ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates activist Rossend Arús i Arderiu’s archive. Arús was in favor of a federation of states on the Iberian Peninsula and his archive shows an anti-colonial ideology and a discourse in favor of a sovereign Catalonia inspired by the United States struggle for independence. This chapter argues that, as a Catalan freemason and Republican Federalist, Arús looked to the US as a model for a Catalonia that would ideally be part of a federalist state encompassing the whole peninsula (including Spain and Portugal). Arús articulated ideas central to Republican Federalism and Catalan freemasonry through his activism. He was, as well, a central figure in the cultural and ideological exchanges between Catalonia and the Americas. The article analyses unpublished manuscripts and Arús’ Cartas a la dona, his satirical poem on the role of Spain in the US World’s Fair of Philadelphia (1876).
