Here's how some rural Catalans champion independence from Spain

As the deadlock between Spain and Catalonia over independence continues to play out in Spain's large cities, support for secession dominates smaller agricultural towns.

TRT World's Sarah Morice finds a village where an underground-style resistance movement worked to keep polling booths open when the government declared the recent referendum illegal.

In Os De Balaguer village, two hours north west of Barcelona, a church bell-turned-warning bell was used to alert villagers that Spanish police were on their way to shut down voting during the recent referendum.

Farmer Jordi Fortunay was among those who ran a covert operation to make sure polling stations remained open.

"We organised a festival in the town square hoping the crowd would block the national police getting into the town hall. Worried that might not be enough, we then used our tractors to block the road at the village entrance," the farmer said.

Mother of four, Montes Aguilera also passionately believes the region should be independent. "I don't feel Spanish, I am Catalan. I know my papers say I'm Spanish, but I don't feel that in my heart," the Os De Balaguer resident said.

Against independence

But south of Os De Balaguer is the village of Batea. Although it is in Catalonia, it is also very close to Aragon – another of Spain's autonomous regions.

Here, some people feel nearly Aragonese as well as Catalan and that also divides their loyalties.

"If independence is done unilaterally many things could go wrong ... like trade. We depend on Spain for trade so independence could be bad for the Catalan economy. And our village is on the Aragon border ... what will we do about borders? All these things have to be sorted out,” the Batea Mayor said.

Rural Catalans are passionate about the independence debate.

And  those who have spoken to TRT World overwhelmingly want the issue settled once and for all by getting a chance to vote in a legal referendum.