Spanish Language School for the Migrant Population

Museo Reina Sofía joins up with Red Interlavapiés (The Interlavapiés Network) to organise a small Spanish Language School for migrant residents in the Community of Madrid who require knowledge and use of the local language as a tool for day-to-day communication, work and involvement in society. 

The participants, hailing from around the world and largely undocumented people living in a situation of social vulnerability, reached out to Red Interlavapiés in search of a supportive group space to develop their communication skills. Gathering once a week, in different groups, they acquire and master basic communication skills — speaking, listening, reading and writing — in their new language.    

María de la Sierra Carretero Lorente, Laura Miranda Espín and Leonor Romo Fernández are the facilitators-teachers in charge of developing these sessions.  

The classes take place in two constantly alternating spaces: the workshop spaces and the rooms of the Museo Reina Sofía Collection, where a direct dialogue is struck up with the works on display, giving rise to subjects related to daily life which are worked upon in the different sessions — intersections resulting in a creative personal experience combining image and word (oral or written).

In welcoming these workshops, the Museo accommodates experiences encompassing listening, support, learning, dialogue and collective organisation, working for the right to language. A space inhabited by diverse methods and transited by less conventional uses; in short, a vibrant space with which to rethink and reformulate roles.

Red Interlavapiés is a mutual support network formed in 2006 and made up of migrant and autochthonous people. It fights against borders and racism and is set up to deal with precariousness and survival in everyday life from a political perspective. Furthermore, with a community approach it responds to the violence of border policies, inequality and injustice, with the links to and coming together of others constituting the essence of the network and driving many of its actions.      

The Spanish Language School course running from January to December 2022 was made possible through the support of