CNT union of Barbers of Barcelona. “At last we are free!”
Category Archives: Barcelona
Barcelona market bombed
Barcelona 1938 David Seymour. I’m not sure if that is the Boqueria market or Barceloneta market. If the latter it would make it 18 September 1938 on which more than 40 people were killed. Sant Antoni market was also hit. Original here at Magnum.
Marina Ginestà in colour
A colourised version of the famous and iconic Marina Ginestà photo standing on the roof of the Hotel Colón in Plaça Catalunya on 21 July 1936. In fact she was never a militia fighter. She worked through the war as a journalist and as an interpreter for the Soviet correspondent Mijaíl Koltsov. This colourised version of Hans Gutmann (Juan Guzman)’s original is by Jared Enos. Great job and gives impression of photo a little overexposed due to the sunlight which adds authenticity
Sant Felip Neri bombing
Another tragic Barcelona anniversary today. 77 years ago two fascist Italian bombs fell on the Sant Felip Neri church and square and killed dozens of people, mainly orphaned children from Madrid who had sheltered here.
Marina Ginestà RIP
Sad to announce that Marina Ginestà, the woman in the iconic photograph by Hans Guttman of the Colón Hotel in July 1936, died last week in Paris aged 94. I would have loved to have met her. La Vanguardia.com
Anti-fascist mural, Clot, Barcelona
Brilliant new mural in Clot, Barcelona “Fascism never again” by artist Roc Blackblock using two famous photos of the the war. It seems it was defaced yesterday (“never” crossed out) but is I believe being restored. Thanks to Steve Cedar for making me aware of this. Must go and see it. Location: Carrer de Bilbao with Rambla de Guipúscoa. Subtitled with “A people which forget its history is condemned to repeat it”.
Isidre Nonell “Returned Soldier from Cuba on the Quay”
Isidre Nonell “Returned Soldier from Cuba on the Quay” (Repatriat de Cuba al moll) Barcelona 1898, after the loss of the Spanish colony of Cuba the same year. The lighthouse in Barceloneta is still there.
Augustí Centelles on Orwell
Classic photo by Augustí Centelles of the POUM militia at the Lenin barracks in Barcelona probably in early January 1937. Note a certain tall Englishman at the back.
Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia
Demonstration in France, Paris I think, denouncing the judicial murder of the founder of the Modern School the libertarian thinker Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia. He was executed in Montjuic Castle, Barcelona for his alleged role in the 1909 Tragic Week, though he was almost certainly innocent There were also large protests in London and elsewhere.
The United New School Board
One of the revolutionary changes in Catalonia during the war, was the establishment of the CENU (Consell de l’Escola Nova Unificada) school board on 27 July 1936 which provided free, secular, mixed education for ALL, including to my knowledge the creation of the first free public nurseries in Spain.
We could do with going back to this universal system today, instead of the elitist public/semi-private/private modal which dominates today in Catalonia.