In 1998, photographer José Latova identified the house photographed by Robert Capa during the Civil War on Calle Peironcely, 10 in the Madrid neighborhood of Entrevías.
12 years later, the discovery came to light and became a window of hope for the 14 families who lived in the precarious houses housed behind the historic facade.
"It's very hard," says Jesús Rico, 49, a neighbor of Peironcely, 10 for a decade with his wife, two daughters, a son and three grandchildren.
It refers to all these years that they have lived with little privacy, in a 30 square meter house where seven people lived.
“When we arrived there were cockroach infestations,” adds another neighbor, Andrés Torres, 18, who tells how his mother turned the property into a home with a lot of work.
This week, the first tenants have signed the relocation after the Madrid City Council paid 870,000 euros to expropriate the property, leaving behind a long process in which the threat of eviction appeared on several occasions.
In 2017, the Consistory included it in the City Council's catalog of assets and protected spaces, clearing the path of tenants towards decent housing.
“Thanks to this photograph,” remarks Neira Adalina Montero, a 60-year-old geriatric assistant, “who woke up as if she had been asleep.
We will always keep Robert Capa in our memory ”.