This Wednesday, an aura of sadness passed through the assembly that the Tenants' Union held in Puerta del Sol as soon as the death of Maricarmen was announced, the octogenarian recently evicted from her home in Madrid and a symbol of the protest movement against the housing crisis.
"I didn't expect it. We thought that now that she could return home this was not going to happen, we believed that she would return home," Lucía, a young woman who has been camping for almost a week in Puerta del Sol, the epicenter of the protest and this Thursday abuzz with indignation after the death of the old woman became known, told 20minutos. "This just means that we have to keep fighting, really," he summarizes his intentions.
Like Lucía, many of those present were incredulous at the outcome of the eviction of the octogenarian, who had been admitted to the Gregorio Marañón hospital in Madrid since September 23 after being evicted from the home in which she had resided for more than seven decades. In his memory, many have begun to build improvised altars with messages and candles. Others, spontaneously, have headed towards the Carrera de San Jerónimo, to the Congress of Deputies. Among them, Paula, a "self-employed producer" who assures that she leads a "quiet but precarious life due to the rent" that she has to pay and that "makes it impossible for her to save for the down payment on a home." For this reason, and with Maricarmen as a symbol, she has been camping "from the beginning" in the heart of the capital, "coming and going daily" to her work.
Although he is not camping, Gabriel did not want to stop approaching the vicinity of the Lower House to show his rejection and discontent. "The death of this lady has caused us a lot of pain," he says in reference to Maricarmen. "It is something so unfair that even my voice trembles. What our representatives in the Cortes should do is join forces so that these things do not happen again. It is an injustice," cries a citizen unrelated to the camping but not to the housing crisis.
"Powerless" admits that Paloma also feels at the doors of Congress. Like Gabriel, she is not at the camp either, but says she came to "support." "No one can start a life project if they do not have access to housing." That is why she is grateful to Maricarmen: "It would be very nice if it set a precedent for citizen mobilization."
Alberti, the street poet
Among the reactions of those who have spontaneously joined the protest there are all kinds of tributes. With megaphone in hand, those gathered wanted to dedicate to the octogenarian the reading of one of Rafeal Alberti's most emblematic poems: Eviction, whose verses are very relevant.
Angels bad or good, I don't know, they threw you into my soul.
Alone, without furniture and without bedrooms, uninhabited.
From around, the wind hurts the walls, the thinnest, glassy sheets.
Humidity. Chains. Shouting. Gusts.
I ask you:
When do you leave the house?
tell me,
what bad, cruel angels
Do you want to rent it again?
tell me
The reading of these emblematic verses was carried out by Lucía Álvarez, an actress who goes daily to Puerta del Sol to "support the dignity of all." He believes that the poet's verses "symbolize very well what has happened to Maricarmen." She says she is grieving for the old woman "with great sadness" in front of other colleagues who "are grieving with great anger." "She could have died anyway, because she was older, but at home, calm, not with this pain, this anxiety that she suffered at the end of her life," the young woman reflects. "Dying you like this seems like a shame to me."
Carmen, another young woman who has also attended the march in front of Congress, says she has a feeling of "absolute grief for the situation" and of "disbelief at thinking that this could have happened here." In his opinion, "all these days have been one of astonishment at everything that is happening and today is one of great sadness and great anger. Let's hope it serves as a turning point so that nothing like this happens again."
