Madrid No Frills

Those who have met Alejandro over the years talk a lot about his passion and his faith, and how much he loves his barrio. At 81, there is one more fight he is determined to win: to stay in his home, and he has joined forces with a new force in the barrio. Over the past few weeks, Alejandro has worked closely with the brand-new neighbourhood association Asociación Vecinal La Chispera, in La Latina, whose members have pushed his campaign so hard that his story has now been covered by El País, La Sexta, El Diario, El Salto, Europa Press, TeleMadrid, Madrid Diario and more – in just the last two weeks.

At around 5.30am, just as the birds began chirruping, members of Madrid’s housing movement began gathering outside Mariano’s home. While the sound of neighbours talking at that hour is not unusual here, the mood on this occasion was tense. Between embraces and murmured complaints about lack of sleep, there was an unmistakable nervousness: after three previous attempts to remove him, Mariano was facing what he feared would be a fourth – and final – eviction order, this time signed off by a religious institution.

Two of the last historic buildings in Lavapiés has been saved from demolition. Just before noon today, following recognition of the buildings’ potential heritage value, police shouted from street level to the construction workers on the roof to stop work immediately. The two-storey buildings on Plaza Nelson Mandela – formerly home to Baobab, Madrid’s first Senegalese restaurant and an old guest house – now stands as a powerful symbol of a rare victory for the barrio.