The neighbourhoods of barracas were usually in areas that were not considered as constructable and the conditions of living were extreme. Isolated from main institutions, and neglected by the municipality people in barracas lived usually in precarious settings : overpopulation, no access to water and electricity, inexistent sewer ... the sanitarian conditions were deplorable.
In 1923, in the weekly publication Justícia Social, Emili Mira coined the term barracòpolis (shantyopolis):
“ Toilets and even water itself are all but unknown in Shantyopolis. Many people suffering from illnesses live together with the other members of their families, often sharing the same mattress. Places insufficient for a single person sometimes shelter seven, eight or even a dozen people. The people here are dressed in rags and often go nearly naked. Their faces are pale and emaciated”.
The civil war and Franco's dictatorship, left neighbourhoods of self-constructed houses under political repressions and several intents of eradication, but after the war people started to claim their rights.
To solve their problem, lacking of any help from the
city-hall, people of these neighbourhoods started activist movements
in order to improve their living conditions. The emergence of
associative groups such as Associacio
de veïns (neighbor's
association), and the solidarity of people with each other led to the
improvement of living conditions in barracas, and the appearance of
new infrastructures such as creation of schools and public transports. Nowadays, the barracas from the 50's have disappeared but it was part of an evolution : if people have not been relocated into new buildings, the habitants would buy the land, and shanty house would become a more decent self-construction. Over the years and according to the family budget, owner would build their own house and have a strong emotional attachment to their house and neighbourhood .
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Calle de las barracas de Francisco Alegre (El Hoyo), Barcelona, sobre 1974. Mariano Velasco.
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