Oct 7th- Visiting Atocha, Madrid
Location: Paseo Del Prado
Time: 1:30PM
I walked in the dry heat on the sidewalk heading towards Nadie Sin Hogar. As I walking towards the ministry of Sanidad, Political Social, y Igualdad, I noticed the tents were gone. I walked onto the median of the park and looked around, I saw that there was absolutely nothing left to show that the movement was there. I thought to myself “What the hell is going on?” I continued walking and walking without seeing a trace of anyone except tourists and locals walking throughout the park.
I was shocked to see how so many people were in awe of the parks space, I saw tourists taking pictures while poso for the cameras. Locals were sitting down in the park laughing and talking. I wondered if they knew this was the home of the Nadie Sin Hogar movement…
After walking for 20 minutes throughout a mile and a half of the park, I decided to ask around and figure out what happened to this PEACEFUL movement/ demonstration. Going against my better judgement, I decided to walk towards to police officers standing in front of the Museo de Prado. If I wore in the United States, there is no way on this planet, that I would EVER walk towards a police officer for anything. But in Spain, the relationship between law enforcement and the public is different… or @ least that’s what I heard.
AS I walked toward the officer, hands shaking and lips quivering, I build up the nerve to say “Hola buenas, estoy un estudiante de La universidad de Alacala y yo estudié el movimiento Nadie Sin Hogar. Que paso con la gente allí en el parque? Están no allí ahora,” translation: Hi, I am a student of the University of Alcala, and I studied the Nadie Sin Hogar movement. What happened with the people here in the park? They are not here anymore.”
I was hoping someone could give me some clarity and show allegiance and support to the movement. To my surprise, He looked @ me while placing his finger off the trigger of his machine gun and said “Yo no se que paso, pero creo que están alli! Más alélante, ” Translation: I do not know what happened, but I believe they are further up there” and so I continued walking forward past the large groups of tourists lining up to enter the Museo de Prado.
As I continued walking forward and forward, I saw absolutely nothing. My legs began to feel heavy and my heart sank to the sight of an empty community that once held passion and momunten to change the world for so many people.
I saw large city trucks that were working on the electricity in the park, as well as gardeners cleaning the spaces where the tents were. Two other trucks showed up and began washing the grounds. I thought to myself what if I had imagined meeting the people of Nadie Sin Hogar… without seeing any remnants of them, it spoke to how small they were in the eyes of the law of Madrid.
I saw another group of police officers and I went up to ask them the same questions as the others I spoke to. They responded saying that the entire movement of Nadie Sin Hogar was a lie and because of that they were “removed” as he said, from the premises of the park. He told me this while putting his hand on his gun, and I suppose that was to intimidate me. But it didn’t, and I continued to listen to his ignorance and what he thought were the attributions of poverty and undomiciled people. He told me not to continue looking into the movement anymore and I was stunned to see how unsupportive he was for the betterment of his own community or country in general for that matter. His responses reminded me of the image I saw on the NadieSinHogar website where a man was holding a sign saying “50 MIL” and those few words spoke so loudly towards the rate of those without homes.
I left the police and walked over to a cafe and asked a waiter outside who said he knew what happened. The waiter was born and raised in the Dominican Republic and he said that he had lived in Madrid for 6 years. He told me that he heard that the police forcibly removed the people and their property around 4AM and used water hoses to really get them to cooperate and remove themselves. He described it as a violent occurrence and it was heartbreaking to hear.
After leaving from speaking with the waiter, I spoke to a female security guard outside of the Ministerio de Sanidad, Political Social, y Igualdad. She supported the statements of the police officers, and insisted that most of the people in Nadie Sin Hogar weren’t actually homeless. As she greeted people coming into the info center of the ministry, she continued speaking to me about why she thought the people were there. She stated that only 15-20% of the movement were actually undomiciled people. She continued by saying that people were a part of the movement in order to receive benefits from the government such as better housing that the government would pay for.
After leaving, I was stunned and nervous for the people of Nadie Sin Hogar and I had to come up with another plan to continue my research and shine light on the movement that I was hopeful was still alive.
I left this site w/ a heavy heart, because I had met a young man during the protests who lived there, and I told him I would return the following week. I was about 3 days late, because I said I would come during the weekend, but I came on Monday. If I had come a few days earlier, things could have been different. I don’t know what, but it could have..
I took photos of the bare park, but my phone restarted days later and I lost all of the data on my cellphone.
Fall Research Portfolio 