Catalans voted today in a referendum expected to give more powers to Spain's wealthiest region and which will test the strength of the central government in Madrid that has backed the measure.
Five million Catalans are eligible to vote on a fiercely contested statute that has fired debate on autonomy in Spain's regions and reawakened sensitivities that date back to the Civil War of the 1930s.
The referendum is widely expected to get an overwhelming "yes", giving Catalonia, home to Spain's second city Barcelona, a greater slice of its income tax and more spending.
"In a certain sense, it is a coming of age, it is the day in which Catalonia can define itself with full consciousness," Pasqual Maragall, the Socialist head of the regional government, told reporters after casting his vote.
The statute has been the subject of bitter dispute between regional and national political parties for more than a year, centring on a phrase that says Catalonia perceives itself as "a nation".
Compromise on that phrase in the final statute was eventually rejected by both ends of the political spectrum - the right-leaning Popular Party (PP), which says it is a threat to Spanish unity, and the Catalan nationalist party Esquerra Republicana (ERC), which says it does not go far enough.
A "yes" vote would be seen as a victory for Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's government, seen as inclined to give more autonomy to Spain's already powerful regions.
The PP has accused the prime minister of selling out in both Catalonia and in the Basque Country, where the government aims to start peace talks with ETA separatist guerrillas after they declared a ceasefire in March.
Since the Catalan statute's creation, similar legislative moves aiming to confer degrees of national status on other regions such as Andalusia and Galicia have appeared.
The Catalan vote will also likely determine the future of Mr Maragall, whose regional coalition with ERC hit trouble because of what ERC saw as a watering down of the issue of nationalism in the final version of the statute.
Recent polls have indicated that a "yes" vote will win, although the level of approval and the participation rate will be closely watched.