E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Susana Vera / Reuters
Left: Christian Gabarri sweeps the floor of a relatives' home where his family moved to after the demolition of their own home at the Spanish gypsy settlement of Puerta de Hierro, outside Madrid, Spain, Nov. 15, 2011. Right: The remains of Gabarri's home months after it was demolished, June 26, 2012.
Photographer Susana Vera documented the demolition of a long-standing gypsy community in Spain over the course of several months. She has created diptychs that pair images from before and after the demolition, as well as tell the story of the effect on the communities, showing the demolition of houses and the displacement of families.
Susana Vera / Reuters — Fifty four families have been living in Puerta de Hierro, on the banks of the Manzanares River, north of Madrid, for over 50 years. The settlers are registered with the local government and have access to public services, but since the summer of 2010 have been subject to evictions under orders from Madrid's town planning board, on the grounds that the dwellings are illegal. Some of the eldest members of the community have been relocated to social rent flats in the city, but often their children and grandchildren have been denied the same right, leaving them homeless. The relatives whose houses are still standing take them in while the debris keeps piling up as more demolitions take place.
Susana Vera / Reuters
Left: Agustin Gabarri watches television at his home in Madrid's Spanish gypsy settlement of Puerta de Hierrom, Spain, Dec. 20, 2011. Gabarri's daughter-in-law Covadonga Jimenez looking at the remains of his home the day it was demolished Feb. 15, 2012.
Susana Vera / Reuters
Left: Moises Echevarria and his father stand in front of a line of police after the demolition of their home in Madrid's Spanish gypsy settlement of Puerta de Hierro, Spain, Feb. 15. Right: A photo of Echevarria's cousin, Gema Gabarri, lies next to the remains of her grandparents' house, where she lived, weeks after it was demolished Aug. 11.
Susana Vera / Reuters
Left: Milagros Echevarria cries outside her home in Madrid's Spanish gypsy settlement of Puerta de Hierro, Spain, Jan. 20, 2012. Right: Echevarria's husband Antonio Gabarri looks at the remains of their home hours after it was demolished July 17, 2012.
Leave a Comment:
To my fellow Americans who think this story does not offer the solution for the Mexican Illegals here in the U.S., you should count your blessings you live inside a country with a conscience, laws, and human rights. Otherwise, the mechanics of "achieving" similar results is simply this easy.
These families had lived there for generations, and nothing in this story or the background stories linked within indicate that they were "illegal immigrants." I hope I am misinterpreting your comment, because it sounds like, but for the laws and human rights the US attempts to demonstrate, you would advocate for similar measures. I hope that is not the case. It's hard case to make that, 50 years on, these people should be set aside so heartlessly. It is akin to displacing those of our immigrant forefathers who were unwelcome because they were impoverished, and "different."
The details or basis of the local orders authorizing these demolitions is not covered in the linked articles I've read, but regardless the orders appear unreasonable. Even things as potentially problematic as community wide public health violations are amenable to a fix. That the authorities didn't work with a long standing community to bring the buildings or neighborhood into compliance, suggests that there is a prejudicial basis for these actions against a minority, i.e., gypsies, who as a group have been discriminated against for generations in Europe. I thought that after the lessons learned from Nazi Germany's atrocities, all this type of hate based activity would have ceased. But clearly that is an impossibility in much of Europe, which is again under stress in many nations, due to immigration and the economic downturn. The world keeps getting stunned by European pogroms, most recently from the Bosnian to Kosovo Wars. Now it appears something similar in nature is being initiated in Puerta de Hierro, Spain.
As an ordinary citizen, my only option is to extend my personal policy of not buying anything made in Bosnia-Herzegovina/Croatia/Serbia/Albania/Kosovo as a result of wars against humanity in the 1990's by those peoples, to include boycotting anything made in Spain.
Sadly this list continues to grow. Governments impose economic sanctions in attempts to alter policy of the targeted nations. Similarly, consumer economic boycotts can be even more effective if they become large scale. I urge all readers to make an economic commitment against any nation discriminating against its minorities. It’s the least we can do. While the Puerta de Hierro discrimination appears minor, the danger is that if unchallenged, these actions fan the flames of hatred that grow to the levels of unimaginable atrocity that the world has seen too often in the twentieth century.
Spaniards are the worse thing that ever happened to humanity.
I feel so sorry for these people. The EU ( European Union) SHOULD with hold any BAILOUTS to be given to SPAIN......as a direct RESULT of these ATROCITIES..... in DENYING a home to these people.
This is a DIRECT result of HUMAN RIGHTS violations, not necessarily in the sense of placing SOMEONE in CUSTODY (Jail) but of denying these people a home, they may have worked for all their lives, paid their taxes, lived by the rules, worked hard, obeyed the laws.....etc.....
And, of course, if the actions of the authorities was the direct result of DISCRIMINATION......then this DEED becomes more HIDEOUS and UNCALLED for.
I thought that the HOLOCAUST was a thing of the past. It still GOES ON......in different ways.
I say DENY Spain that BAILOUT they so desperately NEED to be able to stay in the EURO-ZONE. Let them go BANKRUPT. Let them see how it feels like.