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An article by Beatriz Santamarina and Eva Mompó, professors at the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at the University of Valencia, concludes that the struggle for the Cabañal-Canyamelar neighbourhood in recent decades has strengthened the neighbourhood’s identity and has become an international issue. The study, published in the Journal of Social Anthropology, shows the different interests that have marked the neighbourhood, in a situation that still persists.
The authors analyse the recent history of the neighbourhood, which has been the scene of struggles and protests against the degradation and the proposals of the different consistories. They have initiated renovation plans that would have eliminated much of the essence of the Cabañal, Santamarina and Mompó argue.
The conflicts caused the neighbourhood to organise itself, and all kinds of neighbourhood associations, cultural and social projects emerged. Social centres in abandoned premises, murals or posters on the balconies modified the urban geography, in response to the abandonment and the process of degradation of areas that the city council wanted to demolish.
These movements drew international attention, in the case of media such as The Guardian or The New York Times, which recommended visiting the neighbourhood “before it is too late”. The Cabañal, the researchers assure, has therefore been a predominant theme that has marked the political speeches of the different local governments.
The article covers a long period, starting with the plans of the city council in 1998, such as the extension of Blasco Ibáñez avenue, accompanied by the special plan for protection and interior reform, of which many of the residents of the neighbourhood and the rest of the city they declared against.
The project would have eliminated more than 1,500 homes and divided the neighbourhood in two. Despite the pressure from the neighbourhood, it was approved thanks to the absolute majorities of the PP, but they were paralysed by a judicial order from the Constitutional Court, which prohibited demolitions for the plundering of assets. But this decision led to a situation of stagnation and abandonment of the neighbourhood.
With the arrival of a new local government in 2015, the plans programmed for the Cabañal were definitively eliminated. A new neighbourhood renovation plan was created, the Cabañal-Canyamelar Special Plan (PEC) that included some demands from residents, although it also contradicted others. For this reason, a part of the neighbourhood organised to present allegations to the PEC. The scenario has changed to one of fight against gentrification, which threatens the population of the neighbourhood, this time to expel them because of the rise in rents, tourist pressure and a new urban model from which the current administration does not protect, is explained in the article.
The Cabañal is marked by its history. In the words of the authors: “when we go through the urban fabric of the Cabañal we can read the history of the municipal policies of different kinds that have been deployed in it, as well as the resistance that each one of them has aroused”.
Article:
Santamarina Campos, B.; Mompó, E. (2020). «La calle por bandera. Gramáticas, tropos y marcadores en los movimientos urbanos del Cabanyal (Valencia, España)». Revista de Antropología Social 29(2), 257-273.
