Six months after the night the ultras went out to beat up North Africans

Torre Pacheco (Murcia)A couple of kilometers from Torre Pacheco, about fifteen workers, all of them immigrants, harvest endives under the warm, restorative winter sun. On the other side of the field, another group toils to do the same with celery stalks. The tractors and trucks that will load the crates of vegetables destined for Europe are haphazardly parked on a dusty road. The seasonal workers repeat the movement cyclically, torsos bent over again and again to pull up the stalks. A movement repeated hundreds of times each day. Abdel is the foreman of the group hauling the endives. They are all from Morocco. He arrived 26 years ago in this Murcian municipality, where he lived in July 2025. some racist incidents Following the attack on a 68-year-old man, Domingo, by three young men of North African origin, the far right descended upon Torre Pacheco, "hunting" for North Africans. The ensuing nights of intense tension were only contained by a deployment of nearly 60 Civil Guard vehicles.

Abdel is certain that six months later, everything remains the same. "Talking about foreigners is a winning strategy for them," he grumbles resignedly, still smiling, referring to Vox and its influence. He laments that his compatriots are the ones who bear the brunt of the violence, yet are essential to making the agricultural industry profitable. And all under precarious conditions. "Spaniards don't want to work in agriculture; agriculture is for foreigners. But our children won't want to either. Will Abascal ever come to work here?" he asks, before citing his son, now 18 and currently studying for a higher degree, as an example. "He has a future, he feels Spanish. For me, there is no future anymore; I'm going to work all day, in the mud, until I'm 67," he declares.

Which He went to Torre Pacheco Just over six months ago, this could have happened "in any other municipality with similar characteristics," argues sociologist Andrés Pedreño. These are small towns with a 30% immigrant population and their economy is based on intensive agriculture. They don't have the same problems as... the great sea of ​​plastic in neighboring AlmeríaBut there is an underlying conflict with these workers who occupy the lowest rungs of the labor pyramid. One example is the mass layoff at an agricultural company on the outskirts of Torre Pacheco. While Abdel and his group gather boxes full of endive, about thirty workers protest in front of the Agromediterránea company's warehouses. "We don't have too many immigrants, we have too many racists," proclaims one of the banners held by the Moroccan employees, who lament that they are to be replaced by new Peruvian workers.

In Torre Pacheco, almost everyone repeats the same mantra: there is no true coexistence between local residents and those from the Maghreb, only coexistence. Each community has its own bars and shops. Inma and Raúl are an exception. They are teachers at El Rosario school, where 30% of the students are African, and they eat at the Moroccan restaurant El Berkani. The owner, surprised, invites them to eat. "For the first day," he says kindly. Although they are two communities progressing in parallel, Inma is beginning to see signs of hope.

The Moroccan parents of his students "have already studied" in Torre Pacheco, participate in giving gifts to the teachers, and attend the birthday parties of Spanish students. "They integrate very well," he says, after admitting that in September they returned with some trepidation because they didn't know how either group would react after the incidents in July. However, nothing happened. Despite these positive signs, Raúl admits that the "third generation" of North Africans already living in the municipality, when they reach adolescence, tend to distance themselves again from the Spanish students because they are given more freedom in high school and there isn't as much emphasis on fostering coexistence.

Looking into each other's eyes

"If they weren't here, we wouldn't eat broccoli," says Timoteo, a retiree who, during his coffee break, strolls through Torre Pacheco along the Los Olmos road, a nearby hamlet where the North African community predominates. Timoteo is certain of it. His foreign neighbors are "hardworking people," and from "sausages"There are both Spaniards and Moroccans." An identical idea that Toñi, a worker, verbalizes a few minutes earlier, maintains that those "who get together to steal are Spaniards and Moroccans who don't want to study or work." However, unconsciously, when she speaks of them, she separates them with a revealing "them and us." And here lies the key to everything, according to Susana Henarejos, director of the Cepaim organization in the Region of Murcia. "When you get to know someone, there's no more fear. People have to look each other in the eye and find common ground," she argues.

Henarejos uses his own 13-year-old son as an example. He lived isolated from the other Muslim boys. Two paths that never crossed. Until he started boxing at the gym run by Mendy Diong, a former Barcelona footballer who has lived in Spain for 27 years and works with 150 boys and girls in Torre Pacheco. Henarejos' son met two young Moroccans with whom he shared interests, especially boxing, and ended up breaking down the first wall, too often insurmountable due to societal prejudices. Completely surprised, after a few days hitting the heavy bag, he confessed to his mother: "They're super nice."

As soon as they enter Diong's warehouse, Spaniards, Senegalese, and Moroccans are joking around. It hasn't even been 24 hours since Senegal won the Africa Cup of Nations in the North African country. "Sport is about coexistence; people were afraid, but here they get to know each other and break down barriers. Sport teaches people to live together," explains this former teammate of Messi's at Barça.

It happens in football too. Although it's not all idyllic. Usde, Aziz, and Abde are talking in a small square in the San Antonio neighborhood, the epicenter of the July clashes between the far right and a group of teenagers of North African descent. They've just finished football practice with their team, 15 of whose players are Moroccan like them. The atmosphere in the locker room is good, but racism is often present, both on the field and at the Luis Manzanares high school. "Of course it's there, they call us Moors, they say we steal," the boys explain with shy smiles. But they downplay the issue because they're "isolated" problems.

However, they exist. Racism was there before the attack on Domingo and it's still there today. Walter is an Ecuadorian boy who has lived in Spain for seventeen years and has seen immigrants being barred from entering establishments run by locals "because they're Black." Steven, 13, also from Ecuador, has experienced it firsthand: "When I arrived, I was treated badly, and I hung out with people from my country and Moroccan boys."

Of the nearly thirty people from Torre Pacheco this newspaper spoke to, only one openly expressed anti-immigrant sentiment. "All the media outlets that labeled the town racist should try living among them," says Paco, who believes there's a section of the town, a veritable "no-man's land," with houses occupied by foreigners where drugs and fights are rampant. Ginés is critical, but more measured, lamenting that the leaders of the Muslim community do nothing "to stop" those who cause problems. "My children don't mix with Muslims," ​​concludes this Torre Pacheco resident who works as a taxi driver in Murcia. "A lot of new people have arrived, and population growth is linked to increased crime. Immigration should be regulated; those who want to come and work in our fields are welcome," argues the town's mayor, Pedro Ángel Roca. "We should be eradicating crime, not going after immigrants," he adds.

In neighborhoods where the houses of different groups are right next to each other, wall to wall, there is less tension. "My 89-year-old grandmother gets her fruit from her Moroccan neighbors and they accompany her shopping," says Patrícia, a 20-year-old who compares the situation of this group to other communities. "There's no racism at all with the Hindus," she says. Pablo, a year older, nods in agreement; although he finished high school a while ago, he believes that some of his former classmates from Morocco can still be considered "friends."

Inma and Raúl also agree that other foreign communities are less willing to integrate. "The English are worse; they don't make the effort to learn the language, they're like ghettos," they both lament. They're referring to the luxury housing developments linked to tourist resorts and golf courses that have been built in Torre Pacheco, where many British and Central Europeans live completely isolated from the local population.

Vox's laboratory

Henarejos is certain that the racist incidents in July were an "experiment." A great deal of misinformation was spread, taking advantage of the far right's strong online presence. "It was all very organized; it was a nightmare," adds Juan Carlos Talavera, coordinator in the municipality for Cepaim, whose members had to work undercover during those nights to avoid the violence of extremists who came from all over Spain. "We were the far right's laboratory," Henarejos concludes. And, to top it all off, the experiment worked for them, Pedreño argues. "Those behind it—Vox and its allies—have not only gone unpunished, but all indications are that they have politically capitalized on it. The culture war that Vox is waging inflames the most racist positions within society. These positions are latent in other contexts, but when a political force ignites them, the whole party comes out," argues the coalition partner governing the Region of Murcia. "It wouldn't be unthinkable" to see images like those that occurred in Minnesota with ICE, Donald Trump's anti-immigration agency.

Being the testing ground and not being able to confront it is what hurts the most in Henarejos. If there had been coexistence, "the town would have taken to the streets" to prevent the raids against North Africans promoted by the far-right: "We lacked the courage to say 'we will not let this happen to our neighbors'."