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Diari de Catalunya

Pere López, the Ice Delivery Boy of L'Hospitalet, Recalls Post-War Life in Collblanc i Torrassa

López's life, born in the late forties, illustrates the hardship of the post-war period and the importance of local community groups.

Horse-drawn cart delivering ice on an old working-class neighborhood street in Catalonia, 1950s.
IA

Horse-drawn cart delivering ice on an old working-class neighborhood street in Catalonia, 1950s.

Pere López, a resident of L'Hospitalet, shared his childhood memories in the Collblanc i Torrassa neighborhood with El TOT, recalling the severity of the post-war era and social life in the early 1950s.

The life of Pere López began on Martí Julià Street (then General Sanjurjo) in L'Hospitalet, the son of Murcian immigrants. This area, along with Sants and Poble Sec in Barcelona, hosted many people who arrived in the mid-twenties to work on the construction of Metro Line 1 and the Montjuïc Universal Exhibition.
Due to the poverty and destruction caused by the war, López had to start working very young to help his family, which included three siblings. The post-war period was extremely difficult for the majority of the population.
At just eleven years old, he began delivering ice to homes throughout L'Hospitalet. He did this mounted on a horse-drawn cart, as electric refrigerators were a luxury only found in a few households, and most families preserved food using the ice he distributed.
His experiences from that time are closely linked to the Agrupació Coral els Antics de la Torrassa, of which his father was a member. The group's headquarters were located at the Marcelino bar, on Holanda Street. López remembers accompanying the choir, loaded with a basket, collecting gifts from neighbors while the group sang through the streets and squares of Collblanc i Torrassa.

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