Proxima Estacion.... Villa de Vallecas

Those of you who have ever traveled to Madrid, have most assuredly traveled on the Madrid Metro. It is arguably one of the best in all of Europe. As a student, I was always riding on the Metro and one of my favorite pasttimes was looking at the Metro Map and figuring out where everything was located in the city. It was a fun exercise. The light blue line, formally known as "Linea 1" essentially took you directly from the northern part of the city, Estacion Plaza de Castilla, all the way to the southern part, Villa de Vallecas.

The Madrid Metro has grown since then and there is now a Linea 11 that connects even more southern parts of the city, plus Linea 1 extends even further south of Vallecas. It's odd for me to think that Vallecas is now considered almost a central part of Madrid. That speaks to the growth of the city. Vallecas has traditionally been known as a more blue collar part of the city. You'll even hear some Madrilenos refer to it as the slums. In the last 10 years, with the growth that Madrid has experienced, those Madrilenos who have lived in Vallecas for decades are now living amongst immigrants and they don't like it. There are constant news reports of anti-immigrant sentiment. South American, Romanian, Russian and African immigrants now all call Vallecas home. If you saw the wonderful movie "Volver" there were allusions to Vallecas' immigrant population boom.

This has produced a xenophobia among alot of Spanairds and unfortunately it has manifested itself in the stands at Rayo Vallecano's futbol matches. The team has come under fire from the Spanish Futbol federation to get a hold of the 'ultras' who are bringing racist symbols to the games. Just look at the high quality individuals in the above photo! I've personally always liked Rayo because of its status of a neighborhood team in a big city. But when these unfortunate events happen in futbol, it needs to be addressed.



Jornada 4

Murcia - Las Palmas
Sevilla At - Rayo
Alavés - Levante
Gimnástic - Alicante
Xerez - Córdoba
Castellón - Albacete
Eibar - Celta
Girona - Salamanca
Tenerife - Huesca
Zaragoza - Elche
Hércules - R.Sociedad