After stepping down as head of the Mediterranean Corridor, Josep Vicent Boira, a human geography professor at the University of Valencia, returns to academia with a new perspective for the city of Valencia. Boira, known for his ability to connect points and imagine alternative narratives, believes Valencia needs its own story to serve as a guide amidst a context full of "temptations and illusions".
His concern for the city's perception is not new; his doctoral thesis, defended in 1991, already addressed "The Perception of Space in a Large City: Valencia and its Mental Image." Now, over 35 years later, Boira insists that one of the Mediterranean's major cities must base its future on two key concepts: "mercy and progress".
“"The city as a lived space is where the narrative is most necessary. [...] The narrative summarizes hundreds of years of history, common goals, shared energies. The narrative thus materializes civic identity, urban pride."
Boira explains that narrative is fundamental for social cohesion, connecting the past with the present and projecting it into the future. "A city without a narrative is like an engine without energy," he states, emphasizing that narrative materializes civic identity and urban pride. He suggests that instead of strategic plans and statistical indicators, a return to narrative as "digression, speculation, and deviation" is needed.
Regarding Valencia's dominant narrative, Boira distinguishes between a "conservative" and a "progressive" one. As an example of the latter, he recalls an episode from 1903 in Cabanyal-Canyamelar, where hundreds of residents helped beach fishing boats, an event that, despite being published in ABC newspaper, is not part of the hegemonic narrative focused on the "bourgeois revolution" of the 1909 Valencian Regional Exhibition. Boira advocates for an "integrative and non-exclusive" narrative that unifies both traditions.
"Mercy" manifests throughout Valencia's history from figures like Eiximenis or Father Jofré, through the welfare efforts of the Beneficència, workers' revolts, and Blasco Ibáñez's vision of education and culture. He also cites the civil society mobilization in 2018 with the arrival of the Aquarius ship at the port of Valencia.
On the other hand, "progress" has been a constant objective for rulers and residents. Valencia even has a street dedicated to progress in Cabanyal-Canyamelar. Boira recalls historical figures with a "progressive and even revolutionary" profile who lend their names to streets in Gran Vía, such as Cristóbal Pascual y Genís, José Cristóbal Sorní, or Félix Pizcueta, although their biographies are often unknown to the public. "We should refill with historical, social, and even political facts those names that today float weightlessly in the city's memory. That is narrative," he concludes.
However, Boira also acknowledges another interpretation of progress, associated with figures like the Marquis of Campo, Rincón de Arellano, or Rita Barberá, which has also become consolidated in the citizen imagination. Faced with this duality, Boira urges updating the city's heritage and initiating a social debate on the urban narrative before the upcoming municipal elections in May 2027. "Lead a technological revolution that marginalizes the weakest or the disinherited?", he asks, warning against progress "without mercy" that would clash with Valencia's historical roots.
