"Voices fallen from the sky" -- Manu Valentín's history of the Jewish exile in Barcelona, 1881-1954 "

"Voces caídas del cielo [tries] to fill a notable [non-fiction] vaccuum...of the collective memory of a community of Jewish exiles who struggled to establish themselves in the city of Barcelona with hardly any support. 

Based on a vast body of documentation, a lot of it unpublished,...sources that dealt with the crisis of the Jewish exiles in different moments, and interviews with the refugees and their descendents, the historian Manu Valentín manages to rescue the protagonists’ memory and raises their personal experiences to the level of historical events." (Publishers summary.)"

Read more from source at Literary Rambles here.

"Barcelona launches the Brexit Information Point for citizens and businesses"

 "The Barcelona City Council launches the Brexit Point, a fixed and face-to-face service point in the Business Support Office, in the MediaTIC building, aimed at citizens, companies, freelances and talent to answer questions on the possible opportunities and consequences of the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union.

This information point works by appointment and from 8:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. from Monday to Thursday and from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Fridays to:

• Assisting citizens and working for the retention of international talent: clarifying doubts and reducing the concern of British citizens living Barcelona.
• Building loyalty and retention of investments and projects: informing British capital companies that operate in our territory and other people or organizations that may be affected by the impact of Brexit.
• Attracting investments and international talent: helping companies that want to establish in the city as a result of the UK’s exit from the EU.

This new service is launched by the Barcelona City Council, in coordination with the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Spain through the British Consulate General in Barcelona and the Ministry of Interior through the Government Subdelegation in Barcelona."

Read more from source here.

Q and A on life as an immigrant in Europe (or "expat" if you prefer.)

From ExpatFocus.com  (November 11, 2019) 

Brett Hetherington (Photo credit: robbiekavanagh.net)           
 

Who are you?

My name's Brett Hetherington and I'm a European (Australian/British) journalist, teacher and author (most recently of Slow Travels in Unsung Spain) living in Catalonia, Spain with my partner/wife Paula and our teenage son Hugo.


Where, when and why did you move abroad?

Our first move was to Japan in 1999 (where Hugo was born) and three years later we moved to England.

After two years there we moved to live in inland Catalonia in the Barcelona region and have been there since 2006.


What challenges did you face during the move?

Plenty! Languages were a big one because we all had to deal with Catalan as well as Spanish. Hugo was only five when we came, so he picked it up quickly with the help of some great teachers at his Catalan primary school. I've become functionally fluent in Spanish and generally understand Catalan okay, though I don't speak it.


How did you find somewhere to live?

Luckily, a teacher my wife was replacing was leaving his apartment in the town where we wanted to live, Vilafranca del Penedes. I communicated directly with the landlord (in a mixture of his poor English and my even worse Spanish). Later, we bought our own place in a small nearby town, almost a decade ago now.


Are there many other expats in your area?

Very few here, but 20 minutes away on the coast around Sitges (where we used to work) there is a strong expat community.


What is your relationship like with the locals?

Friendly, and some acquainatiances, but few real close friends, I would say. Most small-town, rural Catalan people call themselves "closed." They mean that they're not open to having many new social relationships outside their already established ones.


What do you like about life where you are?

The vineyards and open spaces of nature around. It's a great balance too when you mainly work in the big city of Barcelona.


What do you dislike about your expat life?

Well, I think of myself as an immigrant more than an expat because I don't see who we are as any different to others who came here from somewhere else for a better life. I do intensely dislike the bureaucracy and arbitary kinds of decision-making in Southern Europe. The low salaries that never rise are making life harder every year too.


What is the biggest cultural difference you have experienced between your new country and life back home?

This has been our home for a long time now, but if I compare it with where I lived most of my life, I'd say I miss the more spontaneous way people socialise and talk to strangers, as well as the multi-cultural population being a part of the mainstream.


What do you think of the food and drink in your new country? What are your particular likes or dislikes?

The food is wonderful: seasonal, fresh, still not too expensive in general. It's a big reason to live here. The range of vegetables is always limited to Mediterranean ones though, unless you want to pay big money for "ethnic" ingredients.

That's the only downside, because the seafood and usual high quality in well-priced "menus del dia" is great. There's fantastic, cheap wine in this area too.


What advice would you give to anyone following in your footsteps?

Do it! But be prepared to live in a low-wage economy unless you are very lucky. On the other hand, Spain/Catalonia is a great place to bring up kids, in my opinion.


What are your plans for the future?

Stay until we can't afford it anymore and if Brexit doesn't make life impossible or any more costly.


You can find Brett's book, Slow Travels in Unsung Spain, on Amazon.

"Before the fall of the Berlin Wall -- Vintage home movies show another side of life in East Germany"

[Photo Credit: Open Memory Box]

In our current era of right-wing populism dividing people against each other for no good reason, it's worth remembering that the Berlin Wall was built to separate those who had everything in common...

"After the Berlin Wall came down [or was more accurately pulled-down] on Nov. 9, 1989, the 40-year-old socialist German Democratic Republic dissolved along with one-party rule, the Stasi secret police and the all-encompassing, five-year economic plans. With reunification, a culture disappeared. And while East Germans adjusted to life under a united and capitalistic Germany, many found it was hard to talk about their past lives with West Germans who felt they already knew their story, and framed it usually in victimhood. 

But now, a unique, online archive of home films shot in the GDR is casting a new light on the extinct country and the lives of its citizens..."

"You can't sleep here!"

The appalling sight of metal spikes to stop homeless people sleeping outside the doorway of a vacant building on Rambla de Catalunya in Barcelona. 

I took this photo this week. Not in the early 20th century. 

Londoners and New Yorkers will also recognise this anti-human architecture.

I first wrote about this (and a related) theme in this article tilted "Poor Doors" in 2014. 

Now available at Come In Bookshop (Barcelona) -- my latest publication: "Slow Travels in Unsung Spain"

My new non-fiction title is now in-store and online at Come In independent, specialist English language bookshop on Carrer Balmes in Barcelona. 

"a compelling and eclectic narrative full of the unexpected " -- Nick Inman, Rough Guides