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Account was last modified: July 25th, 2019 by Madrid No Frills

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Latest Posts

Cities across Spain gather over the largest mass loss of life the Spanish border has ever seen
27 June 2022
‘The Kiss’: a secret, split-second moment that captured Madrid’s heart
14 June 2022
Yes, the word ‘guiri’ is offensive
9 June 2022
Orgullo Loco: destigmatising the conversation around mental health oppression
2 June 2022
Spain’s new menstrual leave bill brings us one step closer to feminising medicine
27 May 2022

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I love this photo by @flordoqui of @gadyola last n

I love this photo by @flordoqui of @gadyola last night at the @orgullocriticomadrid and @regularizacionya march in the barrio of Usera.

It demonstrates that the fight for LGBTQI+ equality is aligned with the fight for racial equality! United we stand... it's as simple as that ✊🏾🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️💜

#orgullo #orgullocritico #regularizacionya

𝗖𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿

𝗖𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗮𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗻

📸 @gt_squirrel
📸 @_a.astudillo__
📸 @davidxlacalle

At least 37 people were killed attempting to cross from Africa to Europe on Friday. Most victims were from Sudan, South Sudan and Chad – countries involved in armed conflicts. If the victims had made it to Spain, they would likely have received international protection. Instead, they were trapped on a slope by the border fence and crushed to death.

The violence was recorded, showing Moroccan authorities entering Spain to capture and return people who had successfully crossed over. Officers can also be seen throwing rocks and smoke bombs at the victims, causing stampedes. Videos of some 100 people emerged, lying should-to-shoulder and head-to-toe on the ground. Medics were refused access to treat the wounded.

Over the weekend, 21 graves were dug near the Moroccan border, rapidly burying those who lost their lives on Friday without any identification of their bodies, nor a single autopsy to establish if they were beaten to death. Relatives of the thousands making the journey to Spain will not know for weeks or even months if it was their father, brother or son who died on Friday.

Spain makes up just one of the walls of fortress Europe, acting under violent orders from Brussels. The EU is a racist institution and shows no mercy at its door. We must condemn the actions of the Spanish and Moroccan security forces in their massacre of 37 Africans, but this institutional killing spree doesn’t just occur at the borders.

Immigrants in Spain are also locked out of access to health care, education and legal work, while also being routinely chased by the police and thrown into prison for the “crime” of being here. Their lives are in constant danger, however, the push to regularise undocumented migrants already living here is gaining steam. If you aren’t familiar with the @regularizacionya movement, here’s everything you need to know. You have until September 23 to sign!

🔎 Read the full article linked in bio.

#masacreenmelilla #regularizacionya

Por qué Madrid está lleno de bares de toda la vi

Por qué Madrid está lleno de bares de toda la vida y cómo sobreviven a pesar de todo? Te explico.

Why is Madrid full of no-frills bars and how do they survive when the odds are against them? Let me tell you.

🎥 A Madrid Tal Cual special collaboration with @madrid_secreto last year 💕

#madridnofrills #madrid #madridsecreto

Once upon a time, there was a tiny bakery called P

Once upon a time, there was a tiny bakery called Panadería Paqui. It sat at the top of pedestrianised street, at Calle Tajuña 19, in the barrio of Puerta del Ángel 🍞🥖🏡

Today, the detached one-storey building is used as a one-car garage, but maintains its original tiles and signage. There even remains a small part of the original toldo verde – the bit that reads 'Paqui'.

Madrid is a mosaic of past and present, and everything between. And it's all around us, you just have to look 🕵🏾‍♀️

#panaderia #puertadeangel #rotulos #madrid

No frills B🅿️♿ (Bar) Luis 💕 @barluismadr

No frills B🅿️♿ (Bar) Luis 💕 @barluismadrid

📍 Calle Sta. Úrsula, 18, Puerta del Ángel

#nofrillsbar #madridnofrills #puertadelangel

The world had forgotten that this former Rastro to

The world had forgotten that this former Rastro toy-train shop also used to be a wine and liquor store! ✨

After the 'Vino' part of the original tile signage was sadly removed earlier this month, the remaining 'aguardientes' (direct translation: moonshine) is set to be preserved!

What a jewel to have back and visible in the oldest part of El Rastro! 👻🥃😍

#madrid #elrastro #elrastrodemadrid #signhunters

Dreaming of the Alicante Beach Señoras, their col

Dreaming of the Alicante Beach Señoras, their colourful spray-fixed hair and their animal-print promenade couture 🐅🐆💕

#aquinohayplaya #madrid #alicante

Madrid Frente del Mar 🌇🌊 This heatwave has

Madrid Frente del Mar 🌇🌊

This heatwave has got me fantasising about Madrid being by the Mediterranean sea again, so I created it. Enjoy... I hope it brings you some light relief! 🌡️💙✨

Two strangers, a little girl and an abuela share a

Two strangers, a little girl and an abuela share a secret exchange, blowing each other a kiss 💕

#madrid

𝗨𝘀𝗲𝗿𝗮 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗩𝗶𝗹𝗹

𝗨𝘀𝗲𝗿𝗮 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗩𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 ✊🏾

✍️📸 @toma.elmicro

From the moment we were allowed to gather in crowds again post-lockdown, Thursday evenings have been dedicated to weekly demonstrations outside our local healthcare centres.

On Thursday night last week, the southern barrios of Villaverde and Usera – one of the least funded areas in Madrid – took their weekly demonstrations to the next level. Filled with power and emotion, the two groups converged on the street in a mass joint march to their local hospital, 12 de Octubre.

When the crowd of over 1,500 protestors arrived, they were welcomed by nurses and doctors who work there, who took a moment to step outside and applaud the protesters. Speakers standing in front of the hospital described how access to healthcare in Madrid depends on the neighbourhood you live in. A crowd made up of people of all ages chanted with passion in defence of #sanidadpública, and against the policies drawn up by President Ayuso.

The Comunidad de Madrid, run for 28 consecutive years by the right-wing Partido Popular, spends less on healthcare than many other regions in Spain. In 2019, Madrid spent just €1,340 euros per resident on healthcare, compared with €1,873 in the Basque country and a national average of €1,480. Only Andalucia spent less than Madrid.

In addition to an increase in waiting times across the public healthcare system, many local emergency health clinics that were temporarily closed during the first lockdown remain closed – it’s now been over 800 days and continues.

With the summer coming, concerns about seasonal staff shortages are higher than ever. But one thing is certain. The residents of Madrid’s barrios won’t let their health system decline without a fight 💪🏾

Groups involved:
👉🏾 @fravm
👉🏾 @av_orcasitas
👉🏾 @barriomoscardo
👉🏾 @avbarriozofio
👉🏾 @launidaddevillaverde

Madrid's first official heatwave has just hit 🥵

Madrid's first official heatwave has just hit 🥵 so while some will be heading to the swanky rooftop terrace pools for cocktails and views, I'll be hitting Madrid's grassy outdoor municipal pools and their no-frills bars! 🍻

🪙 Edit: entry is just €2.25 per half day this year, making it much more affordable (it used to be €4.50 minimum as a full day ticket).

💦 Tell me, which of Madrid's outdoor municipal pools is your favourite, and why?

💦 Head to comments to read more about the pools I've explored this year so far (more coming soon!)

📸 Lago, Casa de Campo

𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗻'𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁

𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗻'𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗯𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮 𝗵𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗰 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 ✊🏾

📸 @eli_medeaphoto

“Today is a historic day,” said the domestic workers on Thursday, at the door of the congress where, minutes before, the updated ILO (International Labour Organisation) Convention 189 was confirmed. Between hugs and tears of emotion, the women of the Territorio Doméstico shouted, “Slavery is over!”

Domestic and care workers across the country have long had fewer rights than other sectors, having also been historically invisible in the fight for labour rights. This comes despite Spain having the highest number of domestic workers in Europe.

At close to 615,000 individuals, 96% of whom are women, domestic workers represent 3.3% of Spain’s workforce. Of this percentage, 70% are ‘internas’ (those who reside in typically wealthy households), and 36% of domestic workers in Spain are migrant women, some undocumented.

The new ratification of the ILO Convention 189 states that domestic and care workers will have the right to strike, and to sickness and unemployment benefits. Reasons for dismissal will be regulated, no longer allowing households to fire them without giving any cause or compensation, and special attention will be given to sexual harassment towards workers.

The group of women on Thursday dedicated this historic achievement to the many domestic workers who lost their lives, such Jeanneth Beltrán. She was a fellow domestic worker, without papers, who died in 2014 in Toledo, unable to access health care.

Wearing aprons, waving toilet brushes, and banging pots and pans, domestic workers promise to continue fighting for all until they reach true equality in workers’ rights ✊🏾🎉💜

👉🏾 @observatoriojeannethbeltran
👉🏾 @sedoac_serviciodomesticoact
👉🏾 @migrantes_antirracistas_8m

#territoriodomestico #trabajadoresdomésticos #convenio189

𝗬𝗲𝘀, 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱 '𝗴𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗶' 𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲.

The word guiri entered the Spanish dictionary in 1925 in reference to enemy forces and later to describe the Guardia Civil. It also exists in Caló (guripa, also kuripén) as someone who maintains order. But there’s another word that must be considered in the origin of the word guiri, which is gora. It means ‘white people’ in Hindi (gori means white woman) and is widely used in India and among the Indian diaspora.

Today, in the context of Spain, guiri typically refers to a pale white person. Guiri is also a cultural reference for someone who is from a northern European country or a predominantly English-speaking continent such as America and Australia, also including people of colour.

Guiri is also a term that carries entitlement, imperial wealth, and power, and is also used to describe someone as naïve and/or ignorant, trapped in their own culture due to refusal or inability to integrate.

Spaniards look down on guiris and may even feel pity for them, seeing them as missing out on Spanish culture because they’re too lost in their own world. Most Spaniards will argue that the word guiri is not offensive, but it undeniably makes sweeping assumptions about a person based on either their appearance, their nationality, or their behaviour.

I’ve been called a guiri many times and I don’t like it. Although I don’t find it as offensive as racist slurs I have been called (I’m mixed-race, white/South Indian), nor do I categorise guiri as a racist term, being called a guiri does remind me of how it feels to be othered for my appearance, my origins, or assumptions made about my culture and behaviour.

While the racism I’ve received has aimed to position me as being less intelligent, less able, and less capable than my white counterparts, I feel that the term guiri carries the idea that I’m better, or at least I think I’m better than Spaniards. It also carries the idea of colonisation, which has been exacerbated by neoliberal government policies and mass violent evictions.

🔎 Read the full article up on the website by heading to the link in bio at @madridnofrills.

#guiri #gora #spain

❤️ Valladolid No Frills, now on the MNF Map an

❤️ Valladolid No Frills, now on the MNF Map and on Patreon!

I loved visiting Valladolid but was surprised to find that hardly any tourists visit it. With the cleanest streets I've ever seen in Spain, a beautiful park dense with tame wildlife, a city beach along the river, delightful bodegas, a fun no-frills nightlife and stunning architecture, I really encourage you to visit. Especially if it takes some tourism away from Madrid, which has already exceeded breaking point.

Head to the link in my bio @madridnofrills to read all about it by becoming a MNF Patron, and discover 20 of my favourite Valladolid locations on the MNF Map!

#patreon #valladolid #visitspain

𝗢𝗿𝗴𝘂𝗹𝗹𝗼 𝗟𝗼𝗰𝗼: 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵

📸 By @flordoqui

This year’s @orgullolocomadrid march was themed around something they feel nobody talks about: psychiatric violence.

According to patient testimonials, many have experienced being tied up, non-consensual electroshock therapy and drug use, isolation, and even restricted access to water. Some also claim to have experienced sexual assault while in care, and are reluctant to report it for fear of not being believed.

Kimberley Obongonyinge of @blackbehaviouresp explains: “Psychiatric sciences in the Global North have historically been involved in the oppression of marginalised groups. During the [Francoist] dictatorship, doctors experimented on LGBTQIA+ people as they believed homosexuality to be a mental illness.”

In 2018, sales of anxiolytics in Spain totalled 101.4 million euros. A report by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), Spain is the largest consumer of benzodiazepines in the world, with 11% of the population taking at least one dose every day.

The number of psychologists available in Spain per person is just a third of EU average. In direct contrast, while one in four people across the EU suffers from mental health issues, data from the Ministry of Health shows that, in Spain, this figure is one in three.

Suicide is seen as a mental health issue, but the cause of this outcome is frequently overlooked. Last week, a tragic story of a double suicide made the headlines.

Two sisters, aged 79 and 70, took their own lives the day they were due to be evicted from their home in Santander. At the last moment, anti-eviction activists from the Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca (PAH) had managed to stop the eviction, but the sisters didn’t become aware of this in time.

There is a mental health crisis in Spain, and it's connected to economic, racial, gender and sexuality oppression.

🔎 Read the full article linked in bio @madridnofrills

#orgulloloco #orgullolocomadrid #crazypride

Vallekas 🖤 painted by @carlosbrayda based on my

Vallekas 🖤 painted by @carlosbrayda based on my 2019 photo taken a week before lockdown.

This casa baja is one of the few late-19th century houses remaining in Madrid, which are being demolished to pave way for multistorey private blocks rented at abusive prices.

🏠 Between 2008 and now, more than 2.5 million people have experienced an eviction by either a private landlord increasing the rent, or the council selling off our social housing stock to vulture funds, or a vulture fund emptying an entire building for speculation purposes.

🏠 A third of all (perfectly habitable) empty houses in the EU are in Spain.

🏠 Just 2.5% of all homes in Spain are social housing (Netherlands 30%, Austria 24%, UK 17.6%, France 16.8%).

Housing is Spain's biggest yet most secret crisis and intersects every aspect of life: employment, equality, gender violence, racism, crime.

Solve housing, solve the crisis.

𝗪𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀

It is important to understand the definition of poverty and that, even though it can be relative and therefore shifts, it’s also very clearly defined.

According to the United Nations definition, “Poverty is a denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family, not having a school or clinic to go to, not having the land on which to grow one’s food or a job to earn one’s living, not having access to credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households, and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living on marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation.”

🏡 To someone living in a mansion, someone living in a flat may appear poor. But this is completely incorrect. The person living in a flat is not poor, the person living in a mansion is privileged.

🚙 To someone with a car, someone without one may appear poor. But someone with a car can still be poor because they don’t live in an area served with decent public transport and have no alternative but to drive to work or drive their children to school.

👕 Hanging your washing outside is common sense, not because you don't have a drier.

💡 Many houses in the Cañada Real have outdoor patios. Some houses even have gardens where they grow their own vegetables and keep their own hens, which lay fresh eggs. Children can play outdoors in relative safety away from traffic and experience the joys and advantages of having a strong community. But they don’t have a decent bus line, clinics, or schools nearby and, in Sectors 5 and 6, they don’t even have electricity and they haven’t for 605 days.

🕯️ Reminder: an entire neighbourhood in Madrid (4000 people) live in acute poverty and the government continues to do nothing about it.

Wealth blindness – deliberately misunderstanding poverty – breeds poverty and inequality, which is exactly what Madrid's right-wing government is doing.

#vivalaropatendida

Toldos verdes and ropa tendida at sunset – the M

Toldos verdes and ropa tendida at sunset – the Madrid holy trinity 👕🌇💕

#Vallekas #toldosverdes #vivalaropatendida #madrid

After one month of grassroots journalism training,

After one month of grassroots journalism training, forty brilliant Journalists of the Future have now passed through the doors of the University of Madrid No Frills!!! 🧑‍🎓✊🏾❤️✨

Forty inspiring people, who I'm honoured to have met and to now call my no-frills fam, are equipped with the tools they need to not only tell the stories that matter, but to feel confident in doing so too 💪🏾💪🏾💪🏾

I feel so passionately about grassroots journalism and pushing the most powerful industry on earth – mainstream media – towards doing better. And, for this reason, I'm so proud for having found, trained and encouraged forty amazing people to carry the baton and literally be journalists of the future! ✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾

I absolutely can't wait to begin mentoring them all this month. Watch this space everyone, amazing things are happening ❤️❤️❤️

#mnfjournalistsofthefuture

𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗻'𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘀𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗲

📸 @aldarazn

Medicine is dominated by the study of white, male, western bodies, which have long been seen as the most perfect human specimen – any others have been seen as a deviation. For as long as medicine has existed, women and people of colour have been excluded from medical research, resulting in healthcare systems made by white men for white men.

Medicine has always seen women first and foremost as reproductive bodies. The female reproductive organs are seen as the greatest source of difference to men and resulted in the creation of gynaecology departments, whose main focus still remains on the reproductive system and therefore does not typically take into account other differences between female and male bodies.

“Angina pectoris (chest pain) or heart attacks do not manifest the same in a woman and a man,” says Carmen Diego, a spokesperson for professional care workers in Madrid. “We should also look into why the socio-sanitary sector has more cases of anxiety and depression and what factors cause these illnesses to occur, such as working conditions and salaries.”

To some extent, gynaecology departments have shifted the responsibility when it comes the medical study of female bodies, ticking a box while simultaneously deleting it. But the new menstrual leave bill has the potential to refocus attention on women’s health.

Up to 10% of the country experiences severe period pain. With a huge portion of Spain’s workforce being granted unlimited menstrual sick leave, the country must now stop and think of its future. There are two directions in which we can move: either stop hiring women and remove us from the country’s workforce – something I fear is not an unrealistic option for the right – or invest in the medical research into female bodies and make us a healthier, happier workforce.

Feminising medicine must also push for the decolonisation of medicine.

🔎 Read the full article linked in bio @madridnofrills

#leymenstruacióndigna #madrid

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