The infamy. The Catalan participation in colonial slavery" at the Maritime Museum of Barcelona

The main European countries have been revisiting their colonial past and their role in the trafficking of enslaved people for several years.

In recent years, some historians from all over the country have started to worry about this issue and have begun to uncover a hidden past, more significant than we thought. At the same time, public interest, which has included many people from the former Spanish colonies, has grown enormously.

The Maritime Museum of Barcelona is taking part in this process with the aim of challenging contemporary Catalan society, which is much more plural and complex than that of that time, so that it commits to revising the past. And so, in this way, it confronts, without further contemplation, the legacy that that infamy left in today's society in the form of racism or overexploitation of the migrant population.

The exhibition "The Infamy" delves into Catalan participation in the Atlantic trafficking of captive individuals to be enslaved and to what extent the business dealings of Catalan merchants, especially in Cuba and Puerto Rico, acquired enslaved labor. How much of that capital was repatriated to Catalonia and how those profits from slavery helped with the country's development in the 19th century?

This exhibit reveals a little-known and very uncomfortable aspect of the history of Catalonia. Let's also spread the darkest aspects of history and make sure they never happen again.

The Museum is open to the public from Monday to Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (last entry at 7:00 p.m.).

On Sundays, starting at 3:00 p.m., free entrance.