The house in which my father and his inexhaustible list of brothers were born, the same one in which his father came into the world and I would swear that even my great-grandfather, is on a little street that has changed its name so many times that I am not sure if it is still there. called Lluís Vives as he had been doing last week. I, like my aunt Conxita, the aunt Crunch, did, until the end of her days as an energetic centenarian, I continue to refer to her with her original Vulcan. I am going to adapt to the consistory changes in the gazetteer. Intolerable. Unwanted.
Close to La Perla, Congost, Cigne, Plaza del Diamant and next to “l’acera fina” (because it is one of the first to receive asphalt, this is what the old people of the place continue to call Abdó Terrades, which appears on Google Maps), Vulcano Street is, due to its ardent name and the history traveled there (very mine), my favorite street. The best of all the streets of this veteran Barcelona is in the deepest Gràcia.
In Gràcia, which is now fashionable, not only because of its famous festival – in reality, an avalanche of people from other districts who, apparently, cannot get enough of their own soirees, and of tourists who leave everything in a mess: do you like them? Have they said that anything goes here? – but because it is not known how it has preserved much of its charm. It will be because of its aroma of the town that was and that the few usual neighbors perpetuate. The lifetime. Those aborigines of the neighborhood who, like Tieta Crunch, do not learn the new names of the old streets or the constant changes of direction or stops with which they are torpedoed.
But there is a novelty that can with them. And the walls of their houses that are so barri are full of dirty graffiti. Dirty, not art. Since the City Council only helps to liquidate them if they carry intolerable messages (tourist go home is enough), the smartest aborigines of this harassed Gràcia begin to incorporate them. Of course they do not agree with the nonsense that they themselves add. But taking the risk at night with four painted expletives (they know they will fly away) is much easier than spending the whole morning (one more) sticking white brush strokes. Clean or have graffiti cleaned. It’s the big question now.
