Pools can be a classroom to understand class conflict, analyzing differences between bodies. I've been swimming in municipal pools for many years. Almost always in the Aldabe Civic Center, located between the neighborhoods of Alde Zaharra and Errota. But there was a time when I went to the indoor pools in Mendizorroza, located in the neighborhood of the same name. The differences between the bodies were evident: healthier or more ill, with more or less signs of old age, with and without resources to introduce them to the aesthetic standard... Bodies don't lie. The Casco Viejo and the Molino are among the poorest in Vitoria-Gasteiz (14,660 and 15,697 euros of average income, according to the latest data from Eustat), while Mendizorrotza is home to the richest (34,020 euros). This, knowing that many of Mendizorroza’s neighbours will go to the private pools of Estadio, next to the public pool.

The season of the municipal pools of Vitoria-Gasteiz discovered began on May 24. We have two, Gamarra and Mendizorrotza, besides the pools, with numerous sports fields, bars, spacious meadows and other equipped, which in summer enjoy tens of thousands of Gasteiztarras. Mendizorrotza is located near the centre of Vitoria-Gasteiz, in an industrial area near Gamarra. There, too, one can see the difference in bodies, especially in skin color, and it does not seem to be a mere consequence of free personal tastes or decisions.

The entry of the day to Gamarra costs EUR 6.60; that of Mendizorroza, EUR 13.40. The payment for the entire summer season of Gamarra (from 24 May to 15 September) costs EUR 31.50; that of Mendizorroza... In Mendizorrotza there are no seasonal fertilizers. Yes, on the contrary, monthly and fortnightly subscriptions: for the month you have to pay EUR 64.10, for the 15-day subscription EUR 38.20. That is, enjoying a fortnight in Mendizorroza is more expensive than doing it in Gamarra for four months (in proportion, eight times more expensive), and enjoying a double day. The annual fee for the sports facilities in Vitoria-Gasteiz also has access to both spaces (the fee is EUR 52, with an annual fee of EUR 95.40). For those who do not know them, the infrastructures of Mendizorroza are by no means double, let alone Zortzikos, of those of Gamarra. One last significant fact: the associations or street educators of the city who work with marginalized citizens can ask the City Hall to obtain the cards for the municipal pools... For Gamarra, always.

The ghetto, in a way, is from Mendizorroza, a leisure space with much more uniform bodies and pockets. Gamarra users are very varied, a more faithful mirror of the reality of Vitoria-Gasteiz, where both those who cannot go to Mendizorrotza and those who can do so are mixed (as well as a large number of citizens from the surrounding towns or from the Alto Deba). The problem is the same as with the movement of people worldwide: some of us have to go à la carte, others do not, and money is what places us in one group or another. Also in public pools.

Why is this policy of targeting citizens on the basis of income? “The Administration responds that they are technical criteria,” a social worker explained to me on the subject, “they do not value the consequences of these criteria.” But behind any ‘technical’ criterion there are always certain political values, whether they are more conscious or more unconscious. What are the City Hall of Vitoria-Gasteiz?