![]() “There is no evidence that he was a slaver as such but he was definitely a slave owner. “We know very little about what Güell actually did in Cuba,” says Martín Rodrigo, professor of history at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, who has written several books about the links between Barcelona and slavery. Güell made his fortune in Cuba and there are some, including Oriol Junqueras, leader of the Catalan Republican Left party, who claim he was directly involved in the slave trade. The tour begins at the statue of Joan Güell, father of Gaudí’s patron, Eusebi. “They are often surprised to hear this story, but always grateful for the fact that we are facing up to this uncomfortable part of our history,” he said. ![]() López says that around a quarter of those who take the tour are African-Americans. ![]() “It’s also a way of giving recognition to the people who were the victims of slavery.” “This is what Americans call public history, that is, taking serious historical research and finding a way to present it to the general public,” says Oriol López-Badell, a historian at the European Observatory on Memories at the University of Barcelona, who helped establish the tour. To its credit, the city inaugurated a slavery tour to educate visitors and residents about a part of its history many would prefer to forget. Perhaps more offensive than Columbus are the many statues and memorials to those who owed their wealth to slavery. Much of the city’s finest architecture, including some of Antoni Gaudí’s masterpieces, was financed by so-called indianos, Spaniards, many of them Catalans, who made their fortunes out of slavery in the Caribbean. Columbus’ links with the city are tenuous at best, but what isn’t in doubt is Barcelona’s long and lucrative association with slavery.
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