Cross-border workers

La Rambla is Barcelona’s most famous promenade – a wide boulevard that has been bustling with tourists, locals, flower sellers and street performers for decades. Noisy, lively, photogenic. And it is a boundary. Anyone who crosses it finds themselves in El Raval – one of the city’s oldest, densest and most contradictory neighbourhoods. The area was long notorious, with guidebooks warning against getting lost in its narrow streets. It earned the nickname Barri Xino – the Chinese Quarter – not because of its Asian residents, but because the narrow alleys and the density of the area were reminiscent of American Chinatowns. In the 1990s, urban planning arrived first – followed by the wrecking ball. The MACBA – Barcelona’s Museum of Contemporary Art – was built, squares were created, and slums disappeared. The neighbourhood changed. It never became tame, however.

Today, around 48,000 people live in an area of less than one square kilometre – El Raval is one of the most densely populated neighbourhoods in Europe. Almost half the residents are from abroad, representing around 140 nations. You can feel it with every step: a new supermarket next to an old bodega, an extravagant restaurant next to a minimalist concept store, hairdressers, tailors, bars. Things that have been there for decades. Things that disappear overnight. Things that are only just emerging. On some balconies, there are not only flowers but also protest signs against property speculation and tourist flats – the neighbourhood has been fighting against its own gentrification ever since it began.

The Bar Marsella has been around since 1820. A little crooked, a little dusty. Absinthe in a glass, stories ranging from Hemingway to Dalí on the walls. You stand too close to strangers – yet conversation flows all the same. Some places don’t survive in spite of their defiance. They survive because of it. El Raval holds stories without imposing them on you. Not the planned ones. The ones that just happen. The wrong turns. The moments when you briefly think: ‘That might not have been a particularly good idea’ – and that’s exactly why you stay. If you always follow the same path as everyone else, you’ll only end up where everyone else already is.

CUPRA comes from Barcelona. The brand has been around for eight years; its roots lie in motor racing, and CUPRA’s first concept car was called the Urban Rebel. The latest model is called the Raval. This is no coincidence. The Raval is a compact electric car, four metres long, built in Martorell, Catalonia, 30 kilometres from Barcelona. In its most powerful variant, the Raval VZ, it delivers 226 PS, has a range of around 400 kilometres and accelerates to 100 km/h in 6.8 seconds. There are also two other powertrain options to choose from: a variant with 211 PS and a range of up to 450 kilometres, and an entry-level model with 116 PS, which is expected to be available from September 2026. The chassis and driving modes are derived from Formula E. Impressive figures for a city car. But that’s not the whole story.

The name El Raval is more than just a geographical reference. CUPRA chose a neighbourhood that has stood for change, contrast and cultural diversity for decades. A place where tradition and the present collide, where the old disappears and the new emerges. It’s not always smooth sailing. But it’s never boring.

And so you sit in the CUPRA Raval, windows open, the city close by. Voices, music, light. You set off, a few wrong turns, a few right ones. ( … )

→ Read the full story in the new rampstyle #38 “Just for the Plot”. 

(Now available in German)