Portrait of Honduran Girona, the first foreign community in the city

GironaJulia Aceituno first set foot in Girona in 1990. She had grown up in Talanga, a small town of 40,000 inhabitants an hour from the capital of Honduras, Tegucigalpa, and at the time she was 36 years old and had three children. "I came for a holiday during the time of Felipe González," she recalls. At that time in Girona there were only nine of her compatriots: "We all knew each other!". Thirty-six years later, in the urban area of Girona alone, it is estimated that there are about 20,000 people of Honduran origin, and in the entire province, 40,000.

In the city of Girona, they are the first foreign community, ahead of the Moroccan one, and represent almost a quarter of the population from outside the State, established basically in two neighborhoods, Can Gibert del Pla and Santa Eugènia, where residents born outside of Spain represent 45% and 50% of the total, respectively. Ten years ago, Girona was already called little Talanga, but with the opening of a vice-consulate since 2024 and given the estimation of numbers, it is a community almost as large as that of the Honduran city itself.

Aceituno was one of the pioneers. Before leaving to return home, a colleague suggested she stay because Felipe González's government had promoted a regularization. Thus she obtained her papers and, one by one, her children began to arrive. Now, one of her granddaughters is studying architecture at the UdG. Like hers, over decades and with four migratory waves, more families would arrive. First, especially women. Then the children and, finally, husbands, grandmothers, and cousins. Now, a study by the UdG portrays for the first time in a qualitative way the profile of the Honduran community residing in the urban area based on 322 surveys, about twenty in-depth interviews, ethnographic work, and documentary research.

Prepared by the Research Group in Political Science and funded by the Catalan Institute for Peace (ICIP), the study reveals a profile very similar to that of Aceituno when he arrived in Girona in the 90s. The community is predominantly made up of women (77%), with an average age of around 34 years, and single in two out of three cases. Almost 20% of respondents are engaged in cleaning and domestic work, despite 59% indicating they have secondary education. And two out of three admit they cannot afford an unexpected expense of more than 800 euros. In other words, it is a community that lives mainly day-to-day, eminently young, and with economic fragility.

When the Consulate of Honduras in Girona opened in 2024, there were 7,383 registered residents in the city, representing 23.12% of the total foreign population. In the entire province, 18,525 Hondurans were registered, a figure that already doubled considering those who were not registered or had dual nationality. The study by the UdG also portrays a similar situation: 22% of respondents do not have documentation, 20% only have a residence permit, and 58% have nationality.

Women who support the family

In the survey, two UdG students with Honduran roots have worked. Luis Sarmiento, a political science graduate, knew firsthand the story of his mother's overcoming, who came to Girona in 2006 and left him in Honduras at 3 years old. "This has shaped who I am," he explained during the presentation of the study at the Ateneu Eugenienc in the Santa Eugènia neighborhood. But Sarmiento was not aware that this "pattern" was repeating, "with many similar stories of female admiration." "This study has helped me a lot personally to get to know my roots," reflected Naomi Martín, a law graduate and master's in advocacy, in turn. "We are all united by the same thing: leaving the country to give a future to the family," she added.

The presentation of the study's conclusions became a space for reflection and debate through participatory dynamics within the Honduran community. And the day concluded with a concert by the Marchingband Girona and a display of Honduran gastronomy. In the last decade, specialized restaurants and supermarkets have proliferated, especially in the Santa Eugènia and Can Gibert neighborhoods. One of them is Dinastía, near the Güell river, which has also become a shipping and meeting point. Behind it is María Romero, also a native of Talanga, who came at 24 years old – the average age of young women arriving in Girona – and has continued the family business. "I consider that building community and uniting is very important, but I think we Hondurans have a lot of ego and it's hard for us," she points out.

Dinastía are the sponsors of Marchingband Girona, a marching band with orchestral instruments and also chimes that parades at gatherings and popular culture events. It is mainly formed by young people in secondary school, many of Honduran origin, but also Colombians and from other Latin American nationalities. The meeting also served for them to express their concerns. This is what is called the one-and-a-half generation: born in Honduras but who came to Catalonia at a very young age. In the study, they represent 24% of the respondents and have mothers at the forefront who have sustained the family economy for many years with them at a distance.

Economic difficulties

Despite the constant migratory flow for more than three decades, economic and labor precarity continues to mark the community. The study focuses on the challenges and portrays that one in five Hondurans has at least two jobs to cover not only expenses in Girona, but also on the other side of the Atlantic. This is because almost half constantly send money to their country of origin and only 14% own a home (most live in rented apartments or rooms).

Regarding the labor market, a sample of female employment is that 19% are dedicated to cleaning and domestic work. But at the same time, 13% are students, which denotes the youth of the profile of those surveyed. "While women are more dedicated to domestic work, men work in construction and driving," details Anaïs Varo, a professor at the UdG and part of the research team.

Aceituno, along with other women, drove the first association of Hondurans in the Girona region in 2002. The reason was that one of the first migrants died and they had to cover the costs of repatriating the body. Now this entity is in stand by and the community unites, in part, through the evangelical churches that have proliferated in recent years. The largest is the Elim center, located in two large warehouses of 2,000 square meters next to the Nestlé factory in Girona, the same space that invited Dani Alves to talk about his experience of faith.

Leading it since 2015 are Jimmy Martín and Karely Castro, his wife, who discovered this church upon arriving in Girona and ended up becoming its pastors. "Elim has become a great welcome network for the community and also for help. Up to 700 people can come to mass on a Sunday," says Castro. At the same time, they provide food to 1,900 families three days a week through the Food Bank and collaborations with supermarkets. The community also tries to respond to the housing problem.

The migratory flow from Honduras has remained constant since the 2000s, Varo details. "More than 30% arrived before 2007, and that was almost 20 years ago," she says. 17% came during the economic crisis, 27% before the pandemic (fleeing violence in Honduras, mainly), and 26% have arrived since 2021. Do they intend to return? More than four out of 10 say no, while only 23% indicate they will. "The better the perception of Catalonia, the less desire there is to return," concludes the researcher from the UdG.

The University of Girona hosts this week, just as the extraordinary regularization process has ended, the world's leading migration congress, bringing together more than 1,350 participants from 75 countries. This is the 23rd Annual Conference of the International Migration Research Network (IMISCOE). At the head of the congress organizing team is the professor and researcher at UdG Òscar Prieto-Flores, who highlights the practical will of the meeting and its connection to the community, the typical way of working of the Research Group on Migratory Movements.

How did Girona come to host the congress?

— UdG is a benchmark in the study of migration for over 35 years and has its own master's programs. Social reality has highlighted the needs of the territory, but UdG decided years ago to lead this field by contributing knowledge.

They point out that the conference aims to strengthen the link between academia and communities.

— Traditionally studies have been conducted largely within academia, but in the last decade we have been advocating for everyday life. In this congress, it is very important: how can we conduct research jointly with other experts and entities. Because societies should be the ones setting research needs, and this brings richness.

We are living in a moment of great polarization in the migratory discourse. What do they propose?

— There is a rise in narratives in the public sphere not only from the far right, with great polarization around migration. Myths must be put on the table with rigor to foster new initiatives.

What are these myths?

— One of the most important is that there are clearly no old or new studies that provide data that regularization processes produce a pull effect. Regarding the Latin American community, one of the myths is that they do not want to speak Catalan, and what we see in schools, with initiatives like the mentorship of the Rossinyol project, is that this is not the case.