I am sitting on a terrace observing spring in the city of Gaudí and Sónar. In the city that dawns at 6:26 in the morning on Mar Bella beach and goes to sleep at 21:09 in Collserola. The city with sea and mountains integrated by all its urbanites. With all the influences and crossbreeding, social classes, ethnicities and an inexhaustible cultural and gastronomic offer.
Barcelona, with poorly lit streets and a feeling of insecurity in some areas. Barcelona, with entrepreneurs from all over the world who prefer to earn less but live better. Barcelona, with a history lived and suffered by so many Catalans who have built an unstoppable city brand.
Barcelona, full of terraces and bars where we talk about life, where we have dates, where we build neighborhood and city brand. When they tell me that I don't seem Catalan because I talk to everyone, because I'm curious, because I'm interested in people, I greet, smile and look them in the eyes... I think we have to break this stereotype.
On this terrace where I am writing this article in the Poblenou neighborhood, people talk and look at each other. Barcelona has welcomed immigration, has suffered civil and world wars, has hosted great universal and cultural exhibitions. Barcelona is a cradle of art, of artists, of creativity. Barcelona has made a place for itself in Spain and in the world without being a capital.
Barcelona is up to Barcelona. Now it's up to us Barcelonians to be up to our city, with Roman, Romanesque, Jewish, Gothic, modernist, and Renaissance roots. Barcelona, which will be the World Capital of Architecture in 2026 and which has already hosted Olympic Games, universal exhibitions or the America's Cup, is doing well. We must be up to what it is achieving.
I imagine Barcelona feminine, powerful, friendlyI had the good fortune to interview the journalist Màrius Carol a few days ago and, speaking of Barcelona and its people, he quoted the Italian film directorFederico Fellini, who used to say that Barcelona was the best set for any historical film, because we had lived through all eras and a city had been built and rebuilt on top of another.
And bringing it to my field, I asked Màrius if Barcelona was a woman. And he answered with his frank gaze and radio voice that yes, Barcelona is a woman. She is elegant, seductive, tolerant, intelligent, a reference, and she is a city that welcomes. I like to imagine my city like that; feminine, powerful, a friend. And talking, talking, he told me: because Barcelona is worth it.