“At the moment, they are telling us that we have to get out of there, in the middle of winter. This is not humanity,” criticizes Younouss Dramé, one of those affected by the expulsion of the former B9 institute in Badalona, a week ago. The story of Dramé, still very current, is not original and this is how the writer Paco Candel describes it: “Since 1957, the barracks have not prospered. They have not diminished either, they overthrow, but others arise” (Els Other Catalans1964). SER Catalunya interweaves past and present in Our other Catalansa special version of the San Esteve radio theater which honors and updates Candel’s book, a reference on immigration, through the prism of the diverse Catalonia of 2025.
“The project is born from the need to confront this wave of hatred that we are experiencing. When xenophobic parties become dehumanized, we give voice, we try to tell the story of all these people who come looking for a better life,” explains Iu Andrés, content director of SER Catalunya and promoter of els our other Catalans. The program alternates the testimony of the migrants who make up today’s Catalonia, with fragments of The other Catalansthe book in which the writer with Murcian roots, Paco Candel, drew more than 50 years ago the lives of all these Catalans, children of Murcians and Andalusians who settled in this territory.
One in four Catalans was born outside Spain, according to the INE. And both new arrivals and those who left more than half a lifetime ago repeat the same questions. “I feel Catalan, but am I? » asks Imane Raissali, psychologist, singer and communicator of Moroccan origin. Raissali lends his voice and his memory to Our other Catalansrecounting a tour of the different fragments of Candel’s work. The text of the original book is interpreted by 40 personalities from the world of culture, society, sport and institutions such as the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa; he president of Parliament, Josep Rull; the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun; the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni; he former president; Pere Aragonès or the general director of police, Josep Lluís Trapero.
Also participating in the program are Barça footballer Fermín López; former FC Barcelona footballer José Mari Bakero; Barça vice-president Elena Fort; Mishima singer David Carabén; filmmakers Marcel Barrena, Cesc Gay and Carla Simón; screenwriter Eduard Sola, actresses Llum Barrera, Greta Fernández, Elisabet Casanovas and Carlota Olcina; the writers Najat el Hachmi and Andrea Genovart; the cooks Ada Parellada and Carme Ruscalla and other personalities from various fields such as Òscar Camps, Judit Mascó, Antoni Bassas or the director of MACBA, Elvira Dyangani Ose.
New homeland
“Catalonia remains a welcoming land, but the faces have changed,” explains Raissali. If Candel spoke of the Murcians and the Andalusians, Our other Catalans talks about people coming from Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Morocco or Nigeria. People who tell their first-hand accounts, as is the case of Dramé, who was deported a little less than a week ago, and Dilora and El Munis, who arrived empty-handed from Uzbekistan and now have their own business and a daughter studying at university.
Candel also spoke about re-tenants in the central and peripheral districts of Barcelona and in the SER Catalunya program, the floor goes to Luis and Lourdes, 36 years old, two Peruvians who arrived in Barcelona a year ago and who live with their three children (aged 12 and 10 years and 7 months) in a single room in an apartment that they share with another couple.
The program describes the life, problems, obstacles and dilemmas faced by migrants. The same challenges faced by newcomers 60 years ago: the difficulty of accessing decent housing, the most precarious jobs or learning Catalan. This is how Kelly Issiah, the singer from Lleida of Nigerian origin, who makes music in Catalan for the world, tells it. Likewise, if the original text investigated the crudity of the reasons that can lead to migration, in the radio series we can hear the voice of Shurouq Alimam, a 27-year-old Gazan who lives in Barcelona and wakes up every day with the aim of bringing and saving his family.
The project, sponsored by the writer’s daughter, María Candel, features the voices of journalists from SER and SER Catalunya, such as Àngels Barceló, Carles Francino and Lluís Flaquer, and can be followed on the frequencies of Cadena SER and SER Catalunya on December 26 and January 1 at 12 p.m., and soon in video version. “A very complicated year awaits us, with even harsher speeches, it is time for those of us who still believe in an open and diverse Catalan society, of many origins and which speaks several languages, to reaffirm ourselves,” says Andrés.
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