Reunited with the siblings Carmen (74 years old) and Paco Montes López (70), as they explain, family of the “Hot” nickname; and with José Montes Ribas (80).
Curiously, the two men were experts in metallurgy, in the no longer existing Pons Workshops and in the Vulcan .
They all came to Barcelona from their native Andalusia (La Chuck and Castell de Ferro, Granada) and settled in the Barracas del Gas . Small huts handmade by each family, near the street Gasometer between Catalana del Gas (now Gas Natural) and the Hospital de los Infectiosos (now del Mar), from 1936 to 1954, when they moved to El Somorrostro . More than 200 families lived there at that time.
By 1954, with the disappearance of this place, they were transferred to the Somorrostro .
There they were welcomed in an environment where they met families of ” payos” and “calés” living in harmony. There, some of the neighbourhood residents worked in the “tripas” and “olivas” factories.
José remembers that he went to live in the house where the famous Carmen Amaya lived.
And Paco explains that, since his father worked transporting and selling fish, he had a close relationship with the family of the famous dancer Carmen Amaya and they helped each other, especially with the care of the little ones in the houses, like him.
Carmen laughs when she remembers that one of her brothers didn’t want to eat noodles, because next to him there was a fountain where some gypsy cook washed the pots of ” pucheros” strongly seasoned and with a strong smell, unlike the rest of the brothers, who loved it.
Everyone remembers that some entrepreneurs from La Barceloneta set up businesses among the streets of the shacks. Like Diego Robles’ ” chatos de vino” wine cellar, La Rosa’s dairy, or the building materials store (with which they made and repaired the shacks) of “El “Piropo” .
Many children were baptized in the Church on Wellington Street, behind Ciutadella Park, due to proximity. Most of them went to school at School of Orientation Maritime and Fisheries (of the Marine Institute and linked to the Fishermen’s Guild and the House of Marino) near the streets of Ginebra and Pizarro. And they were among the first students at the Salle Barceloneta when it opened in 1957, like José.
The year 1959 began the eviction of the Somorrostro and they (those of the Barracas del Gas) had the concession of apartments in the Blocks of the Fishermen, popularly called the Vikings.
Some families held out until 1963-65 and were relocated outside, especially in social housing in the neighborhoods of Polvorín (Montjuic), La Florida (Hospitalet de Llobregat) or San Roque (Badalona), but one thing is unanimous: “we all lived together in El Somorrostro, gypsies or non-gypsies, without discrimination. With hardships, but with great joy”.
