Women Cigarette Makers of Madrid

The trace of working life in the district of Lavapiés 

The Women Cigarette Makers of Madrid were brave and combative women, impelled to act in numerous riots and strikes, they were pioneers of the workers' movement in Spain.  What is the reason for their strong collective consciousness? What were their demands and achievements?   

 

We will visit the surroundings of the tobacco factory and approach the meeting points and places of coexistence for the Women Cigarette Makers of Madrid.  We will discuss the work carried out in the factory, why there was a mostly female staff, where and how they lived, and we will go over the traces that remain of this history in the current configuration of the neighborhood.   

 

With this walk we recover one of the invisible histories of the urban network, and we reflect on a main question that crosses the whole route: What are the criteria and interests that exalt or erase certain histories of our cities?