Focusing on Diverse Voices

In late September. journalist Leah Pattem photographed the scene as dozens of homeless people were escorted by Madrid police from the building in La Quimera where they had been squatting, The next day, Pattem posted “The Eviction of La Quimera” on her blog, MadridNoFrills. In the article, Pattem highlighted the failure of government assistance and shared her conversations with the homeless people, including immigrants, women, and minors.

Since she started her blog MadridNoFrills, Pattem has focused on diverse voices and perspectives. She’s written about Ukranian community organization following the Russian invasion, the Francoist history of Madrid’s soccer stadiums, and a photo essay focusing on the Spanish tortilla de patata.

She also regularly writes for BBC, El Pais, and The Guardian, among others. With no formal journalism training, she began working as a journalist in the summer of 2016 when she started her blog. She has received local and international attention for the authenticity and range of her stories.

What have been some of the challenges of covering stories in Madrid as a journalist who came to Spain after growing up in Britain?

I think probably the biggest problem is that I am a foreigner, which is ridiculous. It shouldn’t be like that but, unfortunately, it is. And I would go as far as saying its xenophobic. I think the biggest challenge is really trying to persuade people that my narrative is not an outsider’s narrative; I am very connected to the community of Madrid, and Madrid is a city of immigrants. It’s got people from all over the world, it’s got people from all over Spain, very few people are really from Madrid. Unfortunately, if there’s something someone disagrees with what I’ve said, ‘It’s just a British person bringing their Anglo Saxon ideals over here.’

How do you stay true to your identity while trying to stay objective in writing?

To be unbiased for me is to be biased; to be impartial is to be a part of the problem. We all know that the BBC has a particular line, so when they say we are unbiased it’s a complete lie. To balance that out, grassroots journalists have to be biased on the other side of things. You know we have to push diversity more than it should be, we have to platform people that would never get the voice and that maybe don’t necessarily have a particularly interesting way of expressing things but they need to be heard somehow.

We all have our own agenda in a story, I could write a story and I could have a quote from this person, a quote from this person, and I haven’t ever written an opinion, but I’ve chosen who to quote. We can’t escape that impartiality and bias exists in everything we do. To say it doesn’t is bizarre.

You cover Lavapies. Why do you find it fascinating?

Lavapies is the most diverse neighborhood in Spain. I would say something like 50% of people who live in Lavapies are from another country. It’s a melting pot and a salad bowl. And also, it is where the lesbian revolution will begin, I’m watching it, I can see. There’s a lot of bars in Madrid that are very gay friendly, very queer friendly, very LGBT friendly, but there are not many bars in Madrid where women feel comfortable in that environment, within the community, queer women. But in Lavapies there are. Alongside that, you have a huge Muslim community. Even though there is a cultural conflict of interest within the actual space, there’s a lot of understanding, these are communities that don’t necessarily intersect but they are comfortable being neighbors.

What are some of the pieces you are working on now?

This morning I covered a mass eviction of an abandoned building in the neighborhood of Lavapies, which is also where I live. Because I lived so close I was able to get there really quickly and cover the whole story of the pre-eviction, the eviction itself, and then what happened to the residents afterwards, which is basically they were left homeless, so they will sleep homeless tonight. Evictions are very much a big part of what I do because they affect everyone. The housing crisis is probably the biggest crisis in Spain, it’s also one of the most secret crises in Spain.

Other stories I’m working on; there was a recent law passed called the menstrual sick leave law, which is where you can get three to five days sick leave per month if you have painful periods. Spain is the first country in Europe to create anything like this, so the whole world is watching Spain right now and watching what’s going to happen.

There are a lot of slow stories in terms of ongoing stories, there’s a neighborhood in Madrid that’s currently got no electricity. It’s very much kept secret. It’s called Cañada Real.