Posted: Wednesday, March 25, 2015 12:00 am

By GEMMA BUSQUET RAICH | 5 comments

I’m a 16-year-old exchange student from Barcelona (Catalonia) attending Jenks High School.

The first question everybody asks me when they realize I’m an exchange student is: Where I am from?

I always answer, Barcelona, Catalonia, which is officially in Spain. When they ask me if I mean Spain, I always say, “no.” I am from Catalonia, and there is a big reason, which is related to the plane crash in France.

I want my American friends to understand why Catalonia wants to be independent from Spain. I saw some tweets by Spanish people saying things like:

“I’m OK with the plane crash as long as there were some Catalans on it.”

“I hope that plane killed some French too!”

“Come on, there’s no need to be dramatic, there were Catalans on the plane not humans.”

“Plane full of Germans and Catalans crashed in France, win win win.”

There were 151 passengers, 16 were 15-year-old students from Germany. It’s always sad when a tragedy like this happens, but there are people who don’t care about the 150 people who died, who don’t care about the parents of the German students who will never see their kids again.

Those people don’t care that people have lost siblings, parents, daughters, sons or friends. They are so stupid. Even on such a sad day, they started to post tweets about how glad they were that most of the people who died in the plane were Catalans.

Would you like to be in a country with people who have this kind of hatred against you? Against your people? Just because you speak a different language and you have a different culture? Would you like to be in a country where on such a sad day those people show no respect for the people who died in that plane?

This is not just about their hate against Catalonia; this is also extremely disrespectful against the people who died on that plane. And their families.

I’m ashamed that my passport says I’m from Spain, and I think now you can understand why. I don’t claim that all the people from Spain are like the monsters who posted those tweets. I’m sure there are people from Spain who are also ashamed, and I’m sorry for them.

For this reason and a billion more, I’m not from Spain, I’m from Catalonia today, tomorrow and always. The Spanish government might say I’m from Spain but I cannot be forced to be something I’m not. Peaceful Catalans are going to change that. We are going to be independent.

Gemma Busquet Raich is an exchange student from Catalonia attending Jenks High School.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/opinion/readersforum/gemma-busquet-raich-i-m-from-catalonia-today-tomorrow-and/article_37d6a762-ca38-5f14-b89e-7708d16957ff.html