MNF > Articles by: Madrid No Frills

Madrid No Frills

Categories

Documentary ‘Soy Tribulete 7’: One block’s fight against Madrid’s housing crisis – out now

Leer el artículo en castellano Spain’s housing crisis has finally come for you. Your home has just been sold to a vulture fund and they want you out. What would you do?  The residents at Calle Tribulete 7 came together and set out on a path of resistance, one that would transform them into a Madrid-wide symbol of the battle for housing rights. The documentary Soy Tribulete 7 (I am Tribulete 7) takes us inside the 107-year-old Lavapiés building and into the lives of an extraordinary community whose looming eviction launched the fight of their lives. The story began in February 2024, when neighbours received a letter telling them their building was being sold to a vulture fund. News spread fast through the barrio and, the moment Leah and Elisa heard, they picked up their cameras and headed straight to the block where over 100 neighbours were still in shock....
Categories

Magical outdoor Iftar for kids reclaims public space for the people of Lavapiés

Until January 2020, the terrace of Baobab, the first Senegalese restaurant in Madrid, spilled light and life across Plaza Nelson Mandela. People ate around the historic fountain while kids drifted between tables and benches. People on the other side of the square would stop for a chat, or simply people watch. It never felt unsafe.
Categories

Photographers of the Future May 2026 course enrolment now open!

Learn how to become a visual storyteller using photography. I'll teach you everything from developing an idea right through to creating a finished photography project – ready to publish – accompanying your images with storytelling in a way that respects the subject and inspires the spectator.
Categories

Alejandro’s fight to keep his La Latina home sparks brand-new barrio movement, AV La Chispera

Author: Leah Pattem / Photos:  Dani Piedrabuena When Alejandro was told he would have to leave the home where he hoped to spend his final years, neighbours in La Latina rallied around him – and in the process gave birth to a new community movement called AV La Chispera (The Sparkies). 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...
Categories

New Regularisation Law must also confront employer abuse – especially inside the Spanish home

Author: Leah Pattem Story also published in El Salto Diario (Castellano) Complete lack of labour inspections inside the Spanish home, where migrant domestic workers live, enables employers to evade accountability, breeding a colonial mindset where wrongdoing no longer even registers as wrong. If Pedro Sánchez is serious about intersectional justice, his government must enact immediate, concrete action. Around the world, Spain’s announcement to regularise roughly half a million undocumented migrants has been widely hailed as a landmark step towards justice. International newspapers are applauding the Spanish government for launching one of the most ambitious regularisation efforts in recent history, framed as supplementing a shrinking population while extending equal rights to irregular workers. But while the country basks in the spotlight for all the right reasons, especially among growing anti-immigrant sentiment elsewhere in Europe, we’re being watched closely. Can our government set a precedent in tackling Europe’s migration crisis? Maybe. But...
Categories

Bodegas Calatrava: “There aren’t many bodegas like this anymore”

This is one of those true city bodegas that functions first as a shop and then as a bar – though, over time, the bar has become the main event. It feels closer to a social club, or a working men’s club like the ones back in Newcastle where I’m from: somewhere you might stop for a quick drink before the match, or find yourself drowning your sorrows after a funeral with complete strangers who turn out to have known your uncle – they worked together for years and used to drink here together after shift.
Categories

The religious landlords who keep trying evict Madrid’s vulnerable tenants

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.
Categories

Two of the last historic buildings in Lavapiés have been saved from demolition

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.
Categories

The seafood bar that does the best callos inside the M30

One of the things l love the most about Madrid are the senseless yet beautiful contradictions it serves your way. One of our most famous dishes is the bocata de calamares despite being 350km away from the coast, and ordering ‘un mini’ will get you a litre of beer, to name a couple.
Categories

Mazón’s belated resignation is no act of grace, it’s an insult to democracy

For twelve long months, Mazón has staggered on like a political ghost haunting a grieving nation. His party, the Partido Popular, never forced him out. Instead, they stood by him every step of the way, offering loyalty just to save their own names, long after it became clear his position was untenable. And so, when Mazón announced his resignation this week, he was allowed to do it on his own terms – framed not as disgrace, but as an act of dignity. It was anything but.
Categories

As 12 October approaches, hay algo que celebrar: This.

Each year, in the shadows of the nation-wide parade of the Spanish military, indigenous communities come together in Madrid to celebrate the parts of their culture and history that were never erased during the colonisation of their people and lands.
Categories

Madrid EXT: The film about Madrid you need to see right now

Juan Cavestany, 56, was immortalised as a child in the sun-bleached mural in the corner of Plaza Cascorro in El Rastro, painted more than 40 years ago by his dad. Now, after decades working as a journalist around the world, he returns with outsider eyes, able to capture the iconic elements of a vanishing city – the Madrid I’ve also spent the last 10 years documenting.