Castellbell i el Vilar
Castellbell is a village, one hour from Barcelona, in front of one of the most famous mountains from Catalunya: Montserrat. Castellbell has a very strong past in textile industry, and for that is divided in 3 textile colonies: la Bauma, el Borràs i el Burés + the old neighborhood, el Vilar. All these districts are separated by highways, which makes no easy to interact between them and to have an idea of city centre and sense of belonging. The challenge and pleasure had been then to find some heroes who could define the idiosyncrasy and be somehow known and respected all along. It has been a beautiful journey, and another way to learn a lot about the industrial Catalunya, the one from the mountains, and the strong but welcoming personalities of the neighbours. We pack our bags full of life stories, and we recommend to you all to visit the village and the drawings, since the moment you arrive to the train station
Joan Valls
A reuveure
Joan Valls is without doubts one of the most missed persons in Castellbell. He was a self-taught historian who investigated and documented, in a big number of books, the history of the village since the middle ages. To say goodbye, as a good atheist, he never used the classic form "A-déu", meaning " With God". Instead, he was using the form "a reveure", meaning " As we see us again". Hopefully.
Maria
Caramelles
The first of our drawings in Castellbell i el Vilar (Catalunya) represents a little girl with the clothes used for singing caramelles, traditional songs that used to be played by the neighbors in the street, in Eastern. The tradition used to be very famous in Castellbell, with 7 groups of singers, but disappeared a few years ago, despite the effort of members of the community to maintain it. The music of caramelles is old, but the lyrics are usually adapted to the reality of each moment, being critical and ironic. Hopefully, this critic spirit can be back soon to the village!
Margarida
Aquí i ara respiraré els aires de la meva infantesa
Margarida has been working her whole life in the bread oven from her family. She has been the fifth generation there, and she has won a big number of prizes and recognitions because of her bread. But, which makes her so special, more than the bread, is the way she has been always listening and taking care of all the clients and neighbors. Now that she is retired, she is waiting patiently for her niece to be the next generation working there, and open again the oven to continue the tradition.
Kuki
The dog
The dog in the picture was kuki. He was always wearing costumes that his owner, the guard in an small hut in the middle of the train rails going up to Montserrat mountains, was putting him. The train was stopping just in front this little hut, and the dog was there asking for some coins. That is the sentence coming with the drawing: "Now arrives the hut's dog, prepare your coins", which was written next to the dog always. The train to Montserrat is not doing the same route anymore since the mid 50s, starting the path in Castellbell, and the dogs are not any more there, but all the old people still remembers the sentence, the dogs and the owner, who disappeared mysteriously in the mountains.
Esther Oliveras
Teacher
Esther Oliveras was a teacher who developed very new techniques, learned in France, about music, critical thinking, and who detected cases as dislexia in young people for the first time. The sentence with her drawing, from a local writer, says: "and her guide was the appreciation", because that was exactly what she did with the students. She was an strong woman, the first one smoking, driving, and opening a lot of new ways for women and education.
Paquita
Woodcutter
She is a woman who was born and always has been living in the village. She was the lead singer in the local choir, dancer, painter, a great walker, worker at the pharmacy for more than 30 years and took care of both of her parents since they died, living with them. She told us that when she was a child she wanted to be a woodcutter, going with a big bag to the woods and saying the sentence going with the drawing: i am leaving to search pieces of wood. But everybody said that she had to be a boy for that, not a girl. So, she just learned to sew. For her, and so many women in this generation with the same destiny, this little homage.
