Barcelona Resists

Qui resistit, vincit. This quote from the Latin poet Persius is what gives me the starting point for this column. He who resists, wins. Resisting is not always the most adequate, easy, or comfortable option, but surely enduring the storm, the tempest, the waves, and the wind will mean that afterwards, in the moment of calm, we can analyze what happened, why it happened, and how to redirect the issue. We can apply this phrase to many facets of life, as long as resisting truly depends on oneself. On oneself. Resistance can be individual or collective.

We are in a totally polarized historical moment; we go to extremes, black and white, and now more than ever is when we need the grays. In this historical, sociological, anthropological, and vital tsunami, while some deny global warming, the need to maintain social policies, and the usefulness of implementing equality and inclusion policies, we must hold on, with a firm rudder, without looking sideways, with assertiveness and resistance. That's what resisting is about: not throwing in the towel, waiting to make a move when everything is calm, not in chaos.

Barcelona resists the very high price of housing, mass low-cost tourism, poorly managed immigration, the little use of spoken Catalan, the occupation of expats in certain neighborhoods, the installation of soulless large chain stores that force the cancellation of lifelong local and family businesses. Barcelona resists the low birth rate that makes it one of the oldest populations in Europe. Barcelona resists all this and more.

He who reinvents his business will resist, he who negotiates with institutions and politicians to regulate, he who looks long-term for strategy and short-term for transformation. He who firmly grasps the rudder of Barcelona's essential and differential values and accepts those that evolution and history propose will resist. Only then will we resist this storm of structural and fundamental changes that generate a feeling of lack of control and abyss.

Barcelona resists. As we entrepreneurs resist when it's hard for us to close projects, as we runners resist when we want to abandon the race, as mothers resist before reacting and exploding, as heels resist the day we have to walk in them, as we resist the silly joke and the mansplaining so as not to jeopardize an agreement, as we resist period pain and the hormonal discomfort that pursues us all our lives, as we resist having to resist. And one day that moment of calm arrives where you can dot the i's and cross the t's and make that change of course to prevent the direction from being lost.

Yes, today more than ever, resisting is winning.