María Cantón together with Alomar,C.; Cantón,M.; Decathalogne, G.; Díaz,N.; Esteban,M.; Homs,M.; Juyol,P.; Kaiser,L.; López,J.; Nogueira,X.; Soler,J.; Torrabadella,A.; Torras,J.; Ye Dai,C. Blanquerna students (Barcelona)
Group 34 of Blanquerna has done an exploration to know the other side of our neighbourhood: El Raval. Our walk began at ‘Carrer Tallers’, a street next to Blanquerna-Ramon Llull University, with lots of vintage and music stores. We have continued towards ‘Institut de Cultura de Barcelona’, to recognise certain cultural aspects of Barcelona that differ from other cities in Europe. The next stop was ‘Antiga Escola Massana’, a place where people without resources can take refuge in and socialize. Following, we visited ‘La Rambla del Raval’, which pretended to be the neighborhood’s centre, but is now acting as a periphery, due to the fact that the services and leisure that take place closer to ‘Les Rambles’. ‘El Lloc de La Dona’ was our next destination. Led by Germanes Oblatesa’s congregation, The Women’s Place (in English) takes care of women facing against tough situations such as prostitution or drug addictions. Before returning to where we started, we made a stop in ‘Braval’. It is an entity which gives socio-educational support to teenagers from Raval’s neighborhood. Last but not least, Enric Ordeix’s group arrived at ‘Granja Viader’, the place where ‘Cacaolat’, a famous Catalan’s chocolate beverage, was created.
This tour gave us another vision about the neighbourhood. Now, we are conscious about the polyphony of El Raval thanks to its study from three different optics: culture, economy and social. El Raval is a multicultural, open-minded and solidary neighborhood. For this reason, it is special and the world has to know it.
