Shared days in Madrid – Day #3

MORE THAN THIS – Shared Residence 2

∇ Visit to Centro Socio-Comunitario La Cañada Real and talk with Juanjo 

Estrada, architect of the project (Recetas Urbanas), and some of the local collectives and associations involved: Fundación Voces is an organization that fights poverty and social exclusion with the transformative force of art, culture and creativity. 

Fundación Secretariado Gitano develops all kinds of actions that contributes to achieving the full citizenship of Roma persons, improving their living conditions, promoting equal treatment and preventing all forms of discrimination, as well as promoting the recognition of the cultural identity of the Roma community. 

Asociación Cultural Amal (Asociación Mujeres Árabes Luchadoras), formed by neighbours of Cañada Real, also collaborates in this cultural space through the organization of workshops and talks. 

The “Cañadas reales” are roads reserved for the transit of cattle between different parts of Spain for transhumance. They are owned by the State in which it is strictly prohibited to build by law. However, there is a succession of illegal settlements as it passes through Madrid. The communities that live in these settlements are mainly immigrants and people in a vulnerable situation. In this context a Socio-Comunity Cultural Center has been built by the social architect Santiago Cirugeda / Recetas urbanas. The different modules that make up the equipment have been carried out in different workshops and then transferred to the field: one was manufactured by the prisoners of Soto del Real for example, another in Naves Matadero. Its detachable and mobile, since it cannot be built in the Cañada, and that, in addition, a relocation process is being carried out for the poeple living there. After the construction of the center, the equipment has been committed to neighborhood groups to create content according to the needs and wishes of the community to which their activity is intended.