The acceleration of life – things happen faster and faster and we do more and more things at the same time – stresses us out and distracts us from what is essential. In contrast, there is a value that is once again gaining importance: continuity, permanence. The prestige of what is lasting. Antiquity. When everything is ephemeral and fungible and obsolescent; when objects and ideas and friendships seem to be made to be used and thrown away; when people, in addition to being consumers thirsty for sensations and objects with an expiration date, have also become non-reusable consumable subjects, then it is especially attractive to encounter something that comes from afar and persists: a lineage, a landscape, a classic book, a monumental building, a belief, a company, an association, a love...

Franco had just died, Arias Navarro was still president and the country lived between hope and fear. In this context, fifty years ago, the Rally for Freedom was held, the first major democratic political event authorized in Catalonia since the end of the war, which boosted the PSC and gathered 15,000 people. Raimon Obiols (Barcelona, 1940) was one of the participants and this year the Government, through the Directorate General of Democratic Memory, and the Rafael Campalans Foundation paid tribute to him at the Barcelona Bar Association.