Finally! We have the video summary of the third scene of
Bellvitge live role-playing
, entitled
Street Dogs
. The video shows, as always, not only images from the game, which was played on February 15 of this year, but also part of the research and collective work processes that make it possible to play each of the games.
This scene attempts to address in an open, complex, and critical way issues that, in a way, are taboo in neighborhoods like Bellvitge, while rescuing other facts that were equally relevant in the social life of the neighborhood and whose memory has been hidden, to a large extent, by the stereotypes that were built about these neighborhoods in the 80s. One of these facts is the cultural effervescence that was experienced in the Culture Classrooms, and especially in that of Bellvitge, where culture served as a form of democratic expression and taking of the public sphere. It is significant, and certainly sad, that the archive of the Culture Classroom between 1981 and 1984 is today “unfindable” (at least for us it has been).
Returning to the previous point, we think it is very important to take into account that in the 80s there were, in the working-class urban peripheries, several processes and social phenomena that must be analyzed together, and not as isolated events: on the one hand we have the relationship of social movements with the new democratic city councils that were formed, in large part, by people who had participated in neighborhood, union, and political struggles during the dictatorship; on the other hand, there was a strong economic crisis that affected, as always, the working classes; this crisis resulted in high rates of youth unemployment, and probably in an increase in crime, which coincided with the irruption of drugs; to these problems was added the collective —and interested— construction of an imaginary that demonized and stigmatized the working-class neighborhoods of the urban peripheries such as Bellvitge.
We believe that all these factors combined functioned as a social control device that deactivated to some extent the neighborhood movements and especially the generations that should have taken over. Let no one see conspiracy theories here: it is not about finding any dark hand, but about understanding the historical processes that shaped the landscape and the social, cultural, and political evolution of neighborhoods like Bellvitge at that time.
We hope that this scene will serve to promote debate on these issues and not to feed an imaginary that, although it may seem hard to believe, still persists in some people. Nothing is further from our intention. We hope you like it 🙂