Series 'Little Warriors:' Troglokhan

Unveiled because he can not catch the dream.

The little angels opened.

In itself, he is what remains of the rest of the luggage.

In a sofa. Since November, the  mc  (master of ceremonies, rapper) Eduardo  Xl  Soro (Tegucigalpa, 1989) lives on a sofa. That's why he keeps awake and no longer dreams of sweets.

He gives me the address of his sofa, where the letters arrive: a first floor of the Passeig de Maragall.

Decayed, do not give up  (Despite the distance).  Eduardo, the Troglokhan gorgonite, has also spent some nights on the street. Collaborate with #HomelessEntrepreneur.

"The sofa is brown, threadbare, fabric, three-seater", describes his sofa Eduardo Soro, haggard, dark, with a green cap (hope) Dickies brand (his logo is the horseshoe of good luck). "Four colleagues, two Catalans and two Latinos, also live in that house, and since they do not step on the dining room at all, they lent me the sofa, and there I am, there as I sleep there. They told me: 'Stay there'. "

He does not pay anything. Try to be invisible (mutable): "I try to disappear, to see myself as little as possible. The less I bother, the longer I'll stay. "

Before it had  squatted  (with a ka) a block of tourist apartments in the avenue of Paral·lel, 101 ("there is a need for housing in Barcelona"). The floors for guiris became La Profana, with its Facebook page to "resist": "On June 2, 2015, a group of young people will decide to empower-us with the apartment block La Profana, situat a l'avinguda del Paral·lel, 101 Bis ".

I had previously rented a room in Barcelona.

Now, the sofa, uncomfortable, without stuffed cushions: "The sofa is not so small, but the back ... It always goes cold. There's no Privacity. People go from here to there, let alone bring me anyone ... I have the last shift to bathe and to wash my clothes. "

He does not pay anything. It has no wardrobe. "My suitcase is a bag. I put my hand and the first thing I take out is what I wear. But I'm still grateful, "he feels.

The "rap performer" Xl Soro writes the lyrics about background songs  (beats). Be sincere ("be real"): "I speak of love and lack of love, of my disagreement with the human being. If it is evolving or devolving. What else do I talk about? He asks himself. Of the world conspiracies like the New Order, which I believe exists. From the hip hop culture  ,  which can create good human beings: good children, good teenagers, good men who die well. From a world without borders or flags. "

For him, Barcelona is a "restless lover". He arrived in Barcelona in 2012, crazy with love. He got married. On the ring finger of the left hand, the engagement ring was tattooed. Poetiza, which is the only way to delve into the human soul without breaking inside. First it says: "Love arose." First he says: "I fell in love with a Catalan girl". Then he says: "What always happens: we were fine until we were not well. Like all start, it had an end. " And in the end, abstracted, he says: "I stayed here and I'm still here." And again, the ending also says: "Our monsters came out, it was an unreal relationship".

Like a song by the Chilean guitarist Manuel García  (As you say), he  counts the waves in the air that nobody sees, with the lost look of the birds that crash against the crystals.

And between the beginning of the end and the end of the end, he burns his fingers: "I entered into unpleasant things that I do not want to talk about, I left everything I was building".

One of those things that he built, and still maintains, are the lyrics of rap. He puts on the phone what he just recorded, and apologizes ("it's not mixed or anything, but it works"). The theme, four and a half minutes, is titled "Persevere." In fits and starts you hear loose words and phrases, because you continually stop: "... that your strength fails"; "Singing of the hyenas"; "Rage"…

Rapper Eduardo  Xl  Soro, alias Troglokhan, continues composing in the house of his sofa, not on the sofa in his house. It does not stretch because the feet collide with the arms. Shoot. Note: "We are the forgers of this world." Sometimes, they call him for bowling. He would like to live on music. It does not charge the "bar concerts [/] workshops" to raise awareness with  hip hop  about the problem of violence ". "This is how I contribute", he assumes. He does charge in cases in which the future gives him certainty and invite him to events and pay him something, "fair". Then, save. And it goes to a Western Union office ("global money"). That money is sent to his mother, in Honduras. He is aware that the little here, there is a lot.

"I also know that I am part of that immense invisible mass of the street. If they spend looking at the iphone, you do not see them, but they exist. But I am a lucky one. I have a sofa. "

Summary of the 4th #TodosDurmiendoEnLaCalle (Plaça Universitat)

It all started in front of Plaça Universitat in Barcelona at 7:30 p.m. on December 9th. Instead of having a conference with 4 speakers, we formed a circle of more than 30 citizens who shared their ideas and actions on how we can offer more housing and work solutions to the homeless. To make sure that the participants understood how the event worked, we created a very large and clear banner in case someone had any doubts.

Some of the topics we talked about were:

  1. Porta22  as a potential collaborator to create work
  2. Café El Techo, a Michael Goeckon project  that will offer work and autonomy from your cafeteria
  3. The importance of languages hanks to a collaborator, Patrícia , who offers classes in Catalan and Spanish to homeless entrepreneurs.
  4. The obstacle of overcoming addictions as accessible as alcohol, thanks to a collaborator, Daniel , who had lived on the street.
  5. The importance of accompanying psychologists to help homeless people get ahead thanks to Silvia López Rodríguez .

Thanks to Blanca Pijuan , you will see a video of the final part of the debate. After the first part, we took a warm vegetable soup with pumpkin, zucchini, onion, black pepper and sumo vegetal that Anita Macedo brought us  , an expert in health and physical activity, for the 8 people who were going to sleep in the street with us . It was great but so much soup meant we had to find a place to go to the bathroom. We were very lucky because the workers of Luna de Instanbul(Ronda Sant Antonio, 102) they let us use it. We only had to "flash" once during the dead hours of the night. It is not very comfortable to pay attention to the blue sirens of the police that could possibly interfere with you for using the only space available for homeless people at 4 o'clock in the morning, the street. Three of the people sleeping with us tried to use the H10universitat basinbecause they thought it would be a place that would offer them the opportunity to use it but the employee did not even open the door to answer them and slid the card of their company under the glass. This was a shocking experience for them because they had never thought about how difficult it is to pee if you do not have a home with a sink. After the soup, we talked with the wanderers who passed by the square in front of our asphalt bed. Would you stop if a homeless person tried to talk to you or ignore you?

We tried to sleep at night but it was impossible for some until 4 o'clock and others did not sleep at all. We had a free entrance to the street theater and the play was called "Monólogos Sin Hogar." It was the event in which we talked to more homeless people than ever. Miguel, a Chilean who sleeps at a cashier in La Caixa near Entença Street, gave me his email and explained his problems as a worker without a contract and how difficult it is to charge the entire amount for renovating the houses. He said "If you owe me € 200 but you only have € 70 to pay me, I have to shut up and accept it because otherwise I will not be able to work with it in the future and I would lose more than € 130." While talking to one of the participants, they brought us hot milk with chocolate and music in the background. For my surprise, There was a religious group trying to convert some participants in the middle of the square. We respect all those who want to help and we understand that everyone does it with the best intention. As your flyer says, "we all have the opportunity to decide."

Also a woman from Brazil stopped and got off her bike to talk to us a little bit drunk and above all very happy while her friend took a picture of the group of people sleeping in the street with us.

The last person who greeted us before falling asleep was Juan Ma, a man with 50 years of age who asked us where he could buy more beer while holding a red can of damm star. He told us about the 'payos' that throw the squatters because he told us that people should not be on the street when there are so many empty places; He also told us regretfully about his 16 years in prison, his son in prison and his 2-year-old granddaughter whom he was a citizen of. We listened attentively for 45 minutes and learned a lot about how he survived with few resources and before leaving, he offered us a package of ham that obviously we could not refuse. He vanished in the cold night and those who could,

Most of us are afraid of the unknown and sleeping on the street can scare many people because we stop controlling our surroundings and there is no key to close a door to stop a thief and / or something worse. How do they see us when we sleep on the street?

We woke up with the sun and Andrzej accompanied us at 9 o'clock to help us create more awareness. He would have stayed with us in the street but he spent 1 week in the Hospital del Mar due to pneumonia that he took sleeping in the Paseo de Picasso. Being a carrier of HIV and coping with the cold of winter is a deadly combination for a homeless person. Thanks to Center d'Acolliment Residencial Zona Franca, Andrzej, he slept well and started the day with us with a huge smile.

Without knowing it, we had woken up in the place where many entities were going to celebrate the international day of human rights . I had the pleasure of accompanying  Toni Clapésa few steps and explain what we do before giving him a flyer and wish him a good Saturday. I hope you like what we are doing from the association. Waking up on a Saturday morning for many means showering, having breakfast and resting but for us it means 12 hours of raising awareness and raising funds among all the chaos and harmony that the streets and their citizens provide. Although the cardboard weighs 0.689 grams per centimeter, try to take it up 12 hours and you will see that you would not need to go to the gym later. He carried a banner explaining that we had slept there the night before; Vincent sold his English classes and Andrzej sold his massages.

Throughout the day, among many, I met Aziz Faye,  the spokesman of the union of manteros of Barcelona ; an  iaioflauta who paid the first massage, € 5 for 10 minutes of Andrzej as Entrepreneur Without a Roof; Kelly Lynn Lunde , a photojournalist for  Al Jazeera English;  Roberto Enríquez , writer at La Marea and Revista Mongolia; and a person who had consumed heroin for 18 years who tried to trick me by saying that he knew a woman who wanted to donate but needed € 20 to give him change ... Anyway, 24 hours gives for many conversations, some opportunities and some lies. The common sense street is what defines how you take advantage, more or less, these situations. About 5:45 pm, 8tvcame to interview us at the end of the event. It came out in the news of the weekend  (06: 07-06: 45) and as you can see, our faces showed the tiredness of participating the entire 24 hours on the street.

One of the best results of the event is the opportunity to grow the team of Entrepreneurs Without a Roof. In the next photo, Marcos gave Vincent a new jacket that he found.

A very important milestone in the 4th event of #TodosDurmiendoEnLaCalle is that they fulfilled the 24 hours without stopping the first two citizens with roof, Nuria GF and  Javier Garcia Calvache . Nuria answered the question about #TodosDurmiendoEnLaCalle that "the truth is that it is a unique experience that everyone should live to be aware of with this cause."

We would like to remind you that this action of #TodosDurmiendoEnLaCalle will accelerate the process of providing shelter and creating work for the homeless. After collecting everything at 7:30 p.m., the space where we spent 24 hours without a home remained exactly as before, with no one sleeping on the street, and we hope that all citizens, businesses and the government put their batteries in order for us to take a photo from the place where they sleep in the streets of Barcelona without them in 2022.

We hope you will come to the next event that will be held at the Puerta del Sol Plaza in Madrid on January 5 at 7:30 p.m.

'Little warriors' series: "Punch-it"

I could go through an NBA power forward. He has sufficient height, muscles exercised, clairvoyance to shoot from the line of triple shots. But it is not Shaquille O'Neal (Los Angeles Lakers) who compared himself to the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche ("hope is the worst of evils, it prolongs the torment of man"). The hustler Vincent Helvig (Lewisham, London, 1968) was raised to overcome obstacles, such as the Punch-it character of the Gorgonites in Little Warriors (Joe Dante, 1998). Today he lives in the hostel ("center d'acolliment residencial") of the street number 60, in the Zona Franca de Barcelona.

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"In the mornings I wake up at half past seven, I take a shower, day in and day out, and I do half an hour of meditation", mentally revises, in a Caribbean English, this bronze man, halfway to the  Discóbolo,  of Mirón , and of the  Perseus,  of Eufránor. "And what does meditation consist of? I say to myself: 'this is a wonderful day, it is a wonderful day, and I am strong, I am strong'. And I repeat it constantly. "

The  homeless  Vincent Helvig has forgotten his childhood. He refers to her with bitterness, as if he had never passed through that tunnel of light, and had grown up with a blindfold. "I have many brothers, three of my biological mother and three of my biological father. And then three more from my stepfather. [He shuts up. Show both hands. He starts counting. Costs. He hardly remembers the number of brothers or stepbrothers or blood brothers or politicians or cousins e currently has. Some of them do not even know them.] Anyway, I remember the constant fights in my house, between my mother and her partner. When I could, I would leave, and I was with friends either doing sports, playing soccer or practicing martial arts. "

Soon he took the suitcase and put dirt in the middle. In successive years - she is unable to correctly date her life stages, when she did this and when the other thing happened to her - she settled down in different countries, in a disorganized, bizarre and, in part, liberating way. He lived in Japan, which bathed him with the calm of his  yamabushi, Buddhist monks who have retired to the mountains; he lived in Jamaica, where he has his roots, where he joined the Pentecostal Christian Church of the Worldwide Missionary Movement, and that gave him joy, rather than feeling, as an investment project  and he lived in the United States, where he was a student   of the self-help coach Anthony Robbins  Awakening the inner giant),  specialized in neurolinguistics.

A year ago he settled in Barcelona, is kingdom of Gorgon, which for him is a city of "opportunities" ("for its buildings, its atmosphere and its people"). At first he lived on the street, in front of the big shops, with his tall windows and mannequins better dressed than him. "I covered myself with a blanket and slept at night, in the open," he recalls, and for him it is a very distant time when that was only five months ago.

It does not worry you.

Do not accept a no for an answer.

He wants the best for himself and, therefore, for others.

"I know I have nothing. But I know that everything is in the mind. If I think badly, I'm wrong, even depressed. If I think well, I'm happy. It all depends on how you think, how you are inside of you, that's where everything resides. "

To reach the center of Barcelona, his worshiper of Bruce Lee  Southern Fist, Northern Leg )  has taken an hour, crossing the mountain path of Montjuïc. He does not care. Go and meditate ("I am the best, I am the best"). On the way, he stops at the  "community center"  of Calàbria, 66 ("Espai i moviment per l'educació, la cultura i el veïnatge a Sant Antoni"). There he consults the internet and studies Spanish.

The  homeless  Punch-it Vincent Helvig is clear, because he was born to overcome the obstacles and put the triples: "You choose if you want to be right or wrong. It depends on you".

Written by the reporter  Jesús Martínez

If you want to help us accelerate the process of eliminating homelessness in Barcelona, e invite you to donate online by  clicking on this link .