JOSÉ LUIS

José Luis García Ruiz was born in Madrid 57 years ago. He was a businessman, was married and had two children. After his divorce he sold his business and came to Barcelona. He found work as the head of a kitchen, but soon quit because of the psychological stress this generated. José Luis ended up on the street. “The problem is when you end up on the street and you don’t know which doors you can knock on. You aren’t trying to reintegrate yourself, you just try to survive,” he explains. He would go shower and store his things at the Arrels Foundation. At night he would sleep in open bank ATMs. At the moment José Luis lives in one of the foundation’s shared apartments. He volunteers at the carpentry workshops while at the same time continuing to write and paint. Poetry is his great passion. “I use it to express my personal experiences, which I don’t do so well when I speak”. He has a few books written, but none have been published yet. He likes to keep his freedom of expression.