The anthropologist and sociologist Roger Bartra Murià (Mexico City, 1942) is an authority in Latin America in the field of social sciences. Son of the poet Agustí Bartra and the writer Anna Murià, he was born and raised on the other side of the Atlantic, far from Catalonia, due to the forced exile of his parents, persecuted by Francoism. Throughout his life, in Mexico, but also in Venezuela, the United States, London, and Paris, he has forged a career as a professor and intellectual, with notable contributions in areas such as exile or the construction of national identity. This week he is in Girona, invited by the Ferrater Mora Chair of the University of Girona (UdG), to give five lectures at the Faculty of Arts and a conference open to the public, on Thursday at the Centre Cultural La Mercè, on exile and travel.

Albert Recasens Barberá (Cambrils, 1976) is one of the foremost specialists in Hispanic classical music from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Director of the historicist ensemble La Grande Chapelle, for two decades he has combined passionate musicological research with performance and artistic direction, always with the recovery of unpublished works from the Spanish baroque as a common thread. This Saturday, May 9, in Cervera, as the inaugural event of the Espurnes Barroques festival, he premieres La vida es sueño… en música, a hybrid proposal that intertwines theater and music based on the mythical text by Calderón de la Barca, a master of the Golden Age. The show-concert, produced in collaboration with Ignacio Arellano, editor of the playwright's works, and stage director Eva Rufo, features some fifteen performers who combine theatrical dialogues on stage with villancicos, tonos, motets, and madrigals by composers with whom Calderón had worked, such as Juan Hidalgo, Tomás Torrejón, and Cristóbal Galán.

On the afternoon of Friday, May 1st, the Girona-based group Minibús Intergalàctic was performing at the Ateneu Salvadora Catà in Girona. It was an open-air, self-managed concert, held between independence and Palestinian flags, to celebrate the eleventh anniversary of this social center. Two days later, their phones started ringing off the hook. The reason was that Pedro Sánchez, in his weekly TikTok videos of cultural recommendations, recommended them to his followers, more than 800,000: "I've listened to this group I didn't know, from Catalonia, from Girona. I recommend, from their latest album, this song that I loved, which is Per sentir-me ple", said the president of the government.

The public sector contract law is based on the principles of free competition and equal opportunities. Any company, entity, or person from all over Catalonia can submit bids for public administration tenders. This also applies to those from the Spanish State and any country in the European Union. The awarding bodies are very demanding and do not accept any criteria that discriminate on the grounds of origin or nationality. However, these public tenders, which are necessary to guarantee transparency and prevent favoritism, sometimes result in surprising awards, with decisions that are difficult for citizens and local businesses to understand.

Yeni Sánchez, 33 years old, is Honduran and has been living in Girona with her husband for three years. She has two children, a boy and a girl. In recent months, she has been living in an irregular situation after losing international protection. This week, however, she has been able to apply for the "extraordinary regulation for migrants. She has already submitted the application and, within weeks, she expects to have the provisional response to obtain residence and work permits. "It has been a horrible few months, but now I'm starting to feel calm and very hopeful," she explains.

A romancero is a traditional composition in verse, intended to be sung or recited in a festive and popular setting, which narrates current events as a social chronicle. Many musicians interested in folk heritage have replicated the formula, such as Jaume Arnella, Quico Pi de la Serra, or Bob Dylan himself. Now, the group Fetus, from La Bisbal d'Empordà, has also joined this trend and has just released their sixth album, Romancer tartera (Bankrobber, 2026), made up of 13 punk-rock rooted romances. They talk about the most recent Catalan reality, referring, more or less subtly, to the commuter trains, the airport expansion, the PSC, Sílvia Orriols, Carles Mazón, or the America's Cup. The first live concert is on April 30th in Barcelona, at the Teatre Casinet d'Hostafrancs, and they will then continue in Girona (May 9th), Lleida (May 16th), and Altafulla (May 30th), before an intense summer touring all over Catalonia.

Girona's Devesa park woke up this Monday to an absolutely unprecedented crowd. A stream of people, mostly young people and teenagers, from all over Catalonia and beyond, have been queuing since the crack of dawn, summoned by the announcement of a casting call for the new Disney film Tangled (Enredats), a Disney live-action remake of the original animated film, which will be shot in July in the city and is expected to be released from 2027 onwards. By midday, the line of interested people still surrounds the entire Girona park: from the Palau Firal, where the casting is taking place, to past the roundabout of the courts and the esplanade of La Copa. The surrounding streets are also packed, the car parks are saturated, and at some point in the morning, traffic problems have even been generated.

The Devesa Park in Girona woke up this Monday to an absolutely unprecedented crowd of people. A line of people, mostly young people and teenagers, from all over Catalonia and beyond, have been queuing since the early hours, summoned by the announcement of a casting for the new version of Disney's movie Tangled (Enredados), by Disney. It will be a live-action remake of the original animated film, which will be shot in July in the city and is expected to premiere from 2027 onwards. By midday, the line of interested people in participating in the production still surrounds the entire Girona park: from the Palau Firal, where the casting is taking place, to beyond the roundabout of the courts and the explanada de la Copa. The surrounding streets are also full, car parks are saturated, and at some point in the morning, traffic problems have even occurred.

Just over a year remains until the next municipal elections, and in most municipalities, parties are already pulling strings to nominate their candidates and configure their lists. In the four Catalan capitals, a good portion of the candidates have already announced if they will run again, and new names entering the municipal dispute have also been revealed, but there are still unresolved unknowns.

Girona is a medium-sized city of just over 100,000 inhabitants. Within a few kilometers, a diverse and contrasting urban landscape is concentrated, with very little physical distance between affluent and humbler neighborhoods. As confirmed by the data from the Annual Population Census of the National Institute of Statistics (INE), analyzed by ARA, district 2, which includes Montilivi and part of Palau, has around 9% of its population born abroad, while, at the same level, but on the southwest side of the city, in Santa Eugènia, this proportion exceeds 50%. the data from the Annual Population Census of the National Institute of Statistics (INE), analyzed by ARA,district 2, which includes Montilivi and part of Palau, has around 9% of its population born abroad, while, at this same level, but on the southwest side of the city, in Santa Eugènia, this proportion exceeds 50%.

The Fundació Cultural El Foment de Girona doesn't stop growing. It landed in the city six years ago, in the midst of a critical moment of the pandemic, in Plaça dels Mercaders, and, since then, it has been expanding around this nerve center in the heart of the old town, with more and more leisure and gastronomic proposals, always with Catalan culture as its banner. It has now become a non-profit foundation, funded by more than 300 members and, in one year, it manages to program up to 400 proposals, more than one a day, including concerts, workshops, tastings, monologues, literary cafés... And, this 2026, for Sant Jordi, it is organizing a grand celebration again.

This Saturday morning, during an informal get-together with Guanyem activists, the mayor of Girona, Lluc Salellas, announced that he will run again as a mayoral candidate for the City Council. Initially, Salellas intended not to run again as a candidate, as he explained in his first interview with ARA as mayor, but in recent months the possibility of his continuation at the head of the cross-party left-wing formation that integrates the CUP has gained traction. The decision arises from a proposal by the activists, who consider him the best option to try to regain the mayoralty and to be able to continue the current government's work from the highest executive responsibility. Salellas is the formation's greatest asset, especially after the number two in the last election, Cristina Andreu, who was a pillar, resigned at the beginning of the term for health reasons.

Amazon's new logistics center, opened in 2023 in an industrial estate on the outskirts of Figueres, has revolutionized the Alt Empordà. It is, by far, the largest company in the region, ahead of major companies such as the supermarkets of Antonio Escudero in La Jonquera or the food giant supermarkets of Antonio Escudero in La Jonquera or the food giant Transgourmet. Around 2,000 people work day and night, a volume that represents more than 1% of the entire population of all municipalities within a 40 km radius. And, logically, this correlation between workers and inhabitants, much higher than that of any large company in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, causes everything surrounding Amazon's business to have a direct impact on the day-to-day life of the region.

Lloret de Mar is celebrating. After years of demands and legal disputes, the Can Juncadella coastal path, blocked since 2009 by the garden fences of a Kazakh magnate's mansion, will reopen to the public. This has been agreed by the Lloret de Mar City Council in an agreement with the property owner that will allow the route to be redefined and the passage through the estate to be opened. The agreement, which will have to be voted on by the municipal plenary, where it is expected to be approved without problems, will allow compliance with up to six rulings in favour of reopening by the High Court of Justice of Catalonia (TJSC).

Although Latin rhythms and urban aesthetics have long dominated the bulk of the music scene, the passion for rock'n'roll and the distortion of electric guitars, even if it is a minority, remains alive among new generations of artists from our country. In Catalonia, one of the most alternative and stimulating groups of this genre is Roko Banana, a trio from Banyoles formed by Mak Dzinovic (guitar and vocals), Àlex Abad (drums and vocals) and Edu Rodríguez (bass and vocals), who have just released their third album, Gran Muralla (Aloud Music). It is a highly ambitious album, somewhere between progressive rock and indie, with nine intense, combative and exciting tracks that speak of friendship and offer a fervent critique of the individualism that governs the rules of the capitalist system. The live premiere will be on April 2nd at the La Nau venue in Barcelona.

The pianist, harpsichordist, and conductor Dani Espasa (la Canonja, 1974) is one of the most knowledgeable and prolific musicians in Catalonia. In 2005 he founded the Vespres d’Arnadí orchestra, a group of top-level musicians dedicated to the performance of Baroque pieces with historical instruments and criteria, which performs continuously in theaters and auditoriums in our region. In recent years, the ensemble has undertaken a huge task of unearthing lost works of ancient music, some by Catalan composers, such as Domènec Tarradellas and Carles Baguer. They are now the resident ensemble of the Peralada Festival, and this Maundy Thursday, April 2, they will inaugurate the Easter edition with a version of Il Cristo condannato, by Antonio Caldara, composed in 1717 and unpublished in modern times. The work will be revived in the church of El Carme under Espasa's direction, with Montserrat Seró and Josep-Ramon Olivé among the soloists, and the participation of the Cor Francesc Valls.

Barely five months after the end of the last tour in Barcelona, La Ludwig Band returns to the stage, now at La Mirona Salt, as part of the Strenes Festival, with a new album under their arm, the fantastic Pel barri es comenta, which has just come out of the oven. In the live debut of the new album, the band has shown a very good tone, with drive and exuberance, singing new songs, yes, but with the shared feeling that in this minimal gap between one project and the other, not much has changed.

In Bàsquet Girona's last home game at the Fontajau pavilion, against Andorra, play was interrupted several times due to repeated power outages. The local team ended up winning the match, but the opponent managed to close the gap during the pauses caused by technical problems, which distracted the Girona players. It was the weekend of March 15th, the one with strong winds in the northeast of Catalonia, but the same situation had already happened before. In January, for example, in the EuroLeague game between Uni Girona and Galatasaray, the initial whistle sounded an hour late due to the same problem. And this March, against Casademont Zaragoza, the court went dark again with one minute left to play, with Uni two points down. The interruption broke the team's positive momentum and the home team ended up losing by three points.

Girona has once again become the capital of Catalan music with the celebration of the XXVIII Enderrock Awards. The gala, presented with great ease by communicators Alba Riera and Andreu Juanola, has been, once again, a great showcase of the country's musical scene, with numerous live premieres and a review of the year's great milestones.

The work of Salvador Dalí is a treasure trove of surprises. His vast and extraordinary output is spread throughout Catalonia, primarily among the museums of Figueres, Portlligat, and Púbol. But, from time to time, these three locations... Dalinian triangle New pieces of great value continue to arrive, which the Catalan public can admire for the first time. This is the case with a fantastic folding screen or screen made with oriental motifs, created by the artist in his earliest period, when he was a teenager. It is now being presented for the first time at the Salvador Dalí Birthplace Museum in the center of Figueres, until September 13.