An impossibe from the past

After working on a research about the construction of the Casal in Puiggròs (Catalonia), I less understand our present

The Casal on the left, inaugurated in 1968, and the schools and the multi-sports field on the right, built years later. Photo © Puiggròs City Council

In the summer of 1966 (exactly 60 years ago) the construction of what is today known as the El Casal began in Puiggròs (Catalonia), a large multi-purpose building with a stage and boxes, where to this day all kinds of social, recreational and cultural events can still be held, in addition to a bar.

The facility was built by volunteers, that is, with the voluntary (and free) work of almost all the residents of the village. The work, largely carried out by hands, lasted for months and was not officially inaugurated until two years later (in August 1968).

On the occasion of the anniversary, the Amics del Castell association and the Puiggròs City Council entrusted me with the task of making a multimedia product with a good number of witnesses who experienced those events firsthand.

This was not an assignment. It was a gift. One of those jewels that falls into your hands and you don't know why it happened to you, but you enjoy it as much as you can.

The project has consisted, on one hand, in the recovery of the local newspaper El Portal, with a special edition of 12 pages and 250 copies, illustrated with historical photographs, and docummentary film displayed yesterday for more than a hundred people.

Presentation ceremony of the historical memory project on July 25th, inside the Casal itself. Photo © Associació Amics del Castell de Puiggròs.

History is a science that serves to make a rigorous analysis of the past, to calmly see the reasons why certain events happened, to understand the context, the causes, the consequences... They say that history also serves to understand the present.

But the more I have worked on the historical research of how this Casal was built, the less I understand the present and the more uncertainty the future growns inside me.

This building was possible because all the people of a town came together. Those were times when the sense of community, the feeling of a town, was very strong, here and everywhere. It was built with the hands and efforts of a people who believed in the collective and in the value of a job that sought the well-being of future generations.

They say that this feat would be unthinkable today. Impossible.

What has happened to us? What has caused society to change so much in such a short time?

I want to think that history can also be used to change us, to improve us, to make us see that there are things from the past that were much better and that perhaps we should imitate.

This Casal is the physical and persistent, perhaps eternal, demonstration that we can build a much better future as a people and as a society.