3 . Renaming of the square “ plaça de Antonio López ” to “ plaça de Idrissa Diallo ”. ( 28 / 12 / 2017 - 28 / 2 / 2018 ). Proposal rejected ( 10 / 04 / 2018 ). Proposal approved ( 25 / 03 / 2022 ). ( Barcelona ).
Name of the initiative
Year Participants Status
Removal of the monument to Antonio López and renaming of the square “ plaça de Antonio López ” to “ plaça de Idrissa Diallo ” |
2018-2022 |
Barcelona City Council – antiracist associations ( Tanquem els CIEs ) |
Demand approved |
Description : |
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On 4 March 2018 , Barcelona City Council removed from its pedestal the replica of a statue erected in 1884 that honoured the figure of Antonio López y López , Marquis of Comillas , located until then in the square of the same name . The parliamentary group “ Barcelona en Comú ” led by Mayor Ada Colau , winner of the municipal elections of 24 May 2015 , partly fulfilled one of the points of her electoral programme : “ to perform a complete review of nomenclatures and places of memory in the city to ensure that it is free of apologetic references to the memory of slavery , Francoism and fascism " ( Rodrigo , 2018 ). Antonio López was condemned for the former . Both the action of removing the monument and the official condemnation of this figure raised numerous criticisms , giving rise to a heated debate between detractors and sympathisers of the action . However , the controversy surrounding the statue and the figure to whom it paid homage was not new , and dated back to the day it was unveiled .
The accusations against Antonio López ( 1817 - 1883 ) began two years after his death . In 1885 his brother-in-law , Francisco Bru Lassús , published a work entitled “ La verdadera vida de Antonio López y López ” [ The true life of Antonio López y López ]. The text highlighted the direct link between López and his great fortune with the illegal slave trade ( 1821 - 1867 ). Francisco Bru ’ s writing was so forceful and controversial that not only did he condemn his relative , but he also attacked his legacy : “ that square could rightly be called the plaza de los Negreros , because it will be the monumental rehabilitation and the radiant apotheosis of all the merchants of human flesh ”. Years later , a famous satirical magazine La Campana de Gràcia published an article in 1902 proposing the replacement of López ’ s monument with that of the poet Jacint Verdaguer , and to melt down the bronze of the statue and donate it to charity . Finally , the metal of the sculpture was cast much later during the context of the Spanish Civil War ( 1936 - 1939 ) when a group of anarchist militiamen demolished it in the first months of the war as a clear protest against any symbol of representation of the bourgeois class . The monument did not preside over the plaza de Antonio López until 1944 , when the Francoist mayor Miguel Mateu Pla commissioned Frederic Mares to make a copy of the original , this time in stone . It was this same replica , restored during the Franco dictatorship ( 1939 - 1975 ), that was removed from the public space in 1939 .
The issue of changing the name of the square from Antonio López to Idrissa Diallo .
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