The tour begins in the Collblanc - La Torrassa neighbourhood. However, before we begin to explain these decades of change in the city, a little bit of context is necessary. Since 1940, the city's population grew exponentially: the few more than 51,000 inhabitants of the city exceeded 180,000 in 1965, increasing the population by 350%. In the 1960s, the rate of growth was 10,000 new inhabitants per year. This meant that L'Hospitalet, with a very young population structure, was the Spanish city that received the highest percentage of population. In response to demographic pressure and speculative real estate interests, new neighbourhoods were created and the historic districts of Collblanc - La Torrassa, Sant Josep, el Centre and Santa Eulàlia grew and densified. This growing trend, however, came to an end in 1986 as a result of the lack of housing.
During the dictatorship, unofficial cultural activities could only be held in a few associations, or in the protected confines of certain parish buildings. By the end of the dictator’s regime, these places had become the settings for clandestine trade union or political meetings, residents’ assemblies, literacy centres and Catalan language schools.
Club Pimpinela (1945-1972) was able to adapt to the social needs of young people unable to find places to hold their activities. The Club took in a significant number of youths who left the Unió Excursionista de Catalunya (Rambling Union of Catalonia – UEC) due to what they perceived as that organization’s lack of commitment to Catalanism (they had not shown support for UEC members detained in 1962 for distributing materials on behalf of Front Obrer Català [Workers’ Front of Catalonia]).
Joan Rimbau, born in Havana to Catalan parents, and closely linked to the Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalonia (Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia - PSUC) was club president throughout the second half of the 1960’s. He was a firm believer in the value of the associations network.
The first meeting of a fledgling CCOO trade union was held at Club Pimpinela in 1966.
Over the 1962-69 period, until the constitution of the Residents’ Association, Club Pimpinela was behind most of the cultural activities in the district. Neither of the two parishes was culturally active at that time.
In the spring of 1976, in a clandestine Bellvitge law office, the L’Hospitalet Local Chapter of the UGT Trade Union was established by Ramon Fernández Jurado, Ignacio Pujana and Garcilaso Aguado. They publicly presented the new trade union a few days later in the auditorium of the Santiago Apòstol School (near Plaça Espanyola). The organizers of the event, aware of the trade union’s modest following in the city, were surprised by the overflow crowd that packed the auditorium.
In the images, it is possible to see the entrance to the Plaça Espanyola, as well as two of the activites that were held by the Club Pimpinela: theatre and hiking.
