Teachers from the Massana school of art and design in Plaça Gardunya want the government of Mayor Jaume Collboni to return to the center the municipal offices of its former headquarters that were occupied on the night of Sant Joan 2020. It is the building painted pink in front of the new school. The last trigger for the discomfort of a large part of the cloister is the loss of some twenty pieces of their heritage stored in these spaces since before they were taken over.
As denounced by the archivist of La Massana before the Mossos, some boxes were burst. We are talking about plates, handkerchiefs and other commemorative objects, old professors' work of no outstanding value, but which are part of the history of this center in Raval. The squatters always told the teachers that they could come whenever they wanted to take what they needed, but the teachers later complained that they weren't given as many facilities. "When we arrived, this room was already very disorganized," the squatters reply. "We put a padlock and told the teachers to collect everything they needed."
The mayor's executive Ada Colau announced a year ago that he would cede these spaces to the entities that usurped them, since they carry out social activities in the neighborhood. The old Massana was squatted in search of space by people who distributed food during the hardest moments of the pandemic. But the negotiations between the City Council and the squatters broke down shortly before the municipal elections. The Colau government wanted to cede these facilities for eight years, and the squatters demanded 50, as in Can Batlló.
After the elections, the squatters made it known that they would not give up these old classrooms, whoever governed, that in the old Massana they would continue planning how to stop evictions, giving private classes to children in need, opening their gymnasium to the entire neighborhood... The transfer of the old Massana was approved in a plenary session of the district, they add. We will try to resume talks in September. We also have our weight in the neighborhood”.
The teachers of La Massana who are opposed to this squatting understand for their part that they cannot miss out on the change in municipal government, that the squatter-friendly spirit of the commons has nothing to do with the socialists' rejection of the squatters. In any case, the new executive is in no rush to deal with this situation. Quite a few troubles are outlined before the evictions of El Kubo and La Ruïna, on the other side of the city, in front of Bonanova square. Sources from the Ciutat Vella district, now run by deputy mayor Albert Batlle, also responsible for municipal security, point out that the City Council intends to reconsider the future of the entire Sant Pau hospital site very soon. The sources do not only refer to the old Massana, they also speak of the Rubió i Lluch gardens.
The previous mayor of Ciutat Vella, Jordi Rabassa, ruled out demolishing the wall of the old Massana that separates the gardens and the square. The squatters oppose this demolition because they would thus lose the patio where they carry out many activities. It is an old municipal project that was intended to unite and oxygenate the gardens and the school. In this way, the presence of students on both sides of the Gardunya would help to revitalize an area where mainly tourists and drug addicts coexist.
