First snow, first meeting in Barruelo de Santullán
The principals at the first working meeting. Photo by Alfredo EscapaThe commissioners begin to work, looking for definitions of the word “repair” and we visit the perimeter of the abandoned industrial area of Barruelo de Santullán.
The first meeting was in Barruelo de Santullán (Palencia, Spain) on 1 and 2 February after a snowfall, which still covered some roofs. It was quite cold and a few snowflakes were still escaping. But we were sheltered in La Casa del Pueblo.
21 people accompanied us and the mediator, Alfredo Escapa, explained how the work process was going to be, explaining the protocol of François Hers that will guide this work.
We worked on the word “reparar”, which in Spanish has several meanings (to fix, to compensate, to realise, to realise), so that the participants could re-signify it based on their personal experiences and their relationship with the territory.
With this idea of re-appropriation of the word “repair” appeared, along with many others, concepts such as: taking responsibility, becoming aware of the hands that preceded us, undoing conflicts, not abandoning or learning.
From these ideas we think about the present, the past and the future of Barruelo de Santullán trying to realise what is already happening in this village, what has already happened and what are our wishes for the future of the community.
On day 2, although it was still bitterly cold, we wanted to walk around the old industrial area of the village.
This place is a space closed to the people, and during the decades in which the mine was open, its streets were for public use. Now its doors are closed to anyone. The neighbours feel that they have been robbed of this space where their personal, work and ideological histories took place. This place is a great open wound in the hearts of the neighbourhood.
This enormous space is closed off by a great many doors. In this way the doors begin to be named as a problematic that will run through this project, since, if on many occasions the doors are an invitation, here they are a symbol of expulsion. And these neighbours, they say, are here not only resisting but trying to build a friendlier future for themselves and future generations.
