During the 19th century, the upper class of Catalan society was made up of a minority, classist, Catholic, and endogamous group of businessmen, industrialists, large landowners, bankers, and merchants who dominated and directed the country’s political and economic power, what we call the Catalan bourgeoisie.
At that time, the roles of women and men were very distinct and well-defined, especially within this dominant social class. Bourgeois women were expected to be pious, religious, dedicated to caring for the family, be benefactors of the household, and subordinate to their husbands. They were the representatives of affection, sensitivity, delicacy, passivity, and self-sacrifice because they were considered weak-willed, self-sacrificing, and weak. Meanwhile, men were those who dedicated themselves to business and to reason, logic, reflection, and study.
These psychological and biological differences, specific to each gender, made women stay away from family businesses and businesses, which were considered men’s domains, even if they owned the capital or had inherited from their father or husband. They typically delegated the management of their assets to their sons, sons-in-law, brothers, or friends. Their natural space was the home. Very few dared to break with these characteristics, considered characteristic of their gender, and took charge of the businesses they had inherited.
The fact that these women dedicated themselves to charity gave them the opportunity to leave the house and participate in social life without raising criticism of their person, quite the contrary, since it gave them respectability, privilege and, at that moment, certified their economic and social ascent. Being a member of a charity board meant inclusion in the circle of the most distinguished people in the city.
This feminised and paternalistic beneficence covered the need for public policies, while at the same time allowing them to control the lower classes through religion, education and charity. All this was also intended to act as a buffer and pacifier so that there would be no confrontation between the workers and the excesses of the bosses.
The work of these women was regulated by the Charity Act of 1849, which initially gave them the auxiliary function of inspecting the maternity wards of the provincial welfare boards. It does not seem very clear that they and their husbands contributed money from their own pockets, because their main task and dedication was normally to manage, seek donations and organise the money obtained through the organisation of raffles, charity parties, theatrical performances and dances to collect money which was then invested in charitable and charitable activities..
Dorotea de Chopitea was born in the city of Santiago de Chile in 1816 into an aristocratic family. Her father, Pedro Nicolás de Chopitea y Aurrecoechea, was a merchant, of Basque origin, who emigrated to America to make his fortune through the merchandise trade and the slave trade. His mother was Isabel de Villota, daughter of one of the wealthy Chilean families. In 1819, when she was only three years old, her life took a turn, because the whole family had to leave Chile because her father was a staunch supporter of King Ferdinand VII and, therefore, against the independence of the colony. The Chopitea family had to escape, in a hurry, to the city of Barcelona, where they settled in the Ribera neighbourhood, specifically, in Barra de Ferro street, near the church of Santa Maria del Mar.
Very close to the Chopiteas lived another family of Chilean emigrants, the Serras, a family of businessmen who originated in the town of Palafrugell , who also, after making their mark in the Americas, fled during the Chilean War of Independence. The patriarch, Mariano Serra, was a metalworker industrialist who was appointed consul of the Chilean government in Barcelona and was one of the three founders of the Bank of Barcelona. The friendship between the two families culminated with the marriage of Dorotea, just sixteen years old, and one of the Serra sons, Josep Maria Serra y Muñoz, on October 31, 1832 in the church of Santa Maria del Mar. The couple settled on Montcada Street , where their six daughters were born and where they created their dominance in the social, political and economic spheres at a crucial time of the city’s growth. In 1873, the family moved to a more stately home in Barcelona’s new Eixample district, where the Hotel Gran Via is located today, just off Paseo de Gràcia , where they lived with the ruling class of the time.
As expected, Dorotea de Chopitea dedicated her life to great charitable works throughout the city of Barcelona, leaving her mark in the different corners of a city in expansion. Dorotea devoted herself, body and soul, to social commitment, helping to found hospices, asylums, schools, churches, convents and temples, as well as so many other institutions that she sponsored with the help of alms and the charities of private individuals. In 1879, with the help of different Catholic congregations, he collaborated in the foundation of the Sagrat Cor Hospital and the San Juan de Dios children’s hospital. In 1880 he financed the construction of the Sagrat Cor church in Carrer Caspe in Barcelona, owned by the Jesuits, and, following Joan Bosco’s visit to Barcelona, he promoted the construction of a church at the top of Tibidabo. In Barcelona he financed the creation of the Professional Schools of Sarrià, with the first school-workshop for graphic arts in the city, the Salesian College of San José, with its church at Rocafort 42, and other religious institutions aimed at the education and training of poor young people.
Other contributions he made were the creation of the San Antonio shelter, where food was distributed to anyone who came looking for it. He collaborated with the charitable work of the Hermanitas de los Pobres de la calle de Borrell, and founded the Asilo de San Rafael for stunted girls, and created schools to take in the children of working women. Between 1889 and 1890 he founded schools of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in La Barceloneta, Poble Sec and Gràcia, schools that now bear the name of La Salle.
He died in 1871 and his biographers, apart from praising his holiness and pious and charitable character, say that he was left without money or property because he had used it all to help the poorest. His six daughters only received the legitimate inheritance and continued their mother’s work.
La Salle Barceloneta
Dorotea de Chopitea also left her beneficence in the neighbourhood of La Barceloneta in the form of a school, because she saw the need to create a school in the neighbourhood where, in addition to providing a regular education, a Christian education could also be given to children and young people. Thus Dorothea contacted Brother Justinus Marie, director of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, to obtain permission to build the school. The land and buildings were donated to the Brothers of the Christian Schools. The first building was a construction on a plot of land on the corner of Ginebra and Balboa streets. The land was granted by the descendants of the Marquis de la Quadra, who had earmarked part of his legacy for social charitable works.
Witnesses tell us that, in principle, it was a very modest building with a ground floor and first floor and that behind it there was a large area of land dedicated to gardening and an orchard. It was inaugurated in 1871 under the name of Colegio de San José. It was a free school subsidised by the Junta de Damas followers of the work of Dorotea de Chopitea. The brothers went to daily mass at the school opposite La Salle, that of the nuns of San Juan Bosco, also built thanks to Dorotea de Chopitea.
During the Tragic Week of 1909, the school was partially burnt down by the mob, which caused riots all over the city, but it did not cease its educational work. From 1930 to 1933, when Brother Lluís Albert was director, we know that there were four classes of children managed by five brothers. There were six hours of classes a day and four and a half hours a week of catechesis, the rosary was recited daily and the pupils were accompanied to Sunday mass.
The school of San José, at the beginning of the outbreak of the Civil War in 1936, was burnt down again, and did not open its doors until 2 October 1957. It is known that the former director during the Republic, Brother Lluís Albert and Brother Pamplona, were shot in other towns where they had been assigned after the fire.
On 5th April 1956, the District Council decided to ask the Council of the Regime in Rome for definitive approval for the construction and opening, under the name of La Salle Barceloneta, of a new building larger than the previous one and with a greater capacity for pupils, which is what we know now. Archbishop Gregorio Modrego Casaus, former pupils of the Colegio de San José and leaders and businessmen of the neighbourhood took part in this request..
Construction began on May 15, 1957, and the school was inaugurated on October 2, 1957. Thus, the school reopened with 245 new students: three brothers and two lay teachers. The following year, five primary classrooms and vocational training courses opened: three for journeyman skills and two for master’s degrees in the specialty of turner, fitter, and electrician. A carpentry workshop and a printing workshop also operated. During these early years, Brother Adrià Trescents was the director for nine years.
In 1962, permission was granted to expand the building, and in 1963, work began on the expansion, with the construction of four more classrooms, a room for lay teachers, a laboratory, a former students’ lounge, and a bar. This expansion led to the creation of five primary education courses, two vocational introductory courses, and four daytime high school courses. The evening course offered four high school courses and three journeyman courses specializing in lathe operator, mechanic, fitter, and electrician.
In the 1980s, with the change to a new teaching model, the EGB and BUP levels were introduced , and coeducation became mandatory, allowing the first girls to enroll. During these years, the first-level vocational training program included sections in electricity, draftsmanship, electronics, and automotive, with the latter offered at night.
Currently, La Salle Barceloneta has approximately 580 students, 47 staff members, including teachers and administrative and service personnel, and one Brother. It offers various types of Baccalaureate and Professional Degrees, both intermediate and advanced.
The La Salle Brothers’ School has always had a direct importance in the social life of La Barceloneta, being one of the most representative schools, not only for its educational activities, but also for its important participation in the neighbourhood. We must remember the theatre, the popular festivals that were held in the playground, the nativity scene competition, the Caramelles, the cultural excursions for parents and pupils, the scout movement and all the activities that helped social and neighbourhood cohesion. It is also worth mentioning the importance of sport with handball, indoor football and basketball.
