The pajarita
The form known as the pajarita is a curious shape. The “little bird” is also known as a hen in France (coccotte) and crow or horse in Germany. As Eric Kenneway wrote in 1985 (Complete Origami, p. 133)
In Britain it used to be called a hobby-horse, but it is no longer widely known and seems never to have won children’s affection to the extent that it has in France and Spain – countries where the little paper bird is recognized as a symbol of childhood.
As a British paperfolder, the significance and popularity of the pajarita felt a bit exotic. Not only was it popular amongst some origami enthusiasts:
Vicente Palacios devotes sixteen pages to methods of folding the pajarita in his La Creacion en Papiroflexia, Miguel A. Salvatella, Barcelona, 1979. In an earlier book, Papirogami (1972), the same writer lists references to the bird in Spanish literature, which he has traced back to 1793.
it was also meaningful to non-enthusiasts:
Indeed, there is an old established sweet shop called ‘La Pajarita’ in Madrid which sells pajarita-shaped chocolates, and in the northern Spanish town of Huesca, there is a monument to the pajarita in a local park.
Finding pajaritas by accident in Barcelona
One of the joys of life is finding things by accident. Planning is wise but so too is being open to the possibilities that happen by chance. So on a recent trip to Barcelona I was surprised to see a large sculpture of two parajitas on the way to my accommodation. I was not in Huesca, so why were these pajaritas here?
There was not much written text except that on the pedestal:
TOTHOM NEIX LLIURE I IGUAL EN DIGNITATS I DRETS, I, DOTATS COM ESTEM DE RAO
I CONCIÈNCIA, DEVEM COMPORTAR-NOS FRATERNALMENT ELS UNS AMB ELS ALTRES.
Art. 1 de la Declaració Universal dels Drets Humans (1948)
Using Google Maps was partially helpful. The reviews were not helpful:
★✩✩✩✩ 3 years ago
(Translated by Google) doesn’t tell you anything is crap (Original) no te dice nada es una basura
Local Guide ・354 reviews
★★★✩✩ 3 years ago
(Translated by Google) An original sculpture. But it doesn’t have much aesthetics. (Original) Una escultura original. Pero no tiene mucha estética.
but it did give a name for the sculpture: Pajaritas Anarquistas del Clot. How could a pajarita be anarchist?
Ramón Acín and the original Monumento a las Pajaritas in Huesca
Some simple web searching led to https://larosadefuego.blogspot.com/2009/07/las-pajaritas-anarquistas-del-clot.html. Ramón Acín (1888-1936) was the artist and political activist who created the original Huesca sculpture in 1929. He was executed by the fascists on the night of 23 August 1936. Seventeen days later, his wife Conchita was shot with about 100 others.
The Barcelona Monumento a las Pajaritas and more pajaritas
https://larosadefuego.blogspot.com/2009/07/las-pajaritas-anarquistas-del-clot.html states that
On the occasion of the 1992 Olympic Games, one of the new Ramblas del Clot in Calle Aragon with Meridiana was going to be decorated with a monument alluding to peace. The neighbourhood association thought about erecting a sculpture of a white dove. But Josep Anton Cubillo and Ramón Garcia Bragado responsible for the urban area during the games and knowledgeable about Acín’s work (one was from Huesca and the artist’s other grandson) proposed that replicas of the Pajaritas be the ones to decorate the New Ramblas del Clot.
The neighbours accepted the idea, and in May 1991 the two statues … were inaugurated (one at each end of the boulevard) with the presence of the mayors of Barcelona and Huesca.
The statue has a plaque that contains the first article on civil rights inscribed:
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”
I followed a link to the Foundation Ramón and Katia Acín. The pajarita is considered significant enough to be used as the foundation’s logo: two pajaritas facing each, even closer together than the sculptures.
Final thoughts: judgement requires context
The negative reviews on Google Maps may be unrepresentative, yet they sound authentic. It is hard to be objective about art: personal reactions depend on artistic, social and political knowledge, amongst other things. A lack of information and context can lead to unfavourable reactions. On the other hand, sometimes artists’ statements and critics’ writing can be obfuscatory and pretentious – it can be hard to tell if they are being serious.
The sculptures were reasonably well-maintained but attracted little attention from passers-by. They are not listed in any tourist guides or maps that I saw. The original sculptures in Huesca have no reviews at all in Google Maps but receive more respect elsewhere:
In the Miguel Servet park in Huesca is located one of the symbols of the capital of the province of Huesca. This is the work that Ramón Acín, an artist from Huesca born in 1888, left as a legacy to his hometown: the monument to Las Pajaritas . …
Las Pajaritas, without a doubt, is a must see when passing through Huesca. So we encourage you to come to this enclave of the Miguel Servet park. https://www.huescalamagia.es/blog/un-simbolo-en-forma-de-pajarita/
Update
This article is based on the original published in British Origami 324, October 2020. Since then
- Google Maps shows different information for the Barcelona pajaritas and the origina Huesca sculpture has some positive reviews.
- José Ignacio Royo Prieto informs us that “Inside the Prison of El Dueso (Santoña, Cantabria, north of Spain) there are a couple of huge pajarita statues with differerent sizes (mother & child style). I suppose they were made by prisoners, but I don’t know. The interior of the yard of the prison can be seen from the mountain, and I have watched them many times using binoculars.” They seem to have been made in the last 20 years.
- Dave Brill reports a single pajarita sculpture in Zaragoza by EMOZ and shows a photo here https://www.flickr.com/photos/brill/49569497397/in/album-72157713210396451
- You’ll find several pages of information about the history of the pajarita at The Public Paperfolding History Project