Intercultural beachlifein Barcelona

The Barceloneta beach is the most well-known and visited beach in Barcelona. People go there to relax with friends, swim in the mediterranean, and to enjoy the sunshine. In July and August the temperatures in Barcelona often reach 30 degrees Celsius. To help the beachgoers cope with the climate, a whole ecosystem of salesmen has developed around the beach. Most of these people selling souvenirs, accessories, and beverages are immigrant workers. This creates an interesting environment where immigrants from outside of Spain serve tourists from all over the world on a beach in Catalonia.

I visited the Barceloneta beach in the start of February. Despite the winter, the air temperature was nearly 20 degrees Celsius and there were many tourists and locals enjoying the warmer winter day on the beach. With beachgoers, also the salesmen on the beach were active. I saw many different products being sold, blankets to sit on, massages on the beach, and sunglasses. However, most of the salesmen were selling beverages. What surprised me was the number of people selling cocktails on the beach.

Cocktails are not the easiest products to sell. Especially when the cocktails were ready made, so if not sold soon enough the ice in them will melt and the cocktail has to be thrown away.

This made the cocktail salesmen really persistent. I was approached by several people on the beach. Most of them left when I did not show any interest in buying anything.

One of the salesmen took a different approach. At first, he asked me whether I would like a good mojito for a special price, like all the other salesmen on the beach. This man however did not take a no for an answer. To the point on being tiresome he continued trying to sell me a mojito. In the end I only managed to send him away by asking him to come back after five minutes.

Oscar Rajantie

There was no sign of the man after five minutes so I continued enjoying the warm winter day on the Barceloneta beach. After a while though the man came back. This time I asked him what rum he is using. I was still not interested in buying a cocktail so I told him that I only like Havana Club. This turned out to be a mistake. The man said that he can get me a mojito with Havana Club if I pay him enough. I ended up again asking him to come back after five minutes.

A few minutes later the mojito man was back and now he really wanted to sell me a mojito. He changed his tactics, focusing on the cheap price of the mojito and tried to get me to make him an offer. He was persistent and in some peculiar way our interaction was like a one between friends. After all, he wanted to make me a mojito on a warm and sunny day on a beach.

Even though the man was continuously trying to sell me a mojito, our interaction was friendly. When the man wanted to take a break from selling mojitos. He came to me and asked me whether I could buy a mojito for just a few coins. He was visibly disappointed when I turned down the offer.

On the beach, the dynamics between cultures and people are not as simple as they may seem. I was the customer so I was for the whole time in control of the situation and the salesmen were there to offer me products. However, the mojito man's culture was the dominant one in our interaction. It is fairly uncommon in Finnish culture to sell products so relentlessly. Neither were his actions consistent with the Spanish culture. In a wicked way, the mojito man was the one determining the culture on the beach.