Citizen entities from the Barcelona neighborhoods of Sant Antoni and Fort Pienc want the city council to install Mortadelo and Filemón-style traffic lights on their streets, in memory of the recently deceased cartoonist Francisco J. Ibáñez.
A few weeks ago, La Vanguardia echoed the citizen initiative of a professor also called Francisco J. Ibáñez so that around twenty traffic lights in the city would incorporate the silhouettes of the couple of comic-book detectives, in corners that in some way they have some relationship with the artist. The government of Mayor Jaume Collboni thought it was a great idea, and soon he sent technicians to study where they could be implemented. Everything indicates that the first of these traffic lights could rise in front of the brand new Gabriel García Márquez library, recently declared the best public library in the world, precisely in the district where Ibáñez himself lived, Sant Martí.
“In the Sant Antoni neighborhood we want one,” says Lidia Núñez, from the Som Sant Antoni merchants association. It would look great at the intersection of Comte d’Urgell and Tamarit streets, in front of the municipal market, where every Sunday they set up the traditional stalls selling records, books, movies and comics, a lot of comics… and if it doesn’t go well there, Well, a little further down, between Comte d’Urgell and Manso, where stickers have always been exchanged… We already asked the Eixample district, and the truth is that they did not take a bad look at the idea. Let’s see what happens…” Many booksellers in this historic Sunday market also view the idea favorably.
“We also want one,” a member of the neighborhood association of Fort Pienc said, “specifically at the intersection of Gran Via and Castillejos Street. We saw him here from time to time, Ibañez, on his way to his house in Sant “Martí. In winter he used to wear a raincoat that was reminiscent of Professor Bacterio’s. This week we will deliver the corresponding request to the City Council.”
Yes, let’s see what happens, because surely as soon as they read these lines other neighborhoods in the city will be infatuated with these unique traffic lights. Obvious. Who wouldn’t want to live in the world of Ibáñez?, a place where after being burned you only have to shake off the ashes, where a truck can run over you without suffering a single scratch and where bald people are the majority.
