Carmen Ortiz

I have lived in Lavapiés for fifteen years, in what is probably Madrid's most mixed neighbourhood by nationality, and I like showing that mix rather than smoothing it into one story. On camera I walk past the shopfronts and small restaurants that tell you who lives here now, then work back through what the streets looked like centuries earlier. I studied local history as a hobby more than a profession, so I am direct when something is folklore rather than fact. I keep the pace slow enough that you can read shop signs and street names as we pass them.