50 The Parrots of Barcelona

Los papagayos de Barcelona

Barcelona |

Spain

Spanish

Behind the scenes

The idea for this text came to me during a day spent exploring Barcelona on roller skates, carried along by the light, the sea, and the city’s unique energy. As I entered Park Güell, I was struck by the fantastical world imagined by Gaudí: colorful mosaics, organic shapes, and stone animals that seem ready to come to life.

When I saw a green parrot crossing the sky, I imagined an improbable conversation between this very real bird and one of the stone toads in the park.

The surreal dialogue that follows in the text allows for a deeper reflection on a very serious issue: how our societies perceive those who come from elsewhere.

In the illustration, the toad seems to accuse the bird, which defends itself in front of a bench inspired by Gaudí… while another parrot is about to leave a rather less poetic mark.

Echoes of the world

In Barcelona, two languages are heard in everyday life: Castilian (Spanish as spoken in Spain) and Catalan. They are related Romance languages, which means they sometimes look similar on the page, but they often sound quite different.
In this text, the word papagayo means “parrot” in Castilian. In Catalan, the same bird is called papagai.

Castilian Spanish also has some distinctive sounds that may stand out to English speakers. The letter j is pronounced with a strong, breathy sound, similar to the h in “hello,” but more forceful, as in rojo. The letters c and z, before certain vowels, are pronounced like the th in “think,” which can be heard in Barcelona.

In much of Latin America, these same letters are pronounced like an s, giving the language a noticeably different sound.

Listen to an audio excerpt of the text