

A little less than a month that a group of villagers decided to squat the property owned by Industrial SA Roigé to make a self-managed space, which opened on Saturday 28 January

it’s the 6th ofJanuary afternoon and in Calella, a seaside town near barcelona, , there are hardly any cars or people on the street. When temperatures drop, tourism vanishes and the streets are dead….The abandoned Hotel Gaviota at some point had 3 stars but for more than ten years it’s been semi abandoned. On one of the walls a sign announces that on Saturday 28 January it transforms into the Autonomous Social Center LA BRUNA !!.

see also> KAN BICI RURAL SQUAT CENTER STILL SURVIVES… JUST



A little less than a month ago a group of villagers decided to occupy this space owned by Industrial Roigé SA to make “an alternative space and really set apart from the institutional context in the village of Calella, “says Lola, one of the project participants. The work of adapting the space does not stop at any moment.

see also Can Sanpere: Biggest ever 9,000 m3 Squat by 21 Collectives faces eviction/demolition https://thefreeonline.wordpress.com/2017/01/05/biggest-ever-9-5…ter-faces-attack/ “We work without reference or history. Getting people to remove their stereotypes is complex as it is a squat and construed in their imagination in a different way, integrated into the local reality,, “says Lola. After squatting they have not had much trouble with the police or the property owner beyond the normal denunciation to the police and the forced identification by the Mossos Catalan police of a girl who was participating in the workshops, they say. A main axis of the space is tackling gender from a feminist perspective. “Most of the people who are part of the squatting women,” explains Lola The name Bruna is female of course, and the role of these in the space seems very important. We are all aware of our bodies and he role of gender means a lot to us, “explains Lola.

Canvas cloth, bottles and iron occupy what is seems to have been a bar. As they explain, the first objective is to rehabilitate the first of the four floors and make it accessible for people with reduced mobility.

The idea of inclusivity is the most stressed , says Lola: “we want to have a place also with animals. We talked a lot about the issue of children, because many of us are in the world of entertainment and we believe it is important to have a space where kids can participate and parents have a place where they can go with them. ” Within this vision, we also emphasize that this is a non smoking vegan space.

The outdoor patio is the point of contact with the street and the neighbors and for now, they say, the relationship is good, “in fact, the neighbor next door is the daughter of the family who built the the hotel has a pretty good relationship. ” explains Lola, who stresses the desire to maintain good ties with the neighborhood.

More important still is giving care and the emotional component “has been treated very early on in the Sunday assemblies so that we all we feel comfortable when making decisions, “La Bruna is more than a political project separate from the personal, it has become a personal and political project where we feel comfortable. ”

translated from Radio Calella and La Directa with thanks

see also

La Chispa! (The Spark): Rural Occupied Social Center resists Capitalist Speculation Eviction https://thefreeonline.wordpress.com/2016/12/31/la-chispa-resist…ulation-eviction/

original en català

La Bruna: un hotel okupat al cor de la Calella turística