Showing posts with label Roser. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Roser. Show all posts

Friday, 28 October 2016

SOME STORIES ABOUT CAPITAL VICES: GREED (III)

Ration Card during the Post-War
November, 1950

She was a girl. She didn’t understand why her parents were so important for the neighbourhood. His father was a milkman; her mother took care of the little greengrocers shop.
 
She had learnt how to survive in the middle of a Post-War. It was a terrible age because the population lived under a great poverty and it was very difficult to get food and daily products. Her parents helped as people as they could. The neighbourhood had to share aliments and basic needs. Solidarity appears in the worst moments when the most important is not living but surviving.

She grew up and was a hard worker teenager who looked after her brothers and helped in the little shop. It was normal in that age. She was the girl of the family. The Post-War continued. Nobody hoped a fast final. Life was grey and lots of new neighbours arrived to the suburb. They came from Andalusia, Castile, Galicia, Valence, Murcia, Balearic Islands or Aragon. They were poor people who had lost few things that they had and had decided to start a new life in the Catalan capital.

More neighbours, same things to share. The dictatorship had established a new card to restrict the access to elementary aliments. Solidarity again and a great effort of every member of that community made possible the subsistence with the enormous collaboration of her parents. The little shop was the neuralgic centre of the suburb because it had a great objective: feed the neighbourhood despite of the dictatorship controls.

November, 2016
The Grandma in front of Roser's home

Today, she’s in front of the shop, where she has been living since she was born, 73 years ago. Times have changed. She’s looking at her home with pain. Lots of neighbours have wanted to stay with her in this difficult moment. She locks the door for the last time and takes her beloved things. She says goodbye to her home, her suburb and many years of shared experiences. A new project of the City Hall wants to destroy her home to build new houses. Wow! It's necessary to expel old neighbours to welcome new ones. It's a project of the City Hall. It's not a private project.

When The Antichrist arrived to the City Hall promised to help all people without distinction in their search of basic things: home and work. Some people, like The Grandma, didn’t believe her and they received lots of nagging and bad words. One year and half later, the city is a great chaos. All elementary things have increased their prices in more than 10%; social services don’t run with efficacy and there’s a great feeling of having been abandoned by the City Hall.

This is Roser’s story, today. This can be your story, tomorrow.

Ladies and gentlemen, enjoy The Antichrist and her new policy!

Thursday, 29 September 2016

TINA DISCOVERS INDIBILIS & MANDONIUS IN LLEIDA

Tina on the top of the Seu Vella main tower
Tina is in Lleida today. She’s enjoying the big party of the city because today is Sant Miquel (Saint Michael) one of the patrons of the city. Lleida is an old city full of tradition with a history of more than one thousand years. Since the Iberian tribes to nowadays, the city has resisted dozens of attacks and its population has survived to different invasions. 

If you go to Lleida, don’t forget to taste the most popular local dish Cargols a la llauna (grilled snails) and try to visit the most emblematic places: the river Segre, the Paeria (City Hall), the Roser Convent, the old Hospital of Santa Maria, the Sant Martí Church, Champs Elysees and especially, the Seu Vella, the most beautiful building of the city, an incredible cathedral built on the top of the mountain which was a mosque, a cathedral, a prison and nowadays is a cathedral again and a museum.

More information: Turó Seu Vella

Geographically, Lleida is located in the Catalan Central Depression and it is one of the oldest towns in Catalonia, with recorded settlements dating back to the Bronze Age period. Until the Roman conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, the area served as a settlement for an Iberian people, the Ilergetes. The town became a municipality, named Ilerda, under the reign of Augustus.

Indibilis and Mandonius
The history of Lleida talks us about Iberian tribes, Roman, Visigothic, Muslims, the Crown of Aragon, the Succession War, the Reaper's War and the Spanish Civil War. In all these ages, Lleida had an important role and today is one of the four Catalan capital cities but if there's a legend that all the citizens explain is the story of Indibilis and Mandonius the local heroes during the 3rd century BC.

Indibilis and Mandonius were chieftains of the Ilergetes, an ancient Iberian (pre-Roman) people of the Iberian Peninsula. Indibilis fought against the Romans and sided with the Carthaginians at the Battle of Cissa in 218 BC, when Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus fought them. Indibilis was defeated at this battle and became a prisoner.


In 217 BC, Indibilis had regained his freedom and, with his younger brother Mandonius, decided to harass neighboring Iberian tribes that were friendly to and in alliance with Rome.

The two brothers soon abandoned the Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio Calvus and sided with the Romans. In 209 BC, they concluded a treaty of alliance with them. They then collaborated in a campaign against Hasdrubal Gisco which ended in a victory at the Battle of Baecula in 208 BC.

Indibilis and Mandonius with their influence over all the territories of Iberia participated in a rebellion against the Romans but they soon realized their mistake. In a battle with the Romans, the Iberian tribes were all totally destroyed. Indibilis was killed in this battle and Mandonius escaped with the remnants of the army. He was soon given up by his own tribesmen and then killed by the Roman generals.



La veu Mandoni i les cadenes trenca,
i estén los braços de genolls alçant-se...
Mes ai que xiula la destral, llampega,
i un tronc desploma’s i una testa salta.

La mare al poble gemegant la mostra:
-Què has fet, oh raça de tants hèroes? Guaita,
 i a eix preu te vens a los botxins? Desperta!  
Venjança i llibertat!... I el poble calla.

Angel Guimerà, Indíbil i Mandoni, Mar i Cel