My name is José Antonio Donaire (44) and I am a geographer. I live on the Costa Brava where I have the good fortune to hear the sound of the waves every morning. Everyone thinks they live in the best place in the world, but in my case I really think it’s true.

My grandparents, my parents, my brothers and my uncles are all teachers. I am too. My passion is teaching and research. I work at the Faculty of Tourism at the University of Girona and I am the director of INSETUR, the Institute of Tourism Studies. I like studying tourism but even more than that, I like being a tourist.

For me happiness is flying somewhere new.

Before working at the University, I was a waiter, a chef, an accountant, and … a politician. Yes, we all have a past. Besides being elected councillor in the city council, I have been an MP (Member of Parliament) in the Parliament of Catalonia for two terms.

I trust in the possibilities of social networks and collaborative intelligence. In the Catalan Parliament, I stood for deliberative politics. At the university, I try to apply the concept of university 2.0. In addition, I manage several blogs, and I am very active on social networks.

I don’t t care much about debating borders. I’m more interested in what Catalonia can bring to the world and what we can learn from it.

I believe in contact and exchange opportunities.

Hi everyone!

My name is Violeta Camarasa (@VioletaCamarasa), I’m 31 and I’m a communication consultant with a passion for the Internet. I’m from Valencia, we speak Catalan there too and many of us feel culturally attached to Catalonia where I currently live.

I believe the Internet represents a communication and knowledge revolution that will entirely transform the world as we know it. I guess that’s the reason why I joined Global Voices Online, an international community of bloggers linking citizens from all over the globe, and became the editor of the Catalan version.

At Global Voices we build bridges between cultures. And that’s what we did on 11 September 2012, when Catalonia celebrated its National Day with a huge pro-independence rally that brought together 1.5 million people. I didn’t sleep a wink that day: I was based in Hong Kong (China) by that time, so I had to ignore the clock in order to cover the protest online.

That day we published a post explaining what was happening to the global audience, which was translated into 8 languages, Chinese and Macedonian among them. Then, I spent the night live translating tweets from the participants in the rally and calling the media attention. Our efforts had good results: some days after that, Al Jazeera’s TV show The Stream broadcasted a debate on the issue.

I’m devoted, both personally and professionally, to take the most out of the opportunities that the Internet offers for global communication. After several years working for communication agencies and two years studying and working in Hong Kong, now I’m based in Barcelona, where I’m starting my own business as a freelance with a focus on digital communication strategies and international communication projects.

This week on @CatalanVoices, I’ll be sharing links and thoughts both on the dynamic Catalan blogosphere, the general communication landscape and my daily tasks at Global Voices Català (@GlobalVoicesCat). Hope you’ll find them interesting!

Hello everyone, my name is Montse Gimferrer and I was born in Girona area in 1964. My background was a typical middle class with a lot of artistic and creative vibes around the house which helped me decide to take on to Fine Arts university studies and Graphic Design. I worked in many graphic design studios in Barcelona and had all kinds of jobs, as you do when you study and you are not very rich, from restaurants to coffee shops and a few more.

But I had trouble with drugs that affected my life so I had to change. That is when I packed my bags and went to England to a treatment centre and I didn’t even speak a word of English, just the Beatles titles, that was as far as I understood!

At first I wanted to stay a couple of months and go back to Catalonia but, as you know, one thing led to another and now I have been living in the UK for almost 20 years! I changed completely, 360 degrees as you say. I went to a treatment centre and after that all my priorities had changed. They have been not so much about work drive and relationships but more about having a healthy relationship with myself and those around me and be happy. I took on many volunteering jobs in places like Oxfam shops and currently I work at the Citizens Advice Bureau as a Gateway Advisor.  In between, I have also done shares in schools about my addiction and recovery, I have worked as a simultaneous translator in international conventions and I do try to help as much as I can with people with the same problems as mine.

I have three children now and I am married! I think that leaving your country for whatever reason makes you twice as loving towards everything you left behind. In my case, I missed everything, and I still do. I miss the sense of humour, the laid-back days, the food and the outgoing character of Mediterranean people. I miss the arts dearly, so this is why I speak to my kids in Catalan at home. They know about Catalonia, specially the Catalan culture which has been given freely to me by my family and friends.

I often talk to my father about our current situation in Catalonia but this has been an ongoing issue since I was born. Hence, my name, Montserrat, the patroness of Catalonia; and my brother is called Jordi, I mean how much more patriotic can you be? It has been like this in our family since day one.

It is a huge privilege for me to be part of this project and I am humbled to have my name among those people whose opinion I rate highly and from whom I learn on a daily basis. At home, we talk about Catalonia, so much so that my English husband knows more about Catalonia than myself, which is embarrassing :).

I am basically looking forward to sharing and interacting with everyone! Twitter makes me feel close to home and I am more in tune with Catalonia than England! This is exciting!  I have butterflies in my stomach thinking about forming part of this project!

My name is Anna and I was born in Barcelona in 1968. I studied in Catalonia until I went to High School. At that point I moved to Oregon and  started to get in touch with American culture. After graduating at Glendale High School I went to college where I learned to love journalism and discovered how different Catalan culture was (and is) from the Spanish one.

At that time I began to introduce myself as a Catalan, not Spanish, something I’ve been doing since then, explaining to everybody my homeland, my language and my culture. I also discovered what was interesting and surprising about my country for those who didn’t know anything about it.

After finishing my degree in Education and Pedagogy I started my struggle for the rights and freedoms of my country. I also went to the Balearic Islands University to learn about Catalan language and culture (surprisingly I was taught in Spanish because Catalan was not permitted) despite Catalan always being the  language of everyday use within my family. It was there that my passion for languages and communication started. Studying became a passion too: I was an unregistered student of Anthropology while, at the same time, studying Philology and working as a teacher. Finally I ended up specializing in communication skills used by human beings. I finished my Master’s degree in Marketing and Communication and continued my postgraduate studies in the field of Information Society and the new, emergent technologies.

My whole career has been concerned with communication, an area that I love. Obama made me discover new aspects of communication. I took part in his first campaign which brought me knowledge that would have been really difficult to learn in college.

A few years ago, together with several people, I started the project of Help Catalonia. Our aim was to let the world know what was going on in Catalonia as well as offering a different vision from the one given by the Spanish authorities and media.

I speak Catalan (my mother tongue,  the language I use with my two kids, the language I love and in which I express my feelings), as well as Spanish (which I learned in school and watching TV when I was a little girl) and English (which I learned in my second homeland, Oregon). I also have basic notions of Basque, Italian and French.

I do love politics (even though I have never been an active member of any political party), communication, gardening and keep on learning all the time. My personal Twitter account is @AnnaAroca