too much precision a couple of cardinal points to enjoy an auction without major incidents. “Let’s see… you pay at the last minute, not before. You can choose the panera that you like the most, okay? The cents are sung five by five in decreasing order before changing the euro unit. When the fish reaches the price you like, you have to shout “yo”. Then 10% VAT is added to the price plus 5 cents from the bag. In the event of a tie, I am the one who decides, ”he emphasizes. Ponytail soaked in salt water gathered up with a cap, a gold chain around his neck, a tank top, tanned arms with marked musculature and a loquacious tongue. At the age of nine, Ángel Domínguez was already treading the sand with bare feet to value the catches of the boats recently arrived from the high seas, and at fifteen he was already auctioning off before the public with amazing agility before becoming the senior skipper of the Montgat Fishermen’s Association. “It is the only auction sung directly to the public where prices go from top to bottom. This is National Heritage and it lasts! I hope a few more years”, sentence not without a bit of nostalgia in the last one.
A tense calm precedes the start of the skirmishes. Those attending the auction have taken their seats and remain deathly silent with their heads bowed. It is surprising how little gender is exhibited to the public, mostly male and elderly. This is a modest auction compared to photographs from twenty, thirty or forty years ago. The lack of fishermen adds to the fact that some prefer to go to the most important markets in the area, such as Blanes or Arenys, where they charge even more and without so much effort. In other words, every fisherman is free to sell where he pleases and the one who does so in the Montgat sung auction does so convinced that perhaps he will lose some money.
Half a meter from the feet, cuttlefish, squid, prawns, sole, red mullet, pruning, brecas, rats, blacksmiths, and brightly colored trash seek an owner without the presence of professional fishmongers or distributors. Everything is perfectly organized in wicker baskets on top of platforms covered from sunlight by a mobile tent. It starts with some formidable-looking prawns. “We are at 32 euros per band,… 50,45,40,35,30,25,20,15,10,5,…31 per band,… 50, 45,40,35,30 ,25,20,15,10,5,…30 the band… 50, 45,40,35,30,25,20,15,10,5,… 29 the band…. 50, 45,40,35,30,25,20,15,10,5,… 28 band, 95, 90, 85, 80, 75, 70, 65, 60, 55, 50, 45,40 ,35,30,25,20,15,10,5”. The sung auction reaches 23 euros with 20 cents. Cèlia Botes, one of the most veteran of the place and who never misses the appointment, takes the cat to the water and the prawns are hers. “I’ve been here for so long that I can’t tell you an approximate year. Let’s leave it to a simple “lifelong” ”, she says with a certain shrewdness and a clear mind. “I hope that the paneras drop to 20 or 19 euros to enjoy the best fish at a good price. Today I paid more than usual because I couldn’t wait any longer. The family comes to eat at home and I couldn’t miss those prawns”.
Cèlia Botes recognizes that you have to come prepared for this particular auction. “I go to the market and that is where I compare prices at all times. I know how much to pay without spending everything I know that he usually puts up for sale. As long as they keep coming, I’ll be here. I would be very sad if they stopped doing it due to a lack of fishing or fishermen. It would be a shame if this tradition was lost. There are hobbies of all kinds and mine is to go down here every noon. It is where I talk to people from other streets of the town. In addition, coming to the auction does not imply that you buy. I don’t leave every day with a sole in my bag. Pay to pay, that never. Most wild fish will cost me three times more if I buy it at the fishmonger, ”she emphasizes from her bench where they usually give her a privileged seat.
The sung auction continues slowly but surely. The paneras are emptying and finally the first conflict arrives. Two people sing “Yo” at almost the same microsecond to achieve podas (heels in Catalan). It is a flat fish from the sole family that is reminiscent of a piece of clothing and which in other Catalan towns is called tapaculos or tapacoños. “I first listened to the gentleman behind here, so I have to leave you without them”, says Ángel Domínguez looking towards the loser of the technical draw. Normally, controversial decisions are accepted without question, but sometimes the dispute continues and you have to play the bread basket to a toss-up or, if someone is very clear about it, paying an extra. “I have seen them of all colors and some fight has occurred very fleetingly.”
Half an hour later all the fish is finished. “The leftover trash is for the mother-in-law,” says Ángel jokingly. The attendees get up in order and pay in cash with notes scented with saltpeter. Unexpectedly, a last mishap arises with the last buyer who wants to negotiate the final price at the cash desk. “There are certain unwritten rules that must be respected. You can’t haggle over the price when everyone else is gone. No way! It would be disrespectful to all those who have come here today. The auction price is never lowered afterwards. I’m not going to tolerate it”, says Ángel forcefully. Silence returns to Plaça de Sant Joan, which will resume the auction the following day at the same time if the sea and the few fishermen allow it. In less than three quarters of an hour, one of the few living manifestations of Catalan maritime heritage that has remained intact since the 18th century has been staged. In other words, one of the most relevant activities of ethnological interest that must be preserved against all odds in the face of the general digitization of fish auctions and that must be known how to exploit it to attract responsible tourism.
This is how Laia Aleixendri, Núria Fernández and Alfons Garrido, authors of the text La auction cantada de Montgat: documenting the commercialization of fish for the Ethnology of Catalonia magazine, defend it. “Despite their plasticity, the strips of the markets are cold and functional settings. For this reason, the last sung auctions that are preserved in Catalonia, such as the one on Montgat beach, are like episodes of daily fishing frozen in time, whose plasticity and authenticity continue to attract the curious and nostalgic. In this sense, Montgat is an ideal observatory to discover the foundations of a method of marketing fish that in Catalonia has been radically transformed”. And the question is inevitable: Why does Montgat resist the imposition of digital transformation as the last village where traditional fishermen rule over the markets that move huge loads like in Palamós? “Montgat originated as a small fishermen’s settlement, initially depending on the municipality of Tiana, from which it became independent in 1933. Its inhabitants identify two very specific areas of the municipality: “the Montgat del humo” and “the Montgat del Pescado”. Both neighborhoods present quite different urban characteristics that reflect the balance between the entry of industry and chimneys with the survival of the seafaring trade and the activities that derive from it”, write the three ethnologists.
Thus, like the famous Gallic village with the Romans, Montgat enjoys a singular fishing essence that always has a last blow when everyone considers it dead. “The Virgen del Carmen de Montgat, Masnou and Premià de Mar Fishermen’s Association is one of the smallest in Catalonia. There has been a sharp decline in the number of fishermen (…) In the 19th century, more than 300 people lived directly from fishing; in 1987, the Brotherhood had 70 active members, and today the affiliates do not exceed twenty. All of them practice artisanal fishing, generally using the trammel, release, nansa and jig techniques”, says the magazine.
What the magazine could not know in its day is the updated data, since of that twenty it has gone to only two that keep the auction sung: Ángel and Salvador. If they fail, the auction is over forever. “I know all the townspeople who pass through here and their tics when bidding. Some more daring, others more reserved or conservative. I know which foot each one fits on. That allows me to mess around with them a lot, ”she blurts out as she makes a box by counting coins and bills. “Whoever comes to this auction has to come prepared, know the prices, the product, and know that the fish has to be cleaned afterwards; that this is not a fish market. Either you accept all these premises or better go to the market to pay for everything at double or triple the price. You don’t have this genre in the fishmonger because, except for the fishmongers that open a few hours in the afternoon, it means that everything is already sold a day behind.
This is what happens with most of the fish from Blanes or Arenys de Mar. We are the demonstration that it is a lie that there are no fresh fish on Mondays”. And he ends up summarizing the past and current situation without embellishment. “We were four fishermen with small boats. We didn’t fish much and the closest fish market was in Arenys de Mar. It was an environment that led to the creation of the rotllo or rotllana (round in Catalan) auction on the beach. The problem is that we are fewer and fewer because the profession is declining at a rapid pace. The winters are getting worse and you have to work hard for very little fishing. In summer the weather is more conducive and allows us to go out more. Young people think twice before becoming fishermen; they put sticks everywhere and everyone has to pay money. The expensive thing is not to maintain the boat, the expensive thing is to maintain the nets! And this does not go well every day. Before, the hake or sole seasons were very well defined and now they are not. There are days when you catch something and others when you don’t, which is why we cannot guarantee the auction on a daily basis and it is decided at the last minute”.
For its part, the Montgat City Council has had no choice but to get down to work. On September 24, 2012, the sung auction was distinguished as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest (BCIL). It was a first step to guarantee the conservation and protection of this activity, but more aid is needed. “Montgat City Council wants to declare this auction the intangible heritage of the municipality. The sung auction represents our essence as a town”, says the mayoress Mercè Marín. “That is why we are also seeking to encourage and promote the profession. Once the auction is returned to a more dignified space, the idea is to create a course to encourage interest in fishing among young people and even allow them to practice alongside experienced fishermen. Perhaps we think more about the problems of agriculture and little about the current moment of fishing”.
It is a matter of time before Montgat’s sung auction returns to the place where it should never have left. With the new works on the promenade, Montgat will be able to dignify the original enclave to give it all the importance (and promotion) it deserves, crossing our fingers so that the few Montgatino fishermen do not stop going out to sea to feed their neighbors. Because you never know… Sometimes something as inconsequential as a message thrown into the sea of ??Twitter can be an unexpected push. This is the case of Ana Casanova, Montgatina and cooking teacher who, with her periodic tributes to the sung auction of her town, manages to arouse the interest of the clueless and curious media that passed by where the noise of the Rodalies train muffles the sound of the waves.
