Memories of the resistance: the Flor de Maig
The story of the city of Barcelona can be told focusing on its modifications: its urban plans, projects and transformations, i.e., on what changes. But the story of the city can also be told focusing on what remains, through what survives, what resists on the great void created by the struggles over the territory. Some elements – parks, places, buildings, corners – as classic sociologists said, maintain an identity, some relationships, and an enormous popular meaning. This is the case of Flor de Maig, the emblematic building of one of the big workers’ cooperatives of the XIX and XX century, which conveys the memory of Poblenou: a memory of struggles and resistance. Since 2012, some residents recovered the building, and transformed it into a place of denunciation against the neoliberal direction that the city of Barcelona is undertaking, or, as their website says, to give an answer to the needs, the challenges and the unsatisfied desires of the contemporary capitalist city. Will they succeed?
- José MANSILLA (2013) “Nunca nos fuimos. Frontera, Memoria y Resistencia en la Flor de Maig”, Paper delivered at III Jornades Doctorals d’Antropologia Social. University of Barcelona, June 5th and 6th, 2013. Barcelona.
- Webpage of Ateneu Flor de Maig :: Video of the day of the reopening :: Photos of the centenary on the webpage of the Historical Archive of Poblenou :: Sone history of the Ateneu on Històries del Poblenou webpage: part1 – part2
- Isaac MARRERO (2003) ¿Del Manchester catalán al SOHO barcelonés? La renovación del barrio del Poblenou en Barcelona y la cuestión de la vivienda.
- On the workers’ cooperatives in Barcelona: Marc DALMAU, Iván MIRÓ, Dolors MARÍN (2010), Les cooperatives obreres de Sants: autogestió proletària en un barri de Barcelona (1870-1939), Barcelona: La ciutat invisible.
- Our researches on Poblenou (2006): “El Pla de la Ribera: el veïnat contra la dictadura” :: Entrevistes a Can Ricart :: Video “Des del Ressentiment o la batalla de Can Ricart” :: Mapa de afectació de Can Ricart :: More posts on Poblenou