Two months have now gone by with the Jordis, as the public has come to refer to Sànchez and Cuixart, the respective presidents of the pro-independence organisations ANC and Òmnium, being held in preventive prison in the Madrid's Soto del Real jail, where they were first sent by the National Audience court judge Carmen Lamela, and then maintained following a second resolution, decided by Supreme Court judge Pablo Llarena. Sixty-one days deprived of freedom is a long time, especially so because the crimes that they are accused of do not form part of the real story of what happened for all of us who followed the events of those days - the protest in front of the Catalan Ministry of Economy - and, especially, do not match the biographies of both men. The first, a long-term activist for the cause of pacifism, and the second, an entrepreneur who has risen to lead one of the deepest-rooted cultural organizations in the country.
The 67th celebration of the Night of Santa Llúcia, the major gala of Catalan literature organized annually by Òmnium, held this year in Barcelona's Nou Barris district, was the scene for Cuixart's public reappearance through a written discourse that was affable, polite, committed and serene: "They will never be able to imprison ideas", said the president of Òmnium. A speech that was undoubtedly disappointing for those that hoped for hatred in the face of injustice to come forth from the mouths of the Jordis. Cuixart spoke about love, and recalled the people dear to him, the rest of the political prisoners and the youngest members of all four prisoners' families, his own children and those of Jordi Sànchez, Oriol Junqueras and Quim Forn. The ones who simply miss their parents and who, like us, do not understand why they are not here. They say they are well, but none of the four will be out of prison for Christmas.
In the case of Jordi Sànchez, after two months, we heard his voice from Soto del Real. Without images, which the judge has forbidden, the same as for the other imprisoned candidates who had requested the use of images in order to have the same rights as their rivals in the election campaign. The voice of Sànchez over the telephone from prison seemed to be a message from another time and technology. Almost without wanting, it took you back many decades. It was a stark message on the absence of freedom. Sànchez is a candidate and he asked for those listening to vote for the list led by Carles Puigdemont, but that was not the most important aspect. You had to hear it, to listen to it, it was like the "No-Do" movie reels: "Friends, I am speaking to you from the prison; I have been here for more than 60 days..." To hear how it all resounded from the jail: words like "dignity", his quotes from Catalan poet Salvador Espriu, his entry into an electoral list and his call to Rajoy to "remove his dirty hands from [Catalan] self-government" .
From the prison, Cuixart and Sànchez represented hundreds of thousands of people, more than two million, those who have demonstrated every 11th September in Catalan streets without an incident. The day after the Catalan election there will be many things to rebuild. So many, that it seems impossible the amount of damage done by article 155. But it will have to be done.