10 years ago, when I first saw the America’s Cup aquatic flying saucers sail across the San Francisco Bay with the marvelous art-deco Golden Gate Gate in the background, I dreamed that one day I would see that same image in the port of San Francisco. Barcelona. And so it has been.
The first images of the America’s Cup sailboats sailing through the waters of Barcelona, with the city in the background, can now be seen all over the world. And it is an exceptional and unique image, why fool ourselves.
For months the debate on whether Madrid has managed to unseat Barcelona has been a recurring theme. It is true that, in state investment, Madrid has had it all. It is also true that the procés has damaged Barcelona, and not only because of the massive flight of companies and capital and the tax burden, but also because the city has been left in the hands of politicians with short-sightedness.
Barcelona has interrupted the escalation that began after the Olympic dream because of local politicians, there is no doubt about that, but the city is still there and cannot be erased from the map.
If in 1992 a simple image of a trampoline jumper with the city in the background astonished the world, wait and see what will happen with the Copa América. The Copa América will be another gigantic springboard for the city. Madrid, with all its potential, is not Olympic, at the moment, nor will it ever be able to host the Copa América.
The nautical image of Barcelona is unbeatable and will hurt the feelings of many, including those who did not bet on the Copa América Barcelona 2007, which ended up being held in Valencia.
Alinghi Red Bull Racing’s sails in a training session off the coast of Barcelona
The vanguard published a few days ago with the title It does not cross the sea, but flies, an extraordinary photograph by Albert Gea (Reuters) in which Alinghi Red Bull Racing was seen sailing in open water and with the Vela hotel and Drassanes tower as a background. The composition, which cannot be paid for with all the money from the State, nor with political obsessions, is a special image that shows Barcelona as a special city.
Barcelona would do well to recover their spirits. It would do well to get the vote right in the next municipal elections. In the Barcelona that wants a majority of citizens, there is no place for segregationism, nor for the populism that slows down the metropolis.
Who to vote for? Many Barcelonans ask themselves. The answer is very simple, to those who love Barcelona and are willing to make it grow open and not closed, trilingual, full of young people from all over Spain, Europe and the world, clean and with less violence, with guaranteed civil liberties and individual rights, and above all, oxygenated, without politicians who tell us how we should be, do and think and forget to serve the citizen along the way.
read also
Between Madrid and Barcelona there are certainly many differences. Mayor Pasqual Maragall said it clearly a few years ago, Madrid has managed to become a city and Barcelona will fail if it tries to be a capital. To rectify is always on time.
Alinghi Red Bull Racing is the sailing team of the Geneva Nautical Society. He has been the winner of the America’s Cup in Aukland in 2003 and in Valencia in 2007, on both occasions he beat Team New Zealand of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squad, the reigning champions.
Let’s hope that local politicians do not intervene too much in the organization of the competition, that they do not try to use it as their own postcard, that they do not appear too much in the photo -they are already doing it- and dedicate themselves to facilitating things instead of complicating them.
If we already suffered from boycotts and local political obstacles at the Olympic Games, let’s hope that the Copa América goes by as free as the wind and the sea, and that that spirit of adventure once again takes over the city. If this happens, the Madrid or Barcelona debate will come to an end, and Barcelona will once again be what it has never ceased to be, despite attempts to harm it: a unique city.
