Cabanyal

Nora Explora... Cabanyal

 

For the past couple weeks I´ve been meeting up with a Valencian friend who helps me practice valenciano, and in return, I help him practice English. It´s fun to learn the language from someone who had grown up speaking it, and in return, I enjoy getting to talk about my home and my country with him.

 

Last weekend he invited me to go on a guided tour of Cabanyal, a neighborhood not far from where I live. The town´s history dates back several centuries, back to when it was its own town and before the city of Valencia grew to engulf it. It´s right on the coast and was known for its ports and for fresh seafood. These days it has an unfortunate reputation for being a ´bad´ neighborhood, and the government wants to tear down large sections of the town to extend a major highway and to make room for some kind of development project (probably something along the lines of making the beach more attractive to tourists). Most Valencians don´t think twice about letting the government go ahead with the project, but people who know the neighborhood are trying to show the rest of the city how valuable Cabanyal still is. They are offering guided tours to the public, as well as the chance to enter some of the homes and businesses.

 

We went on a tour that was led by an art history professor, so she was very knowledgeable. She pointed out the use of traditional blue and white tiles on the outsides of buildings, and she talked about some of the towers that were used for wives to communicate with their fisherman husbands while they were out at sea. We walked through a beautiful old building that is now being used as a school, and we saw a puppet theater. The guide talked about how the town has a strong culture of living and interacting in the streets with friends and neighbors, and how she has never felt so safe as when she lived in that town because there were always people around to make sure that things were okay. The government doesn´t understand, or doesn´t care about, the value of open plazas and pedestrian spaces because that´s where neighbors meet and families set up chairs and friends eat dinner together. The guide mentioned how the town of Cabanyal has been in touch with other cities in similar situations - including towns in Germany and Australia - that are fighting against the government to keep their culture and way of life.

 

Since I´ve been traveling for the past few weekends, it was nice to finally have some time in my own city. I´m excited that I got to see this part of Valencia that I otherwise might never have known about, and it seems like a story worth sharing :)