F*ck the Police

Artist Xefo Guasch discusses the perils of student activism in the 1960s and 1970s with the Catalunya Barcelona team.

EN: Those were the years of the Grays. I studied architecture. I’m an architect. Studying architecture at the university was a bit hard. There was a year with almost no classes. And another year when you were surrounded by men clad in gray. That was the national police, in every classroom. The year we had no classes, classes would start, but then the Grays would start beating people, and we’d hit back. My sister declared herself communist, and I was more an anarchist. Often, you’d be at street demonstrations and the Grays would show up. The grays would come, smacking people around. They wore gray uniforms and helmets, and rode in gray vans. We called the vans Yogurteras. Yogurteras. Yogurt. Basically curdled milk. The Grays came to distribute spoiled milk. “Hey, the Yogurteras are coming!” So, when they were coming, you’d head inside. Or you’d take to the streets.

CAT: Aquests anys estaven els grises. Jo estudiava arquitectura, soc arquitecte. Estudiava arquitectura i a les universitats era durillo, va haver-hi un any que no van haver-hi classes pràcticament. Un altre any que a classe tenies un senyor de gris, que eren els policíes nacionals, a cada classe. Aquest any que no vam tenir classe van començar les classes però es que venien els grisos i començaven a repartir castanyes i nosaltres també contra els grisos. Els grisos anaven vestits de gris amb casc i anaven amb unes furgonetes que es deien ‘Gris’. A aquestes furgonetes els hi deien ‘yogurteras’. Yogurteras ve de iogurt, que es la llet tallada. I com que tenien molta mala llet aquests grisos que venien a repartis, ‘oye que vienen las yogurteras’. Venien tot de grisos llavors et ficaves a dintre o si feies manifestació tallaves els carrers.

ES: