The fire in the Atalayas nightclubs a week ago has hit a community that “lives and works precariously” and that even when going out to party does not feel accepted in “common places”
“Thirteen less burned monkeys”. It is the title of a review that a user left on Google about the Teatre room after the fire that took place a week ago and in which thirteen people lost their lives of Nicaraguan, Colombian and Ecuadorian origin. As if the nonsense wasn’t enough, the individual commented: “A few have been burnt out of there, right? “Nothing happens… Thirteen less subsidies to maintain”. She even added smiling emojis.
The text was published when the victims’ families were still wondering if your loved one was among the corpseswhile they waited for DNA tests that ended up confirming the worst.
That the madman gave the place the worst score is the least of it. The cruel review ended up being deleted by its author, but not before the screenshots were shared between the cell phones of thousands of people, especially in the Latin community. This is how he arrived at the delegation of the Rumiñahui Association in Murciawhich defends and vindicates the rights of migrants.
Vladimir Paspuel is its president and straddles between Madrid and the Region of Murcia, where he knows that a good number of people from the Latin community reside, around the 60,000, as it appears in the INE census. Of them, 9,000 They are Colombian, 16,000 Ecuadorian and 3,700 Nicaraguans, the three nationalities of those who died in the fires.
“A good part of Spanish and Murcian society loves us as farm workers, but “They don’t see us occupying common spaces.”, the Mint. He refers to the fact that Atalayas, once a reference party area in the city, has become in the last decade an abandoned and frequented largely by Latinosespecially some specific establishments, such as Fonda Milagros. “This is our country too. We are giving up our lives. In exchange for what, unsafe spaces? TWe have the right to leisure and safe free timeyes,” he says.
Paspuel denounces the existence of a common denominator in several Spanish cities. Industrial estates that are left in disuse, warehouses that are rented at a very low price and end up being outside the law. The serious thing is that, in some cases, security measures are insufficient and “the papers are not in order”, as has been seen in the case of Murcia. In the end, they add from Rumiñahui, the municipalities end up “looking the other way.”
An individual left a review in Teatre where he called the victims of the Atalayas fire “monkeys.”
| IT
These places, cheaper in many cases, are more accessible for Latinos. Not only because of the prices. Carlota Garcia, coordinator of Murcia Acoge in the municipality, explains that many of these people end up in places designed for them because “they do not have access problems.” In certain nightclubs in the center, or more popular among the native population, They put obstacles to the entry of the immigrant populationespecially when it comes to Arabs. “Yesterday a Moroccan boy called me with this problem,” he says. The doorman, he claims, told him directly that “Moors do not enter there.” Thus, he adds, the creation of leisure ghettos is “encouraged.”
Another handicap that some migrants encounter when going out to party depends on their legal status in Spain. ““If they don’t have papers, they go to less guarded places.”says Garcia.
Eight of the thirteen deceased are Colombians. Laudes Parra, spokesperson for the Colombianos Unidos association, remains outraged. “No one notified Fonda that there was a fire, and the fire may have started in Teatre.” She says it after having seen the video in which the ventilation ducts of this latest discotheque can be seen on fire. A Laudes, who has worked in the hospitality industry in The sleeve and in The Beloneshe is very struck by the abandonment of Atalayas, with much less “security and police.”
The indifference with which the Latino community is sometimes treated hurts. “We are in this country to work, giving love to elderly people who do not even give their own children. We do not deserve the treatment we receive,” he denounces. Last week, her husband, who had been working in Campo de Cartagena for two years, He was fired after the police left him without a car: “He took the son of some friends to Immigration, they stopped him and, since the boy did not know his last name, they accused him of illegal transportation of people.”
Stigmatized
At Murcia Acoge they are familiar with these problems. “The Latino population lives and works precariously. They have low salaries that prevent them from accessing decent housing, bad hours that inmates suffer, and they are not allowed off even on Sundays. On top of that, they have to put up with the supposed moral superiority of many Spaniards. I have even seen employees being touched” Carlota García denounces.
To top, They are stigmatized when they have a good time. “They say that we all drink a lot, but no one is interested in the bottle culture, which leaves the squares and gardens full of garbage,” says Vladimir Paspuel, who is concerned about the disdain with which the children of the Latin Americans living in Spain. “A two-speed speed is being created,” he warns.
Cepaim, with the victims
The Cepaim Foundationwhich works for coexistence and social cohesion, collaborates with the regional government in the transfer of family members of the victims of the Atalayas tragedy to the Region, in coordination with the consulates of these three countries. “For now, only one family we deal with has asked us for psychosocial support, although the Community is also offering it,” he explains. Susana Henarejos, director of Cepaim in the Region. “We try to give them a quick response, through the consulates, since they need visas,” she adds.
But his vision of this group in the Region does not coincide with that of Murcia Acoge and he does not believe that the “influx of Latinos” had “anything to do” with the abandonment of the area” and he believes that the Latino population, in addition, is “perfectly integrated into the Murcia Region“.