Friday, March 29

Guissona, the little Spanish Ukraine


“I came in the year 2000 with a pre-contract to work in BonÀrea”, explains Mykola, a resident of Guissona who runs a grocery store in Eastern Europe and which, since February 24, has been transformed into the place where donations are received. for Ukraine and care for refugees, mainly women and children. “I came for a few months, I did not imagine that I would be here so long,” he emphasizes. At the time, the economy in Ukraine was very bad, ten years after the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1990. In Guissona, there was a lack of labor in the Agricultural and Meat Cooperative. “They needed to cover many jobs, but few Spaniards accepted the working conditions.” The current granary of Europe lost the Russian market after independence and the European Union had not yet signed import contracts for cereals or oil. An exodus takes place that reduces the population from 52 million to 46. At the same time, in Guissona the foreign population begins to increase, to such an extent that in 2010 Guissona was the Catalan municipality with the largest immigrant population, exceeding 50% of its population. . Then the Ukrainian community already exceeded a thousand, 1,069 inhabitants out of 6,568, 16% of the total. Twelve years later, at the beginning of 2022, the census records a population of 7,291 inhabitants, of which 1,064 are of Ukrainian origin.

After the outbreak of the war, faced with an exodus of refugees without precedent in Europe, Guissona could not remain impassive. It also becomes a refuge for numerous families, who are welcomed in the homes of relatives or empty houses of residents of the town. So far, the City Council has counted 182 refugees -83 relatives, 103 adults and 79 minors- increasing the Ukrainian community to 1,247 residents. In the last weekend, 20 women and children have arrived in Guissona from the plane chartered by the Catalan NGO Open Arms and Fundación Solidaire, which left Warsaw (Poland) landing in Barcelona with 220 refugees. But the rest of the refugees in Guissona have arrived on their own by plane, bus or relatives.

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Veronica and her twins, Shara and Masha, have just arrived with their mother-in-law, Tania. Originally from Kyiv, they took refuge from possible bombings in the basement of their building every day, every time the siren sounded. There was a moment when Veronica’s father and husband told them that they had to leave, to safeguard the children’s lives. They took a couple of backpacks and the children by the hand, to begin a journey that has taken them ten days of road travel in different vehicles, passing through the Medyka border crossing to Poland, to reach Barcelona also by plane, at their own expense. own. A volunteer from Guissona has managed the transfer of an empty house by a neighbor.

«My sister was clear. She had to get out of there to preserve her life, to protect Adelia. »

Nina arrived two weeks ago, along with her daughter Adelia, in a private coach that departs weekly from Guissona to the Ukraine and then returns back to Guissona. Her sister Angelika welcomes them in her house along with her daughter Ilona and her husband. Angelika has been in Guissona for 4 years. Her husband arrived before her with a pre-contract from BonÀrea. Angelika has also worked for a year in this Guissona Cooperative. While Nina and Adelia learn the language, Angelika acts as their translator. “Although Ivanov-Frankivsk has not been directly bombed, the nearby air base has. My sister was clear. She had to get out of there to preserve her life, to protect Adelia. » She separated from her long ago she did not find it difficult to make her decision, although she tried to convince her parents to accompany her and also her grandparents, who refused, clinging to a lifetime in Ivanov- Frankivsk.

Irina and Masha are also from the Ivanov-Frankivsk region, from the small town of Kalush. They arrived on March 4 by plane from Warsaw, Poland to Barcelona. Later they moved to Guissona, because the grandfather of their daughters has lived in this town for 6 years, working in BonÀrea. The Santacreu Foundation provided them with a foster flat that they share with their respective children. The bond that unites them is their husbands, who are brothers. Although one of them is an economist and the other a computer programmer, at the moment both are part of the territorial defense team in Ivanov-Frankivsk.

Although the mothers have found safety in Guissona, the pain due to the separation of the relatives who have remained and the concern for their lives is permanent. Post-traumatic stress from the war is there. In turn, the little ones also carry out their process of assimilating change. “We are not bad here”, comments Irina gratefully, “but we miss our homes and our families. We hope the war is over so we can return.”

“According to Putin I am a Nazi. Helping refugees I am a Nazi, but I am only a citizen who helps his compatriots »

The City Council has offered registration to the refugees. Throughout this week he has been making daily registrations in the census of inhabitants. It is also organizing activities for both the little ones and mothers. In turn, Mykola attends to the refugees who visit him from the parlor shop. “I have thrown away any food that I had from Russia,” he declares, while managing the last donation of medicines that a volunteer from an NGO in Lleida has brought him. “According to Putin I am a Nazi. Helping refugee people I am a Nazi, but I am only a citizen who helps his compatriots ».

A Catalan neighbor who has a shop near the locutorio comments that everyone contributes to the Ukrainian cause as they can. Some with donations of materials, supplies, medicines or money. Others forming part of the volunteer network or hosting families in their home. Some with the word, like Natali, who has a clothing store in the Town Hall square and for a week one of the mannequins in her shop window has been wearing a yellow t-shirt, the color of the Ukrainian flag, with the ‘No to war ‘. Next week he will change the shirt for a blue one, also with the Ukrainian flag, with several messages of vindication in red. “There are many things that kill. Kill the fear. Kill the silence. Putin Kills.”

Angelika has been through Mykola’s booth. She is managing an application for Adelia, her sister’s daughter, so that she can be accepted starting next week at the Mestre Ramon Estadella i Torradeflot school. The sisters-in-law Irina and Masha will start Catalan classes on Saturday at the Caserna. Veronica has signed up for her twins in the art workshops of the Santacreu Foundation. They all walk forward, although they hope that this terrible war will end as soon as possible.

“This is a global problem”, reflects Mykola, “we are fighting so that the European Union can live in peace.” He regrets that there are not enough weapons, or military. “Ukraine is like a rabbit fighting a bear. We all have to cut off the bear’s legs.”


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