Navas or Torrente de la Zorra? A Barcelona neighbourhood debates whether to change its name

BarcelonaBarcelona is about to experience something not very common: the possibility of an entire neighbourhood changing its name. The protagonists of this story are the residents of Navas, who are now discussing whether they want to keep the current name or, on the contrary, change it to Torrent de la Zorra. The debate is heated in this neighbourhood bordering Sagrera and Clot, to the point that there are already platforms for and against the change. Let's look at their arguments.

Among the detractors, recent history weighs heavily; the fact that it has always been part of the Navas neighbourhood and they don't see why it should change. Although the Navas neighbourhood has not formally existed for even 20 years – it was created at the end of 2006, when the new map of the city's neighbourhoods was approved – some residents of the area have taken the name of Navas as their banner since the 1970s when they fought to be recognised as a neighbourhood with its own personality.

The supporters of renaming the neighbourhood, on the other hand, do not want to continue being the only one in all of Barcelona to have a battle as its name: that of Navas de Tolosa, one of the most notable (and bloody) of the Reconquista. They claim that the only reason that justifies this name was because it was the name of one of its main streets and that of the metro stop in the area, and propose, in exchange, that the new name of the neighbourhood be that of Torrent de la Zorra, which they consider more closely linked to the neighbourhood because it gives its name to the torrent that flowed from Guinardó to Poblenou along those same streets.

Among those in favour of the name change are the members of the historical memory committee of the Navas Neighbourhood Association. In fact, they are the promoters of the collection of signatures that was carried out last year to formally open the debate on the name change. They needed 700 and have managed to get more than a thousand. A milestone that led them to achieve their first institutional success this Wednesday.

The plenary session of the Sant Andreu district endorsed the possibility of renaming the neighborhood with the votes in favor of Junts, Barcelona en Comú and ERC, the abstention of the PSC and the PP and the vote against Vox. However, there is still a long way to go: the final word on possible name changes for neighborhoods lies with the plenary session of the City Council.

A consultation in the neighborhood

However, the timetable is uncertain. There is no set deadline for the council to raise this matter to the plenary session. In addition, in the last few hours the detractors of the name change have put a proposal on the table that could prolong everything: the holding of a consultation among the residents of the neighbourhood over 16 years of age to decide whether they want to continue being from Navas or, on the contrary, from Torrent de la Zorra.

In this sense, they argue that many of the residents did not even know that a name change was being promoted, and that it is fairer for everyone to vote on it than for the plenary session of the City Council to decide it solely from a collection of signatures. Now, however, they will have to get support also among the residents in order to be able to ask the council to call the vote. The battle of Navas is on again.