After I finished my study abroad program, I had the privilege of spending a week in Spain’s second most prominent city, Barcelona. The capital of Catalunya offers a few interesting lessons in urban planning, my field of study.

In particular, Barcelona is the epicenter of the ‘Okupa,’ or Squatting, movement in Spain. Thus, during my time in the city, I saw various CSOs or ‘Centros Sociales Okupadas.’ These tended to be large abandoned properties that residents took over to establish cinemas, refugee aid, or cooperative workshops. Barcelona’s squatting is a product of its history of anti-fascist resistance to the Nationals in the Spanish Civil War, as well as its resistance to Franco’s dictatorship. Consequently, there are numerous placards in Barcelona celebrating anarchist or Trotskyist figures, the likes of whom would not be celebrated even in America’s most liberal cities.

My (possibly erroneous) translation: “In this street, on the 5th of May, 1937, Julio Cid Gaitan, militant of the Spanish faction of Bolshevik-Leninists, died. He was a combatant against fascism and defender of the social revolution during the insurrection of May ’37 against the Stalinist and Republican establishment.”

The struggle to reclaim local working-class history has become even more contentious as hyper-tourism changes the character of neighborhoods and more apartments become pisos turisticos (‘tourist flats’). Those who seek to honor Barcelona’s radicalism must also deal with an independence movement that has become increasingly nationalistic and fixated on the supposed purity of the Catalan language.

My time in Barcelona showed me how empowered communities can take back the streets, along with the pitfalls that result when movements become eclipsed by discriminatory slogans.