Little Expats:🇺🇸 MEET BENJAMIN
🇺🇸 MEET BENJAMIN
The Barcelona Boy Who Never Stops Moving
Born in the USA. Growing up in Barcelona. Usually somewhere between a skateboard, a sketchbook and a song.
Benjamin – Benji to absolutely everyone – is eleven years old.
He was born in the United States and now lives with his family in Barcelona, where he attends an American international school.
And Benji has one slight problem.
He finds walking extremely inefficient.
Why walk when you can skateboard?
Why take the boring way home when there’s another street you’ve never tried?
And why simply look at Barcelona when you can sketch it, photograph it, sing about it or turn it into something new?
Welcome to Benji’s world.
It’s fast.
It’s colourful.
It’s creative.
And occasionally his mother would really prefer him to wear a cleaner T-shirt.
FROM THE USA TO BARCELONA
When Benji arrived in Barcelona, he didn’t simply see a new city.
He saw colour.
Tiles.
Balconies.
Street art.
Old buildings.
Crazy shapes.
Music.
Skaters.
Beaches.
Markets.
Football.
People from everywhere.
And architecture that occasionally looks as though somebody had a completely wild idea and nobody told them to stop.
Benji loved it.
“This place is awesome.”
Or, increasingly:
“¡Qué guay!”
His Spanish friends laugh.
Benji doesn’t care.
He’s learning.
BENJI SPEAKS BENJI
At school, Benji speaks English.
Around Barcelona, more and more Spanish slips in.
And then there’s Catalan.
Benji loves the fact that one city can have so many languages floating around it.
So naturally he starts collecting words.
“Mom, I’m going skating con mis amigos. Ara torno!”
His mother looks at him.
“Which language was that?”
Benji shrugs.
“Barcelona?”
Fair enough.
BORN TO MOVE
Benji is sporty.
Very sporty.
But his great love is his skateboard.
He loves the sound of wheels on pavement.
He loves practising a trick until he finally gets it.
He loves the freedom.
He loves meeting other skaters.
And he loves discovering a city from ground level.
Barcelona and skate culture belong together in Benji’s mind.
But LITTLE EXPATS Benji also learns something important:
A cool skater respects the city.
Pedestrians aren’t obstacles.
Historic places aren’t your personal skatepark.
Helmets are considerably cooler than hospital waiting rooms.
And knowing where you can skate matters just as much as knowing how.
Benji may be wild.
He’s not stupid.
THE BOY WITH PAINT ON HIS HANDS
Here’s the surprise.
Put Benji somewhere quiet and give him a pencil…
and he can disappear into a drawing for an hour.
Because underneath all that movement is a real little artista.
He loves drawing.
Painting.
Street art.
Graphic design.
Photography.
Music.
Architecture.
He’ll look at a building and notice a shape.
Look at a skateboard and imagine a design for its deck.
Hear a musician and start tapping out the rhythm.
Barcelona feeds his imagination constantly.
And then, of course, there is Gaudí.
Benji has questions.
Many questions.
Why does that building look like it’s moving?
Why are those balconies shaped like that?
Why does everything have to be straight anyway?
Could you design a house without a single boring wall?
This is exactly how we get:
BENJI DOES BARCELONA
Art through the eyes of an eleven-year-old who would much rather draw the building than memorise the date it was constructed.
YES, HE SINGS
Benji loves music.
And Benji sings.
Everywhere.
In his room.
In the shower.
On the way to school.
While drawing.
Occasionally when nobody has requested a performance.
He hears rhythm everywhere.
Skateboard wheels.
Metro doors.
Street musicians.
Football crowds.
The sea.
Barcelona is noisy.
Benji considers this a feature, not a problem.
ART DOESN’T HAVE TO HANG IN A MUSEUM
Benji likes museums.
But don’t tell him that art belongs inside them.
Absolutely not.
Art is on walls.
On buildings.
On skateboards.
On trainers.
On posters.
On album covers.
In parks.
In music.
In fashion.
In architecture.
Sometimes even on the side of a completely ordinary building you nearly walked past.
Benji’s superpower is noticing creativity everywhere.
And through him, LITTLE EXPATS can explore Barcelona’s museums, architecture, design, street culture and creative neighbourhoods without turning it into a school lesson.
Because Benji doesn’t want a lecture.
He wants to make something.
BEACH. BOARD. BARCELONA.
There’s another reason Benji loves his new home.
The sea.
A city where you can have school, art, architecture, skate culture and a beach?
Benji thinks someone planned this specifically for him.
Weekends can mean skating, swimming, beach sports, cycling, meeting friends or simply hanging around near the water with music and a sketchbook.
He’s happiest outside.
Preferably moving.
Preferably with friends.
And preferably with something to eat afterwards.
Being an artista is exhausting.
BENJI’S LITTLE EXPAT CARD
NAME: Benjamin
EVERYONE CALLS HIM: Benji
AGE: 11
BORN: USA 🇺🇸
HOME NOW: Barcelona, Spain 🇪🇸
SCHOOL: American international school in Barcelona
LANGUAGES: English • Spanish • learning Catalan
LOVES: Art, music, skateboarding, architecture & Barcelona street culture
SPORTS / ACTIVITIES: Skateboarding • Swimming • Beach sports • Cycling
CREATIVE OBSESSION: Drawing and designing
ALWAYS CARRYING: His skateboard — or a sketchbook
HAPPY PLACE: Somewhere between the city and the beach
WEEKEND HEAVEN: Skate + friends + beach + music
CARES ABOUT: Creativity, freedom, friendship & respecting his city
SUPERPOWER: Seeing art absolutely everywhere
SECRET WEAKNESS: Music — he cannot hear a beat without moving
BIG DREAM: To create something the whole world recognises
FAVOURITE PHRASE: “Dude… ¡mira esto! This is so cool.”
AMERICA GAVE HIM CONFIDENCE. BARCELONA GAVE HIM A CANVAS.
And that’s Benji.
A sweet, funny Black American kid with freckles, short playful locs and a smile that usually means he’s just had another idea.
He’s sporty without being the sports character.
He’s artistic without being quiet.
He’s cool without trying too hard.
He’s the kid who might arrive on a skateboard, stop because he spotted an incredible piece of architecture, pull out his sketchbook…
and then start singing.
MEET BENJAMIN 🇺🇸
The Barcelona Boy Who Never Stops Moving
Skater. Artist. Singer. Explorer.
And probably the only Little Expert capable of turning the journey home from school into a music video.
Barcelona, watch out.
Benji is rolling in.
LITTLE EXPATS
BIG WORLD. LITTLE EXPLORERS.