Somorrostro and the hidden history of Barcelona’s shanty towns
Barcelona’s image today is one of a modern, European city, but within living memory a very different Barcelona existed, a forgotten city of shanty towns known as barraques. Cristina Tomàs White joins Lorcan Doherty to look at the hidden history of places like Somorrostro. Today, a popular beach in Barceloneta, it was once home to up to 15,000 people living in shacks and huts built on sand. TV3 journalist and documentary maker Alonso Carnicer talks about the making of his 2010 film, 'Barraques. La ciutat oblidada' (Shanty towns – The Forgotten City). This week's Catalan phrase is 'veure-ho tot negre'. Literally, 'to see everything black', it means to see lots of difficulties, to despair.