The Barcelona of slums: “I want another life for my daughter”

Back in 2008 he had been a cashier for the Caixa Laietana. Now the windows are full of paint and graffiti. The door, wide open, shows Christmas lights, a few Santa Claus hanging on the wall already Diamata Gheorghe hugging Raisa, her 11-month-old daughter. There is also life in an abandoned gas station. Just open the wire and the canvas that delimits it from the street Lionela comes out whistling, a girl who shows with her fingers that she has already turned 3 years old. On an abandoned bank uptown two teenagers who bathe with hot water pots they attend the finest schools in the city. Some of these mothers knew Violeta, the mother who died last week in an abandoned office in the Plaza de Tetuan with her two children. And they fear that they will have to live the same. “We don’t like having to raise our children like this, but we have no other choice. I just hope they have another life other than ours“They count. The 656 adults and 209 children who live in spaces without an occupancy certificate in Barcelona cannot access social rental flats. They only have the right to live in pensions and temporarily. The steamroller of exclusion is relentless.

The trips to Romania are like little parentheses. His home, he says, is in Barcelona. Although it is an old abandoned bank office, with the electricity punctured and without running water. Diamata Gheorghe arrived in Catalonia nine years ago, then she was 10. “We lived in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat with my parents, and the school kids always laughed at us“He remembers.” It was not easy, we would go from one place to another, they always kick us out of the house“, he insists. For this reason, he explains, when he turned 14, he stopped attending class.” Now I regret it, but then I didn’t even want to get up in the morning“She returned to Romania and at 16 she was already married. At 19, on January 8, 2020, she gave birth to her daughter.” I realized that we had to go back. In Romania the delivery was very bad … and Here neither health nor school is paid, I knew that my daughter would have more opportunities“, he assures.

Borrowed Gifts

Now she lives in a bank that was occupied by her 52-year-old grandmother and her aunt, who is raising a 7-month-old baby and a 14-month-old girl. A girl who, according to Diamata Gheorghe, also has problems in class. “She doesn’t have any friends, they laugh at her, they call her ugly, Romanian …” she says. In this place, there are no men. “Husbands always end up leaving,” he says. All six of them live off their grandmother. She is the only one that has papers and receives a benefit of 600 euros per month. He is also the one who sells scrap metal, while social services give them 200 euros a month to feed themselves. “Between the diapers, the food, the baby food … we are lucky that the neighbors give us things for the childrenFor example, the high chair where the baby sits. Or the used toys of other children that will be Christmas gifts.

Raisa, the baby, has been detected a rare disease. He has one hand bigger than the other and every week Go to the Hospital del Mar specialists. “The doctors tell me that you can’t get cold … and we don’t even have hot water,” laments the mother. A dozen bottles of water demonstrate how the family cleans itself. “We heat water in the butane and pour it over ourselves with buckets in the sink,” explains the mother. When you look back, you don’t want your daughter to repeat her life. “I want him to be able to study, and to get married if he wants, and when he grows up”, He says. The mother dreams of working. “Whatever”. But he has no papers.

Occupy an abandoned gas station

The one who is already clear about what he wants to be when he grows up is Lionela. At only 3 years old, he speaks better Spanish than his parents, who are illiterate. “I want to be a doctor, to heal them all,” she smiles. She is disheveled and wears pajamas. “Today is a party, we don’t have school,” he says while playing with some chairs in the street. Say at least five names of her friends from school. But you can’t meet them outside of class. “We don’t have a home, we are not like them”, settle their parents. They look at her, and smile. “He’s very smart,” they applaud. None have a residence permit in Spain. Even the youngest, who was born in Barcelona.

The family explains that they have been living in an abandoned gas station for two years, and that at least they are registered. They paid 3,500 euros to live there. “If you want a roof, you have to pay yes or yes.” They have been prowling in occupied lots, warehouses or commercial premises. The father beggar in the city center and sells scrap metal. He says that he got the money to be at the gas station by claiming the one they had been charged before. Those who had put them in busy places where, after a few days, they were evicted.

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“We all think the same, that although these places are not good for our children, it is better than Romania. there are days when you can give them something to eat, but others there is nothing“explains a single mother of five who occupies a bank in the district with the highest income in the city.” Of course I found out about the family in the Plaza de Tetuan, they came from social services to insist that we be cautious ” In one room, he keeps scrap metal and appliances for resale, in another there is butane for cooking and heating water, and he expressly prohibits his children from touching it, he says.

His two youngest daughters go to a private school, in uniform. The older brother has given up and is dedicated to scrap metal. The youngest, at 19, wants to go back to school to complete high school. The third daughter, 18, dropped out when she got married. He now has a 1-year-old girl. The mother explains it from the portal of the old bank headquarters, fearful that when talking to the press (she does not want photographs) she may have problems with social services or neighbors. There are families who, after asking for solutions in the neighborhood, have to endure insults in the neighborhood. “I want a better life for them”the mother insists. Just a month ago she started a course to learn to read and write. Because he never went to school. He says it with his head down. Aware that her daughter is repeating the same wheel that she dreams of breaking.