Barrio Nuevo is located in Santa Cruz de Tenerife on one of the slopes of the Anaga massif. In its narrow streets, its neighbors must live with the lack of services and high levels of unemployment.
The residents of Barrio Nuevo in Santa Cruz de Tenerife – which is once again one of the areas of the Canary Islands with the lowest level of income per capita – have not clearly noticed the onslaught of the new economic crisis, because the neighborhood is experiencing in a permanent crisis. This is what Jonay Cuesta believes, a self-employed person who has lived in this part of the city for 14 years and works tirelessly to support his wife and his nine-year-old daughter. “No wonder we’re in this situation. in the neighborhood there is a lot of unemployment, high levels of poverty and abandonment by the administrations”, holds.
For this reason, Cuesta is not surprised that the area once again has the dubious honor of being one of the neighborhoods with the lowest income in the Islands. “Things have always been this way here.” it states. Still, she insists that he lives very comfortably in the neighborhood. “I can only say that he is spectacular because of the human quality of the neighbors,” he adds.
Among the reasons he lists for Barrio Nuevo to be among those with the highest poverty rates in the Archipelago, he points to the neglect on the part of the administrations and also to a certain conformism among its neighbors. «I have always worked, in whatever, painter, loader, I have only received unemployment once in 17 years and I have never had to resort to social assistance… but many people do not have this drive and live on aid “, the Mint.
Both he and his wife come “from humble families” and he assures that he never saw his mother and father unemployed. He says that even her mother only stopped cleaning houses after her children told her it was time to rest and that they would help him financially if necessary. Therefore, for him, the important thing “is that my daughter can eat what she likes and not depend on any NGO.”
Cost assures that the area has many deficiencies in municipal services and that raising a girl there is “complicated” by lack of resources. “We have nothing, just a road, no parking, and there is not even a park where they can go out to play, they go from school to home and from home to school,” she says.
think so too his daughter Lucía, who would like to have a place where she can meet her classmates to share afternoons of laughter and games, although she does not hesitate to affirm that she is “proud” to live where she lives.
His father is also a man committed to the neighborhood who has not hesitated to deploy everything in his power to help his neighbors. Four years ago he launched Furgo Solidaria, an initiative with which he tries to offer those who live in this area of Santa Cruz, but also in other needy neighborhoods, a helping hand when they need it. A task in which she has also involved her daughter Lucia with the aim that the little girl learns “how things are and that there are people in need.”
Cuesta helps her neighbors with a Solidarity Van, an activity in which she also involves her daughter
Next to her They have been in charge of giving chocolate with churros to the homeless, distribute clothes and toys or organize visits from the pages of the Three Wise Men for children who live in the most remote neighborhoods and with the greatest needs.
Cuesta also complains about the situation of many older people in the neighborhood. “There is not even a citizen center where they can meet,” questions and adds that their only activity many times is to look out the window “so that people say hello”. Many of them have to cope with their low pensions to support other members of their family due to high unemployment rates. “And then they have no consideration.”
The elderly neighbors who have lived there all their lives are now joined by migrant people who have ended up in the neighborhood in one way or another. “We have a lot of Cubans, very good people, and although there are neighborhood problems, as in all neighborhoods, blood does not reach the river,” he jokes.
Cuesta maintains that although Barrio Nuevo is one of the enclaves with the lowest income in the Canary Islands, the situation of abandonment also extends to other areas where the majority of its neighbors are experiencing significant economic problems. “But then where you invest is always in the center,” he complains.
From his point of view, institutions should deploy specific plans in these areas that they not only offer benefits for a certain time but that these same aids were linked to a greater commitment on the part of citizens in training or employment linked to tasks within the neighborhood to encourage the residents themselves. “It makes me sad to see young people with nothing to do day in and day out,” he says.
