“Port Slang ” Exhibition

Last March 6 the monographic exhibition ‘Argots portuarios’ was inaugurated at the facilities of La Casa de la Barceloneta 1761 (c/ Sant Carles, 6)..

An interesting exhibition, created by Amaia Martínez and the OEPB , on the uses and linguistic expressions in the Port of Barcelona between the 70s and 80s, withspecial emphasis on slang used by the dockworkers and the nicknames given to each other.

The exhibition also reflects on the evolution of language in an industrial working environment at a time of strong technological and social change and how this was reflected in everyday life in La Barceloneta.

Memory of the neighborhood

The content of the project has been compiled largely from the memory of the people and of the common spaces shared by the dockworkers between the 70s and 80s.  Fifteen personal interviews were conducted with dockers who remained active between the 70s and 90s and with people who were in close contact with them, such as the waiters in the bars frequented by the dockers or some of their wives

As can be seen in the exhibition, the set of idiomatic variants , so much in Castilian as in Catalan, of the port workers at a colloquial and working level, creates its own language, which has remained in force among the group.

The work on port nicknames, the ‘nicknames’ that each worker had and which accompanied him throughout his working life, being passed down from time to time to his children, deserves special prominence. An interesting compendium of nicknames classified according to their origin is shown.

The project also analyses, through personal stories, the human and social transformation experienced by La Barceloneta over the last half century, reviewing the most important historical moments that the neighbouring districts have experienced over the years. The exhibition can be visited at the Casa de la Barceloneta until the 26th of April. Afterwards it will be permanently exhibited again in the Documentary Archive of the Organització d’Estibadors Portals de Barcelona (OEPB) in C/ Mar, 97

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