MNF > Articles by: Madrid No Frills

Madrid No Frills

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Seven no-frills decades of Estrecho’s Bar Los Pepes

It’s mid-morning by the time sunlight illuminates the grey facade of this no-frills gem in Estrecho, but the neighbours have been visiting Los Pepes since sunrise, just as they’ve done for years for their desayuno of churros and bracing café con leche, writes Juan Carlo.
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Fighting for the future of El Rastro

Last Sunday, hundreds of market stall holders occupied the streets of the Rastro to defend their right to reopen their stalls and to preserve an ancient Madrid tradition. The same leafy street, lined with numbered buttons marking the location of each stall, was suddenly bustling again but with cries, chants and a live klezmer version of Bella Ciao. 
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#RegularizaciónYa: Spain’s anti-racism and anti-colonialism movement

Immigrant exploitation is all around us. Many of Spain's 600,000 undocumented migrants are essential workers, They pick Europe's vegetables and keep them cheap, they take care of the elderly, clean the hospitals, deliver us food, build our homes and allow us to stay confined in them during the pandemic. Institutional exploitation of immigrants must stop, and that is exactly what Regularización Ya are here to do. 
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Madrid Activism: Bilingual list of local grass-roots groups

Here you have an ever-growing list of Madrid grass-roots groups campaigning locally for a better world. Whether you're new to activism or have been campaigning passionately since you could first hold a banner, we hope this resource will be useful to you.
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We’re running out of time to abolish Spain’s oppressive 2015 ‘Gag Law’

One hot summer night in 2015, protestors gathered outside Congress, quietly sitting cross-legged on the pavement with blue gags tied around their mouths and with their hands behind their backs. Their timing was key, protesting until the clock struck midnight on Wednesday 1 July – the moment their actions would suddenly become unlawful.
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El Alamín: The utopian ghost town on the outskirts of Madrid

El Alamín, meaning 'the world' in Arabic, is an abandoned village on the outskirts of Madrid. A walk along the three streets of El Alamín reveals the world that a pro-Franco solider intended to build there in 1956. Juan Claudio Güell y Churruca, also known as the fourth Marquis de Comillas, fought on the national side during the Spanish Civil War. His militant legacy influenced the utilitarian architecture and planning of El Alamín: it's of a communist-style with a touch of Christianity, established to populate tobacco and cotton farmers.
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The art of being a Madrid muse

I don't use the word cool very often, but having your photographs turned into hand-drawn works of art? Now that's cool. Welcome to my first ever art collection of local artists' paintings and illustrations inspired by my photographs of Madrid.
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Forget the Alhambra: This is Granada No Frills

Forget the Alhambra. We’re here to explore those places that can’t be found in the guide books, those bars that can’t be found on pretty streets, and those fragments of history that haven’t been moved to a display cabinet but instead remain in situ for us all to see... if we know where to look.
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The secret street stickers of Madrid’s people

Madrid-based writer and artist Lauren Klarfeld combines her love for the streets of Madrid with the people who walk them, and in this article, she reveals her secret project, Last Words For The Road.