Barcelona fans would say that they are, but then again, they have a much different definition of what constitutes Catalonia than others do. They consider the Comunitat Valenciana and the Baleares to be part of Catalonia, but valencianos and mallorquines do not. So no, Valencia's not a Catalan club. Neither is RCD Mallorca.
There's a question as to what "Spain" really is. Keep in mind, its current boundaries are largely a product of fortunate or misfortunate (depending on your outlook) wars in the early middle ages. The Basques, Catalans and perhaps even Galicians and Andalucians will give you a different answer to what Spain really is. Never mind that If not for a lost war in the 17th century Portugal might well be speaking Spanish now.
On our honeymoon, my wife and I stopped off in Valencia. The maps were all in Spanish (or Castilian) but the street signs were all in, well, not Spanish, not Catalan, but Valenciano (which I am told is more like a dialect of Catalan). Made it tough to figure out where we were going.
Valencians are not regular spaniards, but valencian. There is a unique heritage and identity to the state and region. I don't believe it's as strong as in Catalunya or the Basque Country. But Valencianos are pretty proud people.
And what is a regular spaniard....u keep chipping away at the "unique" areas...and there is no spain.
I think I can claim to be a real spaniard.....I have Castiliian, Catalan, Andulusian, Valencian, and Basque roots. Sorry...no Gallego...
We all know the country's made up of many unique regions. That's just what it is. If anything, it's hard to define what a regular spaniard is, because of those differences. There's a common heritage ... certain music, culture, food, art ... but the regions retain a lot of uniqueness.
I honeymooned in Spain. Every meal was incredible (though truthfully, we mostly had tapas). But the best meal we had was a paella lunch in Valencia.
Spain is basically held together by all kinds of guarantees and concessions form the central government. Cataluna is technically autonomous, for example. It's like a puzzle that all came together in the 1400s. Spain was only a generation or so old in Columbus' time. It was separate kingdoms until the monarchs of the kingdoms of Castilla and Aragon got married. These were the two strongest kingdoms in Continental Europe. This new kingdom then started building Spain by war and negotiations. I would not be surprised to see that certain regions' grants/guarantees from the central gov. date from this time. The next generation, Ferdinand and Isabella, cemented Spain and its new power. Portugal was just one kingdom that refused to join. This pair sent Columbus on his voyage and drove the Islamic Moors out of Southern Spain to North Africa...the same year! Little-known fact: their daughter Juana La Loca married Felipe El Hermoso, a Habsburg. This briefly linked the vast Spanish Empire with the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, together one of the largest in history. She was Juana La Loca because when her husband died she refused to believe it and dragged his body everywhere with her for a long time.
Their son Charles V came the closest to unifying Europe between Charlemange and Napoleon. He is somewhat forgotten today as his reign was the time the Reformation began. So the concept of the Catholic Roman Emperor being the secular counterpart of the Roman Pope became hollow. Charles not only combined the Spanish and German Empires, he also inherited the Burgundian holdings in France and the the Low Countries. He eventually decided that his empire was too large and unwidely for one man to rule, so when he abdicated, he divied the German and Spainish territories. Connections would remain, however, under the War of Spanish Succession, when the Bourbons replaced the Hapsburgs as Spainish monarchs.
I don't remember the name. It was about the woman in the tower when she was old and everybody said she was crazy and the husband dying of some disease from a Moorish woman or something like that.
You seriously have to! Is paella with beef (like in Argentina?) considered sacrilage in Valencia region? I've only tried the all-seafood one.