I have relatives who live in Catalonia, though they aren't ethnic Catalans. One of them works as an education official in the region, so her view may be skewed,

I have relatives who live in Catalonia, though they aren't ethnic Catalans. One of them works as an education official in the region, so her view may be skewed, but she also has a view of the situation that others don't necessarily see. She believes there's a systematic attempt by the government in Madrid to minimize Catalan culture and assimilate its people into a single Spanish culture. The Catalan education system has repeatedly had funding and other support denied for Catalan language, history and culture programs. It may all tie back to money, but painting it as "rich Catalonia wants to not pay to support the rest of Spain" is a 1-sided view of the subject. It's also possible to see it as "powerful Madrid trying to protect its golden goose by actively trying to stamp out Catalan culture." Both have some merit. What's interesting is that my relatives believed there was very little support for independence before the response from Madrid. But now with their heavy-handed tactics (they witnessed the violence first-hand...I saw their cell phone videos), more people support the idea. Before the violence, as a non-Catalan Spaniard and an American she married who both chose to live in Barcelona for work, they both thought independence was a stupid idea. But now, as she put it, "I now feel that the government in Catalonia is incompetent and the government in Madrid is evil. If I have to choose between the two, I choose incompetence."