45 years living in community in Barceloneta

Josep Maria, a 63-year-old architect; Loam, 61; Pere and Núria, both 63-year-old doctors; and Glòria, a 65-year-old teacher, live on Calle Pizarro, in the Barceloneta neighborhood. They have shared a flat, lunch and dinner, expenses and income for 45 years, when they decided to live in community.

“We met through a weekly prayer in Barcelona and we were united by the experience of faith. Like many young people in the 60s and 70s, we had the desire to live together and we began to study a thousand ways to carry it out”, explains Glòria, who is amazed at this journalist’s interest in an alternative lifestyle. “We do not believe that our history can inspire anyone, although it is true that there are few communities that are sustained for 45 years.”

“Vocation, communication and trust”

More than four decades sharing life

Josep Maria, a 63-year-old architect; Loam, 61; Pere and Núria, both 63-year-old doctors; and Glòria, teacher of 65

Xavi Cervera

What is the secret of success? “Vocation, communication and trust”, he responds quickly. “Just as there are other people who are fulfilled through parenthood, partner or work, we feel fulfilled living in community, with all the benefits and sacrifices that this implies.” But make no mistake, living in a community does not mean giving up the family. In fact, of the five members of the house, two couples have emerged who in total have five children, aged between 30 and 22, so when they all come together they are at least 12 people. “The eldest has already married and has had a son,” says Glòria.


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The Taizé community, promoter of the prayers where the protagonists of this story met, is based on hospitality, coexistence and spirituality. In fact, the founder, Roger Schutz, settled in Taizé, a small town in France near Lyon, in 1940 to form a community between the different Christian churches.

vocation to help

Reception of people in vulnerable situations

Community Taizé Barceloneta

They all share a flat, lunch and dinner, expenses and income for 45 years

Xavi Cervera

Welcoming people who are going through a personal crisis is one of the commitments of this community based in Barceloneta. “In total, we have welcomed about 15 during the 45 years we have been here. We offer the possibility of sharing with people who are looking for the meaning of their life”, explains Glòria from the dining room of a house located with five floors and a terrace in the heart of the maritime district. The house was acquired 45 years ago at a ridiculous price, when Barceloneta was not dominated by tourists and subjected to gentrification, but was away from the city center and was inhabited mostly by humble families of sailors and people who came from other areas of Spain to earn a living.


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The four founders of Enso Spaces in the apartment they share in Barcelona

Upon my arrival at the house, Glòria is accompanied by a young man of color of about twenty years of age, who goes by the name of Abdul, so I ask her if Abdul is one of these sheltered people: “No, Abdul is a case special. The daughter of Pere and Núria, both doctors, met him in a refugee camp on Lesbos and they kept in touch because she had health problems. Finally, they decided that Abdul, who comes from Ghana, had to come to Barcelona for treatment and he has been living with us for a year and already works in a greengrocer in the neighborhood”, explains Glòria, who recalls that during the war in Bosnia, between 1992 and 1995, they also sheltered a Bosnian refugee and more recently a Colombian family referred through Cáritas.

Community Taizé Barceloneta

The five friends, in a funny image inside the elevator of the farm they share

Xavi Cervera

“The possibility of welcoming and sharing our day-to-day with others is the main benefit of living together”, adds Glòria. Among the difficulties, the typical ones of coexistence: “why have you put this glass in this drawer if you know it goes in the other?”, She explains with humor, “but nothing that with will and communication cannot be fixed”.

The Swedish theory of love

In Spain, there are 4,889,900 people living alone, which means that 10.4% of households are single-person, according to data of the National Institute of Statistics relative to 2020. Of all of them, 43.6% are 65 years of age or older, and although living alone is not the same as feeling alone, loneliness is one of the main causes of social exclusion that affects all age ranges. In fact, the majority of young people with suicidal ideas say they feel lonely.

​Sweden, one of the countries with the highest suicide rate in the European Union, attributes this problem to loneliness. The State, through nurseries, residences for the elderly and all kinds of aid, replaces family and friends as a protection network, which ends up isolating people to the point that there are more and more single mothers who have children. through artificial insemination and the number of people dying alone in care homes increases year after year.

What in theory seems like an immaculate idea – an autonomous and independent society – in practice turns out to be a social problem, as documentary filmmaker Erik Gandini has portrayed in the celebrated film The Swedish theory of love (2015). In the UK, Prime Minister Theresa May created a ministry of loneliness in 2018. Japan did so in 2021. If loneliness is a problem in Western societies, why aren’t more people living together?

There has to be a lot of communication and trust for things to work. That includes knowing how to listen and that you are not always right


Community Taizé Barceloneta

GloryTeacher

Community Taizé Barceloneta

The farm has a small garden where everyone works

Xavi Cervera

“Living in community is an agreement of maximums”, reflects Glòria. “There has to be a lot of communication and trust for things to work. That includes knowing how to listen and that you are not always right”, she adds. To do this, every Wednesday they have a weekly meeting to deal with issues related to coexistence. “Living together as a couple or staying alone is a minimum agreement, there are fewer things to share and often the octopus ends up being accepted as a pet for fear of loneliness. Life together is demanding and requires effort”.


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In the house in Barceloneta life experiences are shared, but also material things and the salaries of all the cohabitants go to a common bank account. Has this not caused problems? “Never. Before making a large expense, we talk about it. In the same way that you would do with your partner if your computer breaks down. You would not arrive with a new one under your arm, but you would explain the problem and the need to acquire a new one. We do the same.”

Children are educated by parents and not by the community


Community Taizé Barceloneta

GloryTeacher

Community Taizé Barceloneta

The five point to a puzzle hanging on the staircase of the farm

Xavi Cervera

The greatest turning point in the coexistence of this community occurred with the arrival of the children of Josep Maria and Marga, first, and Pere and Núria later. “We had to make the rules very clear”, explains Glòria. “Children are educated by parents and not by the community. If they need to ask permission to do something, money or whatever, they have to go to their parents. I am here as a grandmother or an aunt, a person with whom they share their daily lives and life experiences, but I am not responsible for their education, ”she adds.


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The family nuclei are maintained, so that the children have always differentiated who educated them –the parents– and who accompanied them –the rest of the members. “At school they have never had any problem with it. On the contrary, when they have told their friends, and they have come to play at home, it has seemed fantastic to them, and also to their parents. In fact, we have never had television, but when we have been interested in watching a program, we have gone to a friend’s house”, says Glòria. “Now the children of Josep Maria and Marga are already independent, and those of Pere and Nuria, half half”.

Community Taizé Barceloneta

Community members watching a movie in one of their common spaces

Xavi Cervera

There is less noise in the house in Barceloneta. Once again, the five protagonists of this story that began 45 years ago when they decided to share a flat, lunch and dinner, expenses and income coexist. Sharing life, in short, so easy and difficult at the same time.

45 years living in community in Barceloneta