The highly photographed door of Cala de la Barraca, a tourist symbol of Xàbia and the Valencian Community, served today as a stage for a teacher protest. In response to frustrated negotiations with the Ministry of Education, teachers and families placed green mural paper, simulating a metaphorical "coat of paint," over the well-known blue door. Green, a color symbolizing the defense of public education and teacher mobilizations, has temporarily replaced its usual hue.
The action, carried out early in the morning by teacher assemblies from Xàbia and Marina Alta, with the collaboration of teachers and families from other towns like Gandia and València, created a "protest photocall" for visitors. Messages such as "educational strike" and "let's make dignity fashionable" were written on the green background, turning the summer postcard into a message of awareness.
This intervention, which will restore the door to its original color after the event, is part of a series of mobilizations planned throughout the summer. Teachers aim to leverage the impact of tourism to highlight the serious problems in Valencian public education, which they believe "don't appear on the postcard" that the regional government intends to project.
From the Xàbia assembly, the prioritization of a "good image" for tourism over educational needs has been criticized. "Just this week, the president rejected the tourist tax because it 'gives a bad image.' Having students crammed into classrooms at over 30 degrees Celsius without support staff doesn't seem to affect our tourist appeal," they reflected.
