SHANTYISM IN TIMES OF REPRESSION AND RATIONING
Shantyism Eradication Service
Neglect of the Francoist City Council and initiatives of the Church
The Shantyism Eradication Service was created in 1949 and the City Council
sought to curb the spread of shantyism by means of a census of shanties, the
control and repression of new constructions, and attempts to make the “illegal”
immigrants return to their places of origin. The Indigent Classification Centre
at the Hall of the Missions on Montjuïc was instituted in 1953. This centre was
the destination of many immigrants and many shanty-dwellers from eradicated
shantytowns.
The holding of the 35th Eucharistic Congress caused the shanty-dwellers to be
removed to distant precarious neighbourhoods such as La Verneda and Can Clos,
two districts which continue to be depressed to this day.
The political repression had left the Church as the only institution with a public
voice on shantyism. Social assistance actions were carried out with a paternalistic
character. Health and school were the services which were sought to be supplied
from the ecclesiastical charity in the face of the City Council’s neglect.
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