Every Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m., we are reopening the History Workshop space of the
Centre d‘Interpretació de la Ciutat des de la Barraca
(CICdB) to all former residents of the disappeared neighborhoods of la Bomba, Can Pi, la Cadena, and la Sangonera, or other informal neighborhoods of l’Hospitalet, who want to share their stories and organize to recover and disseminate their memory, as well as to all those interested in the informal city.
In this edition, we have a couple of new features: on the one hand, the meeting place will be LaFundició’s space in Bellvitge (c. Prado 11, bajos ), and on the other hand, we propose to review the rural memory of the city, closely related to the informal neighborhoods and their inhabitants.
The shantytowns, in their urban configuration and ways of life, were more like small towns than the city itself. To a large extent, this was due to the rural origin of a large part of its inhabitants. On the other hand, the neighborhoods themselves were built on and surrounded by the fields that stretched throughout the
pla del Llobregat
, from Montjuïc to the river.
We understand that restoring the memory of the shantytowns also involves recovering knowledge, practices, and economies linked to rural environments, and focused on sustaining life.
Making memory is not a nostalgic exercise. The housing estates in which the inhabitants of la Bomba, la Cadena, or Can Pi were relocated were built on those same agricultural lands that surrounded them. And where those neighborhoods were located, we now find urban operations such as Plaza Europa and its surroundings (the so-called Economic District), which respond to a more speculative than authentically urban model, and which is intended to extend to Bellvitge, reaching almost the Llobregat River. There is Cal Trabal, the last agricultural area of l’Hospitalet. Its defense, for example, is closely linked to the memory and appreciation of the territory.
We will continue to promote initiatives launched from the CICdB such as the
archive
of the informal neighborhoods of l’Hospitalet, the
newsletters
of the CICdB (of which seven issues have already been published) that collect, among other things, the history of families from La Bomba, Can Pi, and La Cadena told by themselves, or
La Sardinada
, a festive and community gathering in which former residents of these neighborhoods reunite to keep their memory alive. We will be on the lookout to organize the fourth edition as soon as the health situation allows.
Come to the History Workshop, become a neighbor!