Emotional award ceremony for the Ramblista de Honor 2022. The brand new Saló de Cent of the Barcelona City Council was once again the chosen setting this Monday night for the Amics de La Rambla association to distinguish three people and entities that have contributed to promoting the most universal promenade in the city of Barcelona, in an event that also marked the end of the Fiestas del Roser and the Fiesta Mayor de La Rambla.
The award winners of the 61st edition of this recognition have been the Pompeia bookstore, the Barcelona Maritime Museum and the architect Juli Capella, of whom the jury highlighted "his professional career, his mastery and his critical commitment to the city". "I have been a rambleador since I was little, La Rambla gives life," said Capella, born on Riera Alta street in Raval and who dedicated the award to his mother.
Especially significant was the testimony of the owner of the Pompeia bookstore, Montserrat Martí, happy to receive this recognition in the year of celebration of the centenary of this establishment. The jury highlighted "the long history, the great connection with the neighborhood and the relevant role that this bookstore has in the dissemination of culture in Ciutat Vella".
"When my grandfather, a book lover from Sant Hipòlit de Voltregà, founded the store, there were already twelve bookstores on La Rambla; but today we are the only ones left!" Martí stated emotionally. The owner of the Pompeia bookstore has expressed her firm intention to continue resisting ---"we will fight stubbornly," she said---, and has shown nostalgia for "La Rambla of the past" that she still has etched in her memory. "We are stubborn and hardworking, we will move forward, but I ask the people of Barcelona to set up businesses like ours again on La Rambla," she added.
Of the Maritime Museum, the jury wanted to recognize "its fundamental role in the dissemination of maritime culture in Barcelona and its connection and generosity with the neighborhood entities". The award ceremony was led by a representation of the municipal government and by the president of the Amics de la Rambla association, Fermín Villar, and included the intervention of the director of Citizen Relations of the Casal dels Infants del Raval and author of the book El cel té pigues!, Enric Canet.
In his speech, Villar has asked all political parties to include in the electoral programs for next year's municipal elections the commitment to shorten the execution period of the works on La Rambla, which have just started this month after long years of waiting. The president of the entity considers the planned 8-year construction schedule "excessive" and has demanded that the City Council "not seek excuses in economic availability."
Fermín Villar has urged Barcelonans to reclaim "a promenade that is unique and inimitable" and has asked them "not to be carried away by sensationalist clichés." "We want La Rambla to stop being a border and become a hinge. Let's take care of it because, in the end, we are all ramblistas," he emphasized. Villar has also called for a Rambla "full of flowers" and recalled that Amics de la Rambla will not relent in working intensely to improve this public space. "We are constructive critics and will continue to be an insistent nuisance for the politicians who govern us," he concluded.
For his part, the first deputy mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, stressed that La Rambla "is everyone's heritage, the best promenade in the world" and welcomed the start of the reform, although he acknowledges that "the works are late." "I propose reaching the necessary consensuses to renew a new commitment of the city with La Rambla. A new stage begins that we must know how to take advantage of," he pointed out.