Leila Nachawati Riego: "We call Spanish citizens third generation"

BarcelonaLeila Nachawati Riego, a journalist and writer from Galicia, is an active defender of human rights. Born to a Syrian father and a Galician mother, she has developed her career between two worlds and, therefore, is a voice that must be heard. She is a member of the media at the Carlos III University of Madrid.

25 years have passed since the violence in El Ejido and now we are digesting that of Torre Pacheco or thePiera Mosque fireIs there a common thread running through these incidents in a country like Spain, which has traditionally defined itself as a non-racist nation?

— It's questionable whether Spain isn't a racist country. Spain is part of a Mediterranean where there's a tradition in which the north has always looked down on the south with condescension and has always regarded the south with clichés, with preconceived images, as often happens between border areas.

Why is violence focused on Maghreb migration?

— We have a very broad and ancient history that dates back centuries. It undoubtedly also has a key moment in this expulsion of the Muslims and Jews of Al-Andalus and all the subsequent construction that has been made of the idea of Spain, as it is presented now, especially by these conservative or ultra groups, is based on that notion of Spain that is a fiction and that is inheritance only of identity Christian. In fact, Spain is a melting pot of thousands of cultures, of many cultures, through which different civilizations and peoples have passed and where there has been a very strong presence of the Arabs and the Muslims, which nevertheless is denied. We start from here and we also start from the history between Spain and Morocco and from that false brotherhood that Franco's regime was selling, since there are many clichés and many racist, orientalist and condescending views of the other from the South that go a long way toward explaining the current dehumanization we are experiencing today and that bears fruit in cases like those of a few years ago.

If there were any doubts, Torre Pacheco has made it clear that they xenophobic groups are highly organizedHave they been allowed to grow up, have they been tolerated because we wanted to believe they were just four crazy people?

— It is evident that it has been given wings to speeches that until recently were in the closet And we're seeing that, of course, it's a local issue, a national issue, but also a very European and global one. Certain hate speech has been allowed to run rampant under the supposed umbrella of freedom of expression. And with this excuse, these groups have been allowed to grow, and they're now very large in a context that is, of course, local. It's very Murcian, but it's also very Spanish, and we see that the weakest are being attacked: migrants, refugees, who are the most vulnerable and those who need the most protection. They're attacking precisely the weakest link in society.

Is Spain finally ceasing to be an exception, without major racial conflicts?

— I don't think Spain has been an exception in Europe. I think we have a government that is an exception in Europe. But this doesn't mean there isn't a breeding ground and that there isn't a social and political movement moving in that direction for many years. What happens is that migratory movements in Spain are more recent. Spain was a country of emigrants until very recently, and it's a country that has been receiving immigration for a few decades now.

So, could Torre Pacheco be the beginning of what they experienced in Europe years ago?

— Spain has a shorter tradition, yet it hasn't learned how not to alienate others. We have people here who are called third-generation, something that doesn't exist. They are Spanish citizens who often have no contact with the Arabic language, no contact with the Muslim religion, no contact with Morocco or Algeria, and yet they are not allowed to be Spanish. This generates all kinds of feelings of not integrating into a country that rejects them. This is the lesson France taught us, and which, unfortunately, we haven't learned.

That was the question I wanted to ask you. Will we make the same mistakes?

— Issues that have been seen in France or Germany for much longer are now being experienced in Spain without having learned anything, starting with the issue that There are no second-generation immigrantsThere are immigrants, and then there are their children, who are Spanish citizens. But Spain, like the rest of Europe, is no longer, if it ever was, the white, homogeneous, Christian society that many like to see themselves in.

What are we now?

— We live in a Europe and Spain made up of different cultures, religions, and a social fabric that is much more diverse than is often portrayed in the media and even in public spaces. And failing to embrace this diversity and richness makes it seem like an enemy instead of part of what we all already are.

Muslim women wearing hijabs are singled out, photographed on the street, and posted on social media for public ridicule. Why are they seen as the enemy?

— Muslim women are singled out Because they are, once again, the weakest link within the weakest link. We're talking about multiple layers of oppression for being women, Muslims, migrants, or refugees. So, when there's a sign or an item of clothing as visible as a hijab, since they're an even easier target, they're attacked. And precisely because they're women, I believe that from a feminist perspective, it's very important to see this intersection between machismo and racism, which often go together. These extremist groups, as it could not be otherwise, in addition to being racist, are also misogynistic, they're also sexist; they're a compendium of all these supposed traditional values, which, more than values, are attacks on human dignity and human rights.

Has the left lost its way on this issue?

— I don't know if we can talk about the political and social left as something homogeneous. I think there are different agendas, different interests, different visions.