Jordi Borja dies: a great legacy of democracy and citizenship

SociologistTalking about Jordi Borja a few hours after his death is difficult for me. He is such a multifaceted figure, he has done so many things that leave a mark on people, on cities, on politics, on society, that summarizing the effort of a lifetime in a few words is, at first glance, a task destined for failure. But I don't want to miss the opportunity to make known, especially to younger generations, the trajectory of a man committed to his time to the bitter end, of total coherence throughout his life.

Born in Barcelona in 1941, he very early began the struggle against Francoism, against that dictatorship that oppressed Spain, that oppressed Catalonia, that did not allow us to be who we were. Soon sought by the police, he had to emigrate to Paris, where he was in contact with the PCE, until his expulsion in 1963, and with various groups of the French left, while studying geography, sociology, urban planning, and all that very interesting that the French capital then offered to the poor ignorant people we were, young Catalans and Spaniards who grew up in an intellectual desert. He participated in the French May of '68, but immediately returned to Barcelona. And, very soon, with Jordi Solé Tura and Alfonso Comín, he created a group of left-wing militants, Bandera Roja, which, in many aspects, was a school for many of us and a new way of working politically in the neighborhoods, in schools, in many companies, even. A group that, on the eve of the Transition, dissolved to join the PSUC; clear-sighted, the two Jords understood that the time of small groups was over and that a strong left was needed in which everyone could converge.

How much effort in the Transition, in the training of cadres for the neighborhoods, for the first municipal elections, the first parliaments...! An entire society had to be born, and it had to be, in a way, invented. Jordi concentrated on urban planning, his lifelong field of work, along with the university. From 1983 to 1995 he was deputy mayor of the Barcelona City Council. To him, among many other things, we owe the organization of the city into districts – solid and well-thought-out enough to have lasted more than 40 years – and much of the work done in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, of which he was vice-president.

All this combined always with an intense intellectual life, with contacts around the world, both professional and political, especially in Latin America: he was in Chile during Allende's government, he miraculously escaped that situation, he helped the daughter of the disappeared president create a foundation in his memory; he often went to Argentina, to Brazil, to so many countries, working on urban projects, or trying to help left-wing governments at the start of their mandates, he collaborated with European urban planners from all over, from France and Italy very particularly. And he was always in contact with left-wing political leaders, increasingly distant, however, from sectarianism and authoritarian doctrines. Doctrines that, by now, were already very far away, as life makes us reasonable and negotiators, even if it's in fits and starts.

Beyond all the work done, we are left with his books and his articles, focused mainly on urbanism, especially on the development of a model of a democratic city open to everyone. A city that he helped to build, but which is still, in large part, a project for the future. And we are left, those of us who have had the good fortune to know him and collaborate with him, with his mastery and his style. Always creative, always direct and sincere, always willing to help. I still remember the period when all his friends and acquaintances welcomed fugitives from Chile into their homes, who found open arms in Jordi. Always willing to fight for a better society. About three months ago, when he could barely speak, he would gather us in groups of friends to try to confront the far-right that harasses us, because his motto was not to give up any battle.

Now, cornered by an illness that no longer allowed him to be himself, Jordi Borja has left as he wished, once euthanasia was applied to him. We are left with a great memory, a great legacy and, above all, a way of doing things and never giving up.