From Los Angeles Times
by Lauren Frayer
Nouari Benzawi is trying to figure out how to make his kebab shop more Spanish.
Benzawi, 52, immigrated to Spain from Algeria two decades ago. He’s married to a Spaniard and holds dual nationality. Seven years ago, he and his wife opened the kebab shop and halal grocery store in this breezy, palm tree-lined provincial capital of 135,000 on Spain’s Mediterranean coast.
“My tomatoes are Spanish, and so are the potatoes I sell,” Benzawi said one recent evening, yanking a corrugated metal curtain down over his storefront to close up for the night. “Please explain this to me!” he implored. “Do I need to sell pork to be a ‘traditional Spanish business’? Do I need to sell wine?”
Benzawi, a Muslim, stocks neither pork nor wine. But he worries that those choices could eventually cause him problems if proposed zoning laws take effect this summer. Ruling conservatives, who are seeking reelection in a May 24 municipal vote, hope to limit the number of kebab shops and other traditionally immigrant-owned businesses in Tarragona’s historic quarter.
At a City Council meeting in January, the head of the Tarragona branch of Spain’s ruling Popular Party, Alejandro Fernandez, who is running for mayor, said the changes would prevent immigrant “ghettos” and protect “traditional Spanish businesses.”
No commercial licenses would be granted to any new kebab shops, dollar stores or Internet cafes unless they are situated more than 500 yards from existing ones. The businesses would have to comply with new hygiene standards, Fernandez said, and adhere to stricter opening hours set by City Hall. The laws would not force the closure of any existing businesses.
Still, the proposal had Benzawi frantically stomping around his shop, picking up groceries, reading aloud their “Made in Spain” labels and then slamming them back down on shelves.
“My business is legal!” said Benzawi, who trained as an electrical engineer but could not find work here in his field. He speaks Spanish, French, Arabic and a bit of English. “I pay my taxes. I don’t sell contraband. So what are they so worried about? This is called discrimination.”
