In the 50s, what would become the largest illegal settlement in Europe began to take shape: La Cañada Real Galiana. 16 km of different stories with the same reality: that of 8.000 people of 17 different nationalities trying to get ahead in a territory of contrasts stigmatised by the media.

This is the story of a project that was born with the aim of giving voice and visibility to this self-built linear city that lives in the shadow of the rest of the Community of Madrid. El alma no tiene color (The soul has no color), the song by Antonio Remache performed by Antonio Carmona reflects the ideals that the residents of La Cañada want to project to the world. Soul, earth, rage, heart... speak about the identity of this place.

The work is being carried out within the framework of the Summer Open School organised by the Intercultural Community Intervention Project (ICI) promoted by Obra Social La Caixa, together with the children of Cañada and the associations and entities that form part of it: Voces, Cruz Roja and Diaconía.

CONTEXT

The Cañada Real Galiana is one of the nine most important livestock routes that cross the Iberian Peninsula, the function of which was to allow the passage of livestock between the areas where grazing was traditionally carried out.

From the 50s onwards, the decline of these roads and their proximity to Madrid facilitated the occupation of public land by various populations, such as rural immigrants who came to the city in search of work; residents of Madrid who could not live in Madrid; Spanish gypsies; immigrants, mainly from Morocco and Romania (many of them also gypsies); or populations from dismantled shanty towns.

THE FORMALLY CANYON

The great wave of new residences, as it passed through the municipalities of Coslada, Rivas and Getafe, formed a true linear, unplanned city, made up of buildings of various kinds and a marked socioeconomic and cultural heterogeneity across six sectors.

Despite their differences, they all have something in common: they lack legal title to their homes and suffer the stigma of living in Cañada Real.

Aerial view of sector 6 of the Cañada Real 

«EL ALMA NO TIENE COLOR» BY ANTONIO REMACHE

We propose an acupuncture project in the public space that sews the ravine with the words and verses that make up “El alma no tiene color”, painting different facades in a chronological and linear way from the first to the last sector. The intervention takes on meaning when we walk along the 16 km of the Madrid ravine. We propose a chromatic route, assigning a specific color to each sector, within which we will find subtle variations in gradation of tones. In this way, a work will be created that, when we walk through it, tells us about the difference of each sector, of each root, of each house and of each person. But at the same time they are united by the same message, written in white: after all, the soul has no color:

No reparéis en que soy moreno porque el sol me miró
Que me parieron de carne y hueso, nací varón
Soy de mi tierra y mía es ella
Y si me apuran soy extranjero, como lo somos todos.
yo soy de carne, no soy de hierro
Soy corazón con mil defectos
Como cualquiera, nadie es perfecto
Y si me hieren, también lo siento.
No me pongas límites
Es injusto y cruel
Que me duele que me duele.
El alma no tiene color y no quiero
Juzgar y pintarla de rabia
De tanto viejo pensamiento.
No reparéis en que soy moreno porque el sol me miró
No sea objeto de tu desprecio mi condición
En mi universo todo es diverso
Lo digo tal como yo lo siento, como lo siento
yo soy de carne, no soy de hierro
Soy corazón con mil defectos
Como cualquiera nadie es perfecto
Y si me hieren, también lo siento.
El corazón es un indefenso
Y hacerle daño no tiene precio
Nadie sabe como me siento.