Date: September 21, 2019
Location: Calle mayor, SOL. Sol, Comunidad de Madrid. W
Activity: Walking around for observations
Time: 6:00PM
Walking around Calle Mayor for field notes
My friend, Kaija and I walked out of the SOL metro stop near Sol Plaza. The weather was cool and damp, and rain droplets fell to the sound of the loud bells ringing, signaling that it was 6:00pm. We made our way to cross the street. We ran through the traffic into a crowd of spanish speaking people who sounded like they were from Central America, possibly Colombia. Everyone was in a frenzy due to the excitement and chaos of Calle Mayor.
As soon as we walked onto the busy street, a homeless woman to the left of us sat on the ground with a sign saying “por favor ayuda. tengo 3 niños y necesitamos comida.” She wore several fabrics. One on her head that was wrapped above her head and down to her neck, which looked similar to a hijab. Then her shirt and pants were long black and pink fabrics that flowed down her body without patterns. She sat on top of a cardboard box so she wouldn’t sit directly on the ground. Her back was lying on the closed door of a clothing store. As we walked past her, I had the dying urge to acknowledge her but she didn’t make eye contact with me. After leaving the woman, we kept walking past the traffic of people.
After researching homeless people here in Madrid, I came across a descriptive article on how the infrastructure has been altered in Madrid in order to discourage homeless people from sitting/ sleeping in certain areas. So throughout our exploration of SOL, I wanted to see this (Secrets of the streets: Madrid’s anti-homeless architecture. 2019, September 18. Retrieved from https://madridnofrills.com/hidden-in-plain-sight-madrids-anti-homeless-architecture/ ).
As Kaija and I continued walking throughout Madrid- SOL towards Plaza de Jacinto Benavente, we walked by the Ministry of Political, Social, and Equality. Attached to this 15Ft, stone building were 3 Spain flags hanging down. I noticed on the window seals, (that could be used for a seating or sleeping area) that it was boarded with Metal triangular figures that nailed into the area so no one could sleep there. As I took pictures of the infrastructure, I became extremely upset about the lack of aid to our fellow humans. The government made the decisions to alter the infrastructure to drive homeless people away instead of using that money to put into rehabilitation programs or job security.
Kaija and I continued walking to a smaller plaza near us that was highly populated by foreign tourists pointing @ stores and restaurants. The air smelled congested with car exhaust and body odor from the crowd around. It was hard to breathe through my nose since i was just getting over the school cold that had been going around so i had to breathe through my mouth instead and that left a bad taste in my mouth. The air tasted like something dark and distasteful, like charcoal. As We walked, my legs felt heavier and heavier since i had been walking all day. My left knee started to lock up, reminding me to take a rest since I had reconstructive knee surgery only 4 years ago.
As soon as Kaija and I decided to head back home, I noticed a bench that was divided into three so it would be too difficult to lay or sleep there.
Photos and explanations are provided below:
According to source online blog, Madridnofrills that tells the untold stories of the city, The government established anti-homeless architecture such as this (Secrets of the streets: Madrid’s anti-homeless architecture. 2019, September 18. Retrieved from https://madridnofrills.com/hidden-in-plain-sight-madrids-anti-homeless-architecture/ ) . Other architectures will be shown below given with a short observation.
These hostile and passive aggressive notions of discouraging people has been occurring for years, the exact date of when this new architecture came to fruition is not dated yet.
During my interview, the interviewee mentioned that homeless shelters cannot house everyone, so sometimes people must sleep in tents or the ground. His statements were later supported by an article by Madridnofrills (Secrets of the streets: Madrid’s anti-homeless architecture. 2019, September 18. Retrieved from https://madridnofrills.com/hidden-in-plain-sight-madrids-anti-homeless-architecture/ )
Fall Research Portfolio 