Joel León Ortiz: "Going out in a skirt and wearing makeup in Torre Baró is a political act"

BarcelonaHe says his WhatsApp photo doesn't flatter him, but he just loves the street furniture that can be seen in it, the signs, the posters, the fences. Joel León is a young content creator who explains life from his neighborhood, Torre Baró, where he works as a leisure monitor. The son of a couple who met in the neighborhood, his mother of Bolivian origin and president of the neighborhood association, he has dedicated himself heart and soul to activism since he was very young. Many afternoons he visits elderly neighbors who are alone.

To come to Torre Baró from the ARA office, I took the metro and the Renfe train, and I walked for fifteen minutes with a 10% slope. Google Maps made me cross through an empty lot. Did you choose to meet here on purpose?

— Not at all, this is one of the points that is closest to all transport alternatives!

Except when you go out at night, as you often complain on Instagram.

— If I arrive at 11 at night, I no longer have the neighborhood bus, I have to walk the fifteen minutes uphill. And in a periphery, at night, vulnerable groups such as women, the LGTBIQA+ collective, racialized groups or young people in certain conditions, do not feel completely safe.

Do you feel unsafe in the neighborhood?

— No, I was raised here, I'm not afraid. I'm afraid that policies won't be made to serve the neighborhood. Sometimes we don't want to say that we live in a marginalized neighborhood because we have a great sense of belonging. I feel proud of Torre Baró, but we also grow up with a kind of guilt, a shame... I used to tell my friends that I was from Nou Barris! Why? When I love my neighbors so much! But you know that opportunities are lacking here and that the policies being made are not those of the city center.

It is a double-edged sword, isn't it? Calling it a marginal neighborhood seems to denigrate it, and not saying it prevents achieving better living conditions.

— The latest demonstrations have been for the Primary Healthcare Center (CAP). Five months ago, we had thirteen doctors to cover four neighborhoods with more than 34,000 people: Can Cuiàs, Ciutat Meridiana, Vallbona, and Torre Baró. We have the strength of the neighborhood, the strength of the union, and the strength of neighborhood organization, but we will not manage to change anything if the administration does not listen to us.

With the success of El 47 the neighborhood had a moment of prominence. What happened afterwards?

— It was a moment of brotherhood and also of overwhelm. Tourist routes began to arrive, some from the Roquetes Historical Archive that we supported, but others that were looking for shacks. What shack is there in Torre Baró?

Did you fear the romanticization of poverty?

— Yes, poverty is emotional, El 47 moves you. But I do not romanticize the lack of street lighting in the neighborhood, that we do not have sidewalks, that we do not have cleaning services outside of the established hours. I do not live in poverty, but I do live with inequality.

How does Barcelona look from up here?

— We have some very beautiful views, but we see ourselves as very small. Do you know those public housing blocks you have seen going up? They haven't reached anyone from Torre Baró.

If Maria Mercè Marçal was three times a rebel, how many times are you?

— I am a member of the Nou Barris Housing Union, Territori Antifeixista, the Palestine committee, when I can I do things with Nou Barris Feminista, which is a non-mixed space, and I participate in grassroots associations, at the youth center and the neighbors' association. I am also part of the queer collective and, to break even more stigmas, I decided to create content in Catalan, precisely because I reclaim my home, which is Torre Baró and is Catalonia. And all of this is compatible in an 18-year-old person.

Is there a distance between the idea one might have of Torre Baró and the real neighborhood?

— Yes. Now in Ciutat Meridiana there are many police raids. There are gangs and a moment of insecurity. But the neighborhood is much more than that. It is very stigmatizing that only this is talked about. Many other stories happen in the neighborhood that we have to tell.

The far right often makes inroads in peripheral neighborhoods and it is also happening among young people. Does it scare you?

— That is why I started creating content, to provide an alternative. Buying votes in places where people are fed up with not being heard, with precariousness, with the lack of alternatives is easier. Simple slogans, "the immigrant back to their country", are easier to buy. Here, stalls from Aliança Catalana, from Vox... come, but I do not believe that these empty discourses represent the periphery.

Is it difficult to be a left-wing militant in an environment that can be hostile?

— Of course. Living in Torre Baró is a political act every day. Being a person from the LGTBIQA+ collective, and even more so here, is a political act. That is why I decide to go out wearing a skirt, with huge earrings, wearing makeup, because it is a political act to show who you are, to show your values. I am not afraid, in my neighborhood. Also for this reason I am doing pedagogical work, through social media and through the festival committees. And if anything ever happens to me... it will not be my fault.