Cañada Real: Europe’s Largest Shanty Town
Alida Browne / March 22 / Human Rights
Cañada Real, although you might not be familiar with it, is recognised as Europe’s largest shantytown. An unofficial and often forgotten barrio, Cañada Real is a 16km long informal settlement on the eastern outskirts of Spain’s capital, Madrid. This settlement has been ignored time and time again by the local government and has been shrewd in stereotypes and discrimination from the general public.
The settlement of Cañada Real has a history dating back to more than half a century ago. Residents have been arriving and settling here for generations, living their lives and having children here. The settlement located on an old cattle trail has grown into a winding settlement parallel to the M-50 motorway.
Little understanding has been given to its residents or its processes. Over 7000 people live here with a third of them being children. A mix of nationalities dwell here including Spanish, Roma, South Americans and Morrocans among others.
Housing here varies in size and quality, from decent sized houses with municipal facilities in Sector One of the settlement, to tents and shacks built from discarded or recycled material leading into Sector 6. The income of this area is varied but quite low, this can be seen visibly throughout the settlement.
Cañada Real is now so large it is divided into 6 sections and inequalities exist among these sections. A rough breakdown of the sections are as follows:
Section 1 & 2- Contains built houses and some of these are big. They have municipal facilities such as bin collection, running water and electricity. This section homes mostly Spanish and Roma people.
Section 3 & 4- Similar to Sections 1 and 2 with higher rates of poverty and slum dwellings. Section 3 has plans in place to be demolished with talks of the same for Section 4.
Section 5- Contains a high percentage of Moroccans; poverty is very visible. This section is not set for demolition yet but worries are with a newly appointed right-wing mayor, it will be.
Section 6- The newest section, both the largest and poorest. This 1.5km section gives Cañada Real the common stereotype it receives from outsiders. Around 300-500m of this section is home to Madrid’s illegal drug trade.
Cañada Real is subject to damaging stereotypes that have resulted in the area being conveniently ignored or left ‘last on the list’ by local authorities.
Getty Photos
I spoke to Leah Pattem who has worked in collaboration with Cañada Real residents to help shed some light on the people and citizens who live there and squash stereotypes that have aided discrimination and segregation faced by the largest shantytown in Europe.
‘’Since visiting the Cañada Real for their 2019 film festival and seeing first-hand how unfairly residents living here are viewed and treated by their Madrid neighbours, I’ve been trying to educate others about and raise awareness of the neighbourhood and the issues residents face. I’ve done this in collaboration with Cañada Real residents, local artists and community associations via my blog, Madrid No Frills’’
Residents of Cañada Real say that they are being stereotyped as ‘dirty’ people who belong to the mafia, are into drugs and lack education.
‘’Every time I share a story about Cañada Real, people respond with hateful, aporophic (fear of poor people) and xenophobic comments. The right-wing Madrid Regional Government’s narrative about cannabis farms, mafias, and questioning how residents can afford their belongings, has fed into this’’
‘’The Roma and Moroccan people have been deeply marginalised in Spain for centuries. It’s by no coincidence that the poorest sectors in the Cañada Real (Sectors 5 and 6) are where the largest concentration of Roma and Moroccans live. The government will never admit that they have failed two very specific racial groups of Spanish society, but their inaction in providing basic human rights for Cañada residents speaks volumes’’
Issues recently facing the Cañada Real have focused on the lack of electricity. In October, a power outage left around 1,000 homes without electricity, residents are still without electricity today, and the problem was only amplified when Madrid experienced the heaviest snow it had seen in over 40 years just a few weeks ago. This led to residents protesting for their electricity to be fixed, as they do pay for it. Much of these houses were in Sector 5 & 6 and house children.
‘‘When I interviewed a spokesman for the regional government, he said, “The problem is that there are illegal hook-ups to the network for the fans and heat stoves needed to make marijuana grow quickly. This equipment, installed by mafias in the Cañada Real, is what is drawing more power than is available, making all the electricity go out”
Blaming cannabis farms for the electrical outage is the perfect narrative for the local government, however, electricity ran perfectly to the city centre over the christmas period that housed thousands of Christmas lights with no interruptions. Regardless of this, hundreds of families should not have to go without electricity based on the actions of a few in their area. Some families were offered temporary accommodation the same as those who are homeless, however, residents argue that they are not homeless and if they had their electricity then they could have stayed in their homes.
‘’The destruction of home and properties is legitimate for the government as the settlement is illegal; they have been bulldozing homes – mainly ones they consider to be involved with drugs in the hope that they don’t return’’
In reality, the government's destruction of homes in an effort to halt drug trade in this area only addresses the problem in the short term. The drug trade is the product of systematic marginalisation of the poor; destroying these homes is only a short-term solution that doesn’t guarantee drug trade to stop whilst simultaneously destroying the homes of hundreds of families and children.
‘’There are many charities out there helping the residents of Cañada Real and their efforts are marvellous. However, what all of them repeatedly explain is that the City Council should be doing this work, and I agree. Charity is not a solution’’
‘‘The people of Cañada Real have mixed feelings about a solution: some want to be rehoused elsewhere and escape the stigmas of being from the Cañada while others want to stay and be given the right to the land on which they’ve built their houses, as well as access to basic amenities such as running water, electricity, bin collections and pavements. After all, this is their home and their community, and there is a fear that moving elsewhere could result in localised discrimination from their immediate neighbours. At least here, within the Cañada, there is equality – you’re not reminded every day that you’re “different’’
It is no secret that the council turned a blind eye to the 3000 residents of Sector 5 & 6. Life expectancy is lower than their neighbours in Madrid. Residents are tired of being discriminated against and tarred with the same brush based on the actions of a few in their neighbourhood. The stereotypes and ignorance towards the residents of Cañada Real have manifested into the justification for not providing basic human rights such as electricity, water and the destruction of an area they call home.