paral.lel

The Paral.lel Av. is a pretty lame street these days.
Why then does it hold such a legendary place in the city's imaginary?
The exhibition EL PARAL.LEL 1894-1939 at the CCCB tells you everything about the myth and then some.
The Avenue was officially inaugurated in 1894 and became a masses entertainment mecca in no time.
Magnificent theaters, sleazy dives, dancehalls and cafes. The Paral.lel had something for every taste. The elegant ladies and gentlemen liked it, the gentlemen wearing mascara and the anarchists liked it too.
A reflexion of the social and political excitement the city was going through, the Paral.lel sinned happily away for four decades.
The breaking of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 was nothing but bad news.
Three years later, at the end of it, the party stopped abruptly. All the theaters were closed down on January 22nd 1939. The war had been lost.
Social and cultural experimentation had to cease. Forward thinking became extremely dangerous and the city braced itself for years of punishment and scarcity. 40 years of punishment and scarcity that erased all traces of what the Paral.lel once was.
The exhibition is touching and fascinating. Not to be missed

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