270 Int. J. Tourism Anthropology, Vol. 5, Nos.

3/4, 2016

Guided tour The legacy of slavery in Barcelona.

Public history as reparation

Oriol Lpez-Badell
European Observatory on Memories,
University of Barcelona,
Melcior de Palau 140,
08014 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Email: o.lopez@ub.edu

Abstract: This text exposes the experience of the first guided tour in Barcelona
specifically addressed to explain the connections of the city with an awkward
past unknown by many locals and visitors: the role of slave traders in the
development of the city. The aim of this tour is showing the traces left by the
slave trade and colonial fortunes in Barcelona, such as distinguished buildings,
monuments and street names. Ultimately, the tour aims to contribute to the
process of public recognition of those groups affected by slavery in the past.

Keywords: Barcelona; history; memory; heritage; slavery; guided tour; public

history; reparation; Gaud.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Lpez-Badell, O. (2016)

Guided tour The legacy of slavery in Barcelona. Public history as
reparation, Int. J. Tourism Anthropology, Vol. 5, Nos. 3/4, pp.270275.

Biographical notes: Oriol Lpez-Badell is the coordinator of the European

Observatory on Memories, which is supported by the University of Barcelona
Solidarity Foundation. Among other projects, he launched the research project
http://www.memoriabcn.cat, designed to disseminate information about sites of
memory in the city of Barcelona. He is the author of several articles and the
book Transitioning: Five Citizen Initiatives to Achieve Full Democracy. He is a
graduate in History and postgraduate in History and Communication from the
University of Barcelona and was a Visiting Scholar at the Columbia University
(New York) in 2014.

1 Introduction

The awkward memory of Barcelona (Cia, 2016) was one of the many newspaper
headlines published the day after the guided tour to discover the legacies of slave traders
in this city took place for the first time in early March 2016. The route was designed to
initiate the international seminar memory, architecture and public space that gathered
experts in the fields of sociology, architecture and remembrance policies to discuss the
representation of the past in the streets of contemporary cities. The week-long seminar
was held in two different cities, Barcelona and Lyon, and was organised by the European
Observatory on Memories (EUROM)1 and its French partners from the Centre Max
Weber and the cole Nationale Suprieure dArchitecture.

Copyright 2016 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

 Guided tour The legacy of slavery in Barcelona 271

The national media, as well as the international press2, covered the initiation of this
tour with great interest as the city experiences a lively debate on memorial heritage in the
public space, especially due to the efforts of the current town council formed in 2015
who has implemented new public policies of remembrance. The local government has
created a specific office for memorial programs that is considering the removal or
reinterpretation of some monuments commemorating past events that were disrespectful
to freedoms, democracy and human rights, in particular the renaming of certain streets
and squares associated with sordid strains of Barcelonas history. In this context,
EUROM decided to create a tour to address the memory of slave trade in the city and
invited different experts to contribute to the discussion, such as the architect
Julian Bonder, member of the firm Wodiczko-Bonder that designed the Memorial to the
Abolition of Slavery in Nantes (http://memorial.nantes.fr/en) (France) in 2012. The
design of the route was commissioned by the Associaci Conixer Histria (Knowing
History Association), an organisation with much experience in public history, specially
explaining the memory sites of Barcelona to local citizens and foreign visitors.3
Then, the aim of this guided tour is showing the traces left by the slave trade and
colonial fortunes in Barcelona. The link between the city and slave trade was largely
unknown until recently, therefore, the guide starts the tour reminding the attendees that in
mid-18th century Spain held a large colonial empire that required great amounts of
labour, basically slaves. However, Spain did not have bases on the African coast through
which to trade for slaves and it therefore obtained its slave labour from other European
countries. But, buying slaves through other countries was very expensive and in 1789, a
royal charter was issued to deregulate the trading of slaves in Spain. Consequently, some
slave factories promoted by Spanish businessmen were installed in Africa and
important ports such as Barcelona, Santander and Cadiz became bases for slave
expeditions.4 Hence, some of the most important businessmen involved in the slave trade
in the Spanish colonies of the Caribbean invested their fortunes in Barcelona upon their
return in the mid-19th century. The city was very economically active in this period,
especially due to the industrial development of the previous years, and it represented a
good platform to invest money in real estate, banking, new factories or even the arts. The
businessmen that gained their wealth in the Caribbean colonies, popularly known as
americanos or indianos, chose Barcelona as the city in which to settle and invest their
money.
The starting point of the two hours tour is the monument dedicated to Joan Gell
which, despite its central location in the downtown area, remains largely unnoticed by
most citizens. Gell was born in 1800 in Torredembarra, a seaside town south of
Barcelona, and in his youth, travelled to Cuba, where he worked as a shop assistant until
he earned enough money to establish his own business. At the time, Cuba was a Spanish
colony reliant on the metropolis for commodities. Cubans could not buy from other
countries and Joan Gell profited from this situation as he achieved control over
merchandise trading in five years, marking the beginning of his fortune. Years later, this
fortune was used by his son, Eusebi Gell, to sponsor among others the architect
Antoni Gaud, whose art nouveau buildings represent one of the main examples of
architectural heritage of the city today and are among the most visited attractions of
Barcelona: Park Gell, Casa Mil (La Pedrera), Casa Batll or the church Sagrada
Famlia.
272 O. Lpez-Badell

The role of Joan Gell as a slave trader in Cuba is not clear, however the historian
Cabana (2008) considers that profiting from slave trade was a common practice in
colonial businesses. At the same time, the anthropologist Gustau Nern, who is currently
researching Spanish colonies in Africa, stated during the presentation of the guided tour
that it would be quite easy to find archival documentation to prove that Gell was
involved in slave-trading during his stay in Cuba. Presumably because of these
suspicions, the monument to Gell (inaugurated during the 1888 Barcelona Universal
Exposition) has been questioned in recent years; it has even been the target of defacement
with red paint. Nor can we forget that during the revolution at the beginning of the
Spanish Civil War in 1936, Gells figure was torn down because he symbolised the
Catalan bourgeoisie. The Franco regime reconstructed the monument in 1945.
The second stop of the tour is Plaa Catalunya, the symbolic centre of the city where
all kinds of demonstrations, struggles and celebrations have taken place in contemporary
local history. Importantly, an abolitionist demonstration took place here on
December 21, 1872. Hundreds of people with banners of the progressive political parties
took part in it, accompanied by a band playing among other songs the French anthem,
La Marseillaise. Abolitionism was the movement to end slavery and it began with
protests in Britain at the end of the 18th century. In 1807, slave trading was banned on
British vessels through the Slave Trade Act and in 1834 all slaves in the British colonies
in America were freed.
But in Spain, it was not until 1864 that the Spanish Abolitionist Society was founded,
strongly affiliated with the progressive political parties. Finally, during the First Spanish
Republic, slavery was abolished in Puerto Rico (1873) but in Cuba the abolition of
slavery took longer due to resistance from sugar factories owners and other sectors of the
metropolis with strong economic interests in slavery. One of the most active
representatives of abolitionism in Spain was Clotilde Cerd, daughter of Ildefons Cerd,
the architect and engineer who designed the enlargement plan of Barcelona (the
Eixample) when the medieval walls were torn down in 1854. Her biography as a defender
of women and working class rights is explained in this stop of the guided tour,
highlighting the problems she faced from the Spanish monarchy as a defender of the
abolition of slavery.
Next, the tour proposes two short stops in the medieval part of downtown as a
flashback to the Middle Ages when it was estimated that there were 3,000 to 4,000 slaves
in Barcelona, 10% of the population in the mid-15th century (Armenteros, 2016). These
slaves mostly represented those captured as spoils of war not only in Africa but also in
the Middle East and South Eastern Europe. Finally, returning to the 19th century once
again, the tour concludes at the monument of Antonio Lpez, undoubtedly the most
controversial stop of the itinerary as it is located in the heart of the memorial debate that
the city is currently facing.
Antonio Lpez was born in 1817 in Comillas (near Santander in northern Spain) in a
family with limited financial resources. Like many others, he undertook the journey to
Cuba to make his fortune and met Andreu Bru, a Catalan businessman married to a
Creole woman, with whom he started to work and eventually married their daughter,
Llusa Bru. Lpez managed to run the General Armero steamboat line, covering the
Guantnamo-Santiago route, that he used to trade with slaves, transporting them from one
place to another on the island. One of his brother-in-laws acknowledged his slavery-
related business, stating that it was the origin of his fortune. This business resulted in the
creation of Compaia Transatlntica (Transatlantic Boat Company) in 1850 and three
 Guided tour The legacy of slavery in Barcelona 273

years later, he returned to Spain and settled in Barcelona. In the city, he invested in real
estate; he co-founded the Banco Hispano-Colonial, a financial entity created in 1876 with
the aim of funding the defence of Spanish colonial possessions; and the Compaa
General de Tabacos de Filipinas (General Company of Philippines Tobacco). The
headquarters of these two companies, located at 3, Via Laietana and 109, La Rambla
respectively, are hotels today. Both establishments preserve, somehow, their colonial
origins: the first one keeps the initials of the bank name (Barcelona Hotel Colonial) and
the second one offers colonial menus in the restaurant and colonial suites to host their
guests.
Lpezs companies gave him the ability to offer great favours to the Spanish
government important loans so it is not surprising that he was named Marqus de
Comillas (Comillas Marquis) in 1878. He did not hesitate to accept this title, unlike some
of his colleagues or friends such as Joan Gell. But Lpez and Gell had many things in
common: they both came from humble backgrounds, they made their wealth in America,
a portion of their fortunes came most likely from slave-trade, they both settled in
Barcelona as great businessmen, and they ended up being part of the same family. The
older son of Joan Gell, Eusebi Gell, married Antonios daughter, Isabel Lpez, thus,
solidifying their financial holdings.
Less than six months after Lpezs death in 1883, a commission to build a monument
was created with the support of the city council and its mayor, Rius i Taulet. The
monument was built next to the harbour, symbolically connecting him to his steamboat
business. But, like Gells statue, the original monument was destroyed in 1936 during
the first days of the Spanish Civil War, due to popular hostility against the honoured
figure known as the Negro Domingo (the black Domingo), a reference to his business of
trading slaves in the Caribbean. Today, the monument remains a symbol of oppression
and the ignominious colonial legacy, and has become a target of graffiti and a place of
protest for leftist organisations defending multiculturalism.
It is precisely on the steps of this monument that the walking tour concludes with a
discussion with the attendees who usually participate actively and are eager to express
their opinions. The main goal of the tour is to provide the background necessary to
discuss whether it is appropriate to maintain these types of monuments in the public
space: Should we keep them as they are? Remove them? Reinterpret them? The diverse
groups that followed the tour so far5 have contributed very interesting ideas. A participant
from Texas (USA) suggested that the name of the square where the monument is
located also named Antonio Lpez could be changed to Clotilde Cerd, the
aforementioned defender of the abolitionist movement. The justification was clear: she
was a woman, born in Barcelona, and a human rights advocate. Another noteworthy
suggestion came from a group of African-American tourists taking the tour who
unanimously agreed that the monument, despite being offensive to them, should not be
removed but contextualised and explained to the citizenry, especially to younger
generations.
Considering the involvement of the attendees in the final debate, as well as the
interest they normally show throughout the tour, we might clearly say that this new
guided tour is another example of public history in Barcelona. Public history is a concept
that appeared in the USA in mid-1970s which is used to label certain practices related to
the transmission of history to society in an effective and comprehensive way, often using
innovative practices such as cultural tourism or new media. Public historians are
274 O. Lpez-Badell

individuals, usually trained historians, who work in either a professional or academic

capacity and who engage in the practice of communicating the past to the public; they are
providers of present past narratives [Sayer, (2015), p.5]. Then, public history can provide
to citizenry the necessary tools to reflect on the common past and can contribute,
somehow, to the moral reparation of past abuses by acknowledging them.
Reparation for slavery has been in the public agenda since the mid-1990s, especially
in the USA but also in Africa and Europe. The demand for reparations has been based on
the belief that the crimes and injustices inflicted by slavery upon the slaves, their
descendants and the millions who died during the transatlantic passage have never been
acknowledged by perpetrators or by those who profited from it [Barkan, (2000), p.283].
Moreover, in the USA, supporters of reparations argue that racism suffered by African
Americans today is due to the legacy of slavery and they believe some kind of
compensation will constitute an acknowledgment of past injustices. But considering that
financial recompense to the descendants of African slaves would result in bankruptcy for
large countries as the USA, other types of compensation have been promoted to
contribute at the very least to moral reparation by dignifying and public recognition. This
is the case of the creation of the National Museum of African American History
and Culture (https://nmaahc.si.edu) in Washington DC opened in September 2016 a
place where all Americans can learn about the richness and diversity of the African
American experience, what it means to their lives and how it helped us shape this nation
(https://nmaahc.si.edu).
Similar initiatives have been launched in other countries. In France, the
aforementioned Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery in Nantes, Frances largest slave
port, was opened in 2012. But it was not until the 1990s that the people of Nantes, along
with the town council, actively sought to confront their history and came to terms with
the past. The result was the opening of the Memorial in homage to all those
who fought in the past, fight today and will fight in the future against slavery
(http://memorial.nantes.fr/en). Also, international organisations like UNESCO,
influenced by the widespread interest in restitution, launched in 1994 a project called The
Slave Route to study the African slave trade. One of the purposes of the project is to
officially spread knowledge of slavery that would contribute to the reparation debate, and
its main goal is fighting against ignorance or concealment of this historical event to
reach mutual understanding and cooperation among peoples (http://www.unesco.org/
new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/slave-route).
In this sense, the guided tour The legacy of slavery in Barcelona, as a public history
initiative, deals with the embarrasing memory [Guix, (2016), p.15] which encompasses
the role of Catalan and Spanish slave traders in the 18th and 19th centuries and their
investments in the city which helped give shape to modern Barcelona. The tour clearly
contributes to the debate currently taking place in the city regarding certain historically-
charged monuments like the one dedicated to the slave trader Antonio Lpez. By
transmitting the information necessary to allow society to reflect on the meaning of
certain monuments and street names, the tour aims to contribute to the process of public
recognition of those groups affected by slavery in the past, as another form of reparation.
 Guided tour The legacy of slavery in Barcelona 275

References
Armenteros, I. (2016) Lesclavitud a la Barcelona del Renaixement (14791516), Un port
mediterrani sota la influncia del primer trfic negrer, Pags, Lleida.
Barkan, E. (2000) The Guilt of Nations. Restitution and Negotiating Historical Injustices, Norton,
New York.
Cabana, F. (2008) Fbriques i empresaris. El protagonisme de la revoluci industrial a Catalunya,
Fundaci Enciclopdia Catalana, Barcelona.
Cia, B. (2016) La memria incmoda de Barcelona [online] http://cat.elpais.com/cat/2016/03/08/
cultura/1457443306_363995.html (accessed 9 March 2016).
Guix, J. (ed.) (2016) Past and Power. Public Policies on Memory, Debates from Global to Local,
University of Barcelona, Barcelona.
Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery in Nantes [online] http://memorial.nantes.fr/en/le-memorial/
nantes-face-a-son-histoire/ (accessed July 21 2016).
Sayer, F. (2015) Public History. A Practical Guide, Bloomsbury Publishing, London/New York
The National Museum of African American History [online] https://nmaahc.si.edu (accessed
21 July 2016).
The UNESCO Slave Route Project [online] http://www.unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-
sciences/themes/slave-route/ (accessed July 21 2016).

Notes
1 Launched by the University of Barcelona Solidarity Foundation, the EUROM is a network of
universities and memorial organisations that seek to analyse, discuss and reflect
on the different remembrance policies developed in Europe and other continents.
http://www.europeanmemories.net.
2 The major national newspapers and two TV channels attended the presentation of the tour and
published news the next day. In the following weeks, the British newspapers The Guardian
and The observer also published a report: https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/apr/13/
barcelona-slave-trade-history-new-walking-tour-catalonia-spain-ramblas.
3 See the multilingual website of the project Memoria BCN (http://www.memoriabcn.cat).
4 European slave traders sailed from European ports with prepared goods that were exchanged
at the African coasts for captives provided by African kings and slave traders. These slaves
were sent mainly to America where they were sold as goods. The same vessels brought
American goods (sugar, coffee, cocoa beans, cotton, tobacco ) to be sold in Europe as part
of the triangular slave trade.
5 Since it was presented in March 2016, the tour has been requested by several groups and
individuals coming from several countries and representing different institutions, for instance:
the University of California (USA); Abilene Christian University in Texas (USA); the
University of Central Lancashire (UK); the Decolonizing Summer School; a senior researcher
of UNESCOs Slave Route project; as well as groups of foreign tourists and local citizens.