We could baptize the last war of the Barcelona gazetteer as that of the saints. The municipal group of the PP tried yesterday in vain to approve the reform of the municipal way of changing the name of the streets and squares of Barcelona.
The trigger? the discomfort of many residents of the Gràcia district regarding the imminent change of the name of their streets. Because very soon Santa Àgata, Santa Rosa and Santa Magdalena will be renamed Agata Badia i Puig Rodon, Rosa Puig Rodon Pla and Magadalena E. Blanc.
“All three are roads located around the Plaza de Trilla,” municipal sources detail. The land was owned by the same family, that of Antoni Trilla, and that is why various streets in the area took the name of some of its members. But at that time, in the 19th century, public roads were not named after women, and for this reason those of saints were used. With this modification we want to recover the original names of these women.”
“And the affected neighbors don't have anything to say about it? If they really want to be democratic they have to have our opinion – say a few posters that have been visible on these streets for weeks. "Perhaps they are unaware that Saint Agata is the patron saint of women who suffer from breast cancer, of abused women and of all women in general."
The popular councilor Victor Martí stressed that the gazetteer of a city is always a reflection of its plurality and its history, and that he misses the times of Pasqual Margall, “capable of dedicating a square to Karl Marx and a walk to Juan de Bourbon". “With the arrival of Mayor Ada Colau this balance was broken. For this reason, we ask that all municipal groups have a representative on the nomenclature commission, so that it once again reflects all sensitivities." Those who have lost the most positions in recent times have been the military and monarchs in general.
The PP proposal did not go ahead because it only found the support of Junts and Vox.
Now it remains to be seen how the neighborhood unrest materializes in these streets of Gràcia. Oppositions to name changes of streets and squares are common, but many times they do not go beyond tantrums. Others, however...
Neighbors of La Duc, in Ciutat Vella, claim that they have already warned the district that if they finally change the name of the street they themselves will remove the new plates. “Apparently the file is already completely resolved.” This street will change its name twice in just three decades. What was once the Duc de la Victòria in memory of the general who bombed Barcelona will soon be called Josefa Vilaret, one of the protagonists of the great popular revolt against the rise in bread prices in 1789, better known by the Barri Gòtic as the Negreta.
Here on Duc Street, no one has anything against Negreta, but rather the inconvenience of changing the name of the street.
