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Madrid No Frills

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The story of Madrid’s rare book store founded by legendary flamencologist

Born in 1942, the late José Blas Vega grew up navigating life in a very different Spain by reading books. He became a regular fixture in Madrid’s bookstore scene, until he decided to open his own: Librería del Prado, in Barrio de las Letras. Around the same time, he started becoming an esteemed flamenco producer and historian, earning him prizes and recognition across the country.
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PODCAST: Maricarmen and The Madrid Encampment – A New Social Movement is Born

Welcome to The No Frills Podcast. Join me on the streets of Spain to explore what people are really thinking and feeling. In this first ever episode of The No Frills Podcast, I record the birth of a new social movement that has culminated in Madrid’s Sol encampment, where thousands bed down in a “tent city” every night as a united protest against a housing system in crisis.
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Housing movement escalates: Spain PM has until tomorrow to fix crisis

On Wednesday morning, Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE devoted extraordinary attention to Maricarmen’s eviction. Its coverage followed the 87-year-old through her final hours in the home where she had lived for more than 70 years, and continued after she was carried out on a stretcher.
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“I came home to a beach of plastic, then witnessed an unprecedented community response to the UK’s worst pellet spill”

I arrived back in Newcastle, my home city, the day before a two-ship collision in my local port, on the River Tyne. Just a few days later, I found our local beach blanketed in a snow of tiny white plastic pellets, so I grabbed my camera and started documenting what had happened. What began as a photographic record of a historic pollution spill quickly became something much bigger: an archive of an unprecedented grassroots community response involving thousands of residents.
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Para los movimientos por la vivienda en España, la cultura se ha convertido en una nueva forma de resistencia

La crisis de la vivienda en España acabó alcanzando a los inquilinos de la calle Tribulete 7 cuando su edificio fue vendido a un fondo buitre. Hicieron todo lo que se supone que hay que hacer: organizar reuniones, ponerse en contacto con el Sindicato de Inquilinas y encontrar una abogada. También protestaron, hablaron con periodistas y crearon una cuenta de Instagram. Pero además hicieron algo que yo nunca había visto.
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“I will die standing”: How Alejandro, 81, won the battle to stay in his home

“This is my home until the day I die, as is stated in the contract,” says Alejandro, whose battle has become the heart of a local campaign backed by the members of the new neighbourhood association AV La Chispera. “Alejandro resisted, and with good reason,” says the association. “His resistance has not been an individual act of stubbornness or personal preference. It has been a defence of people’s rights.”
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Esta Es Una Plaza: la comunidad que ayuda a Lavapiés a combatir el calor

ras una discreta puerta metálica en el número 24 de la calle Doctor Fourquet descubrí un jardín autogestionado que se convirtió en una auténtica extensión del colegio. Allí los niños y niñas sembraban hortalizas, observaban insectos, cuidaban el espacio, conocían a vecinas de distintas generaciones y aprendían que también se educa cuando se comparte la responsabilidad sobre un lugar común.
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Esta Es Una Plaza: The urban garden community helping Lavapiés beat the heat

Hidden behind an unassuming metal gate on Calle Doctor Fourquet 24, the self-managed garden became a living lesson. My students planted seeds that would grow into vegetables, observed insects and raked up fallen leaves. They played with neighbors of different generations, and discovered that learning could happen through caring for a shared place.
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Spain needs to normalise festival drugs testing – here’s how it’s being done

About a 10 minute walk from the Estrecho Metro stop in the Tetuán District of Madrid is Energy Control’s Madrid office and lab. A non-profit that spans all of Spain, Energy Control started in 1997 as part of a Spanish public health initiative, with the aim to monitor the purity of illegal drugs in an unregulated market. Free of charge, people can anonymously submit small samples of their desired substance to make sure they will be getting the experience they paid for – with reduced risk.
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‘Soy Tribulete 7’ documentary: One block’s fight against Madrid’s housing crisis – out now

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.