Giving up the partying on Saturday night to get up early was not a sacrifice for the young people who had set their alarm clock this Sunday with the idea of ​​making money selling roses. It was worth the small effort to enjoy a Sunday Sant Jordi that has set a record number of people in the streets full of Barcelonans who decided to stay in the city and full of visitors.
The day began with a surprise for those who had managed to find a place in Francesc Macià square, one of the most sought-after areas of the city, in the municipal lottery for stalls. In its perimeter there were more than twenty stalls, where almost all had bought the roses at 1.20 euros and dispatched them between 4.5 and 5 euros, as a starting price. The sales would come depending on how a day progressed in which the endless queues to obtain the signatures of the most successful writers would only have a break at lunchtime, when the crowd moved to the most central restaurants.
At the crossroads between Francesc Macià and Calvet, Alexia Gazo and Cristina Villanueva, first-year high school students at the Highlands school in Esplugues, collected money to volunteer in the summer; the sisters Gala and Mireia Torres and Claudia Arcas, colleagues at Pompeu Fabra, still had to decide what they would use the profits for but they started the morning scared to see so many stalls, almost stuck together. “A rose for the most beautiful one?â€, an IQS student blurted out to a passerby from a neighboring stall. On one of the central sidewalks of the Diagonal, Martà Alsina, a primary school teacher at a subsidized school in Terrassa, sold roses for 30 euros. “They are kokedamas, natural plants that are cultivated in an artisanal way following a Japanese tradition.”
A few meters away, on the other side of the square, several stalls with different solidarity sales, from fresh roses and second-hand books for the Hogar de Maria to paper flowers made in occupational workshops for the Hetauda Family NGO, in Nepal.
Little bracelets with the sign, a lollipop for the purchase of the second rose, or the possibility of participating in the raffle for a stuffed dragon were some of the claims among so many sellers who need to attract attention. “Do you like water?†We read it on the sign at one of the stops and we asked Julio Durán, a law student at Pompeu Fabra, the reason for this claim. “To cause people to stop and ask.” We suggest you if you have not considered inviting to make responsible use of water in these times of drought and pick up the glove, delighted. The money he collects will go to visit the bride in Madrid. This is the second year that this student has set up a stall with a friend, who will arrive later on Monday because this Sunday he will work late. “Last year the hail fell on us and we were lucky that a furniture store gave us shelter in front of the window, which was covered.” This time they have crossed their fingers that it doesn’t rain and have bought half as many roses, just in case.
Very close to her stall, on Diagonal, Maria Ãngeles Recio works while three of her children eat a sandwich by her side. The fourth has remained at home, in Santa Coloma, where she works as a cleaner in an occupation plan. “Since before the pandemic I had not sold roses for Sant Jordi, but things are complicated, everything is very expensive, and this time I have not doubted it.”
Maria, Valentina, Ariadna and Ãgueda, friends from Joventut Les Corts, from basketball, have won 150 roses in an Instagram contest, for which a lot of people had to be tagged. They did not fall short and they have taken that extra that adds to the 300 flowers that they had already bought. Now the question is to sell them all, and if you have to put on a plastic dragon that they have lent you on which Ãgueda pretends to ride, that’s done. A few meters away we find her sister, Miriam Badia, who shares a table with some friends from the Infant Jesús school. They hope to sell everything in this Sant that at mid-morning was already announced as a record.
That old trick of getting up early to “enjoy” the stalls with books and flowers, recently set up and without people, stopped working this Sunday. Ask the Venezuelan MarÃa Elena who left Poblenou at eight in the morning, “seizing meâ€, thinking that she would be the first in line with her favorite authors. “What a mess. I couldn’t even get close to see their faces. I fled from the Ramblaâ€.
The Barcelona Urban Guard itself acknowledged to this newspaper that it was practically impossible to calculate the number of people in the center. One of the managers on duty for him and with many days of books and roses in his file assured this newspaper that the day unfolded very calmly and without incident. The 112 was practically silent and the vast majority of walkers had opted for the public transport option to get to the center.
Some stalls wore the indicative of unionized florist. Like the one run by Mariona Gentzen, on the corner of Aribau and Provença. His roses cost 7 euros “but they are of quality and are very well presented.” He says that after the pandemic the door was opened so that everyone could sell and, although for the members there is a protection perimeter of 50 meters, I do not say anything to those who get closer â€.
Most of the vendors, young students, had their sights set on summer trips: from those who will decide between Eivissa and New York based on what they collect, to those who are preparing an Interrail route or, like the friends of the Agrupament Creu del Sud , from Nou Barris, are already dreaming of some camps in Germany. Others, like Custo Herrero and his friends from Leinn (where they study entrepreneurship and innovation) did not hesitate to apply their learning and at mid-morning they changed the offer written on a blackboard, “a rose for 4 euros, 3 for 10 euros”, for another that has more successful: “Per culers 3 euros, per parakeets 20 eurosâ€. In a few minutes they have sold them all.
