All the uses of a rope

When Toni Donado took over Hilados Donado, the company his father had founded, there were still one hundred and fifty fishing boats in Barceloneta. Today, between twenty and thirty remain. That was in 1989 and the neighborhood has undergone a great metamorphosis. The Olympic Games changed its appearance in a radical way. Added to this, in recent times, is the transformative phenomenon of tourist apartments. And right in the middle, Hilados Donado remains standing. Together with the Cànovas jewelry and watch store and a few restaurant businesses, they are the only survivors of traditional commerce in the neighborhood.

Toni welcomes us into his usual natural habitat, surrounded by spools of rope and nets everywhere. He is happy to continue with the business that his father, Jesús Donado, founded in the late forties, after experiencing the horror of the Civil War and spending three years in prison for having belonged to the republican side. Setting up in Barceloneta was the key to everything. What did a fishing neighborhood need? Nets and ropes for pulling. It was a neighborhood that was resurging after the destruction of the bombs and fishing was the present and the future. It is moving to imagine how someone witnessed that reality in the first person. Over the years, the business became a benchmark, not only on the Barcelona coast but also along the Catalan coast.

Toni helped his father immediately, first with invoices and transport and then by accompanying him to the ports to see the fishermen and acquire new clients. Later, when his father passed away, he took charge. From the Ebro Delta to Roses. Ropes are not only needed for making nets, but also for sails, pulleys, and other needs inherent to fishing and navigation. And for many other trades, indeed. For construction, for example, a sector with great potential during the fifties and sixties. And it is hard to imagine moving companies without the help of ropes to move furniture up and down from high floors. Today, of course, with platforms and electric lifts, it is a completely different story.

Now, in the year 2026, Toni retains fishing clients who are the second and third generation of family loyalty to Donado. “With many of them, we are like a family.” Other sectors that benefit from his services? Well, sports, since in many disciplines nets are essential, both for goals or baskets and for creating field separations or partitioning whatever is necessary. The demarcation of zones – beaches, lots, private properties – requires the use of ropes. Trapezes for the circus, hammocks, all kinds of decorative objects... And crafts! How many people buy a small spool of synthetic rope to make bracelets, for example. The materials are varied. Both the natural, the traditional hemp, and the synthetic, the imitation hemp, which lasts longer and has less odor. But also polyester, nylon, and plastic. Everything will depend on the use one wants to give it. On whether it will be exposed to the sun or if it will get wet.

Hilados Donado opens onto the street and is open to the public, but it is more of a warehouse than a shop. “Tourists don’t come in to buy a rope,” jokes Toni. The traffic of goods is constant: “This cart of rope is here today and tomorrow it could be in Palamós or Vilanova i la Geltrú.” More uses for ropes, whatever their size, length, and thickness? Well, in playgrounds, they are needed to surround trampolines so that children don’t fall, for example. Or in schools, where arts and crafts are done with natural materials. A rope hanging from the ceiling and full of knots is a classic for practicing climbing in physical education class, for example.

We leave and Toni shows us a fisherman's net half-finished. In a couple of days, they will come to pick it up. Yes, there are still fishermen who fish with handmade nets. Beautiful, isn't it?