Spain’s Cycling Race Turns Into Pro-Palestine Protest

It was a brisk Sunday afternoon when a seemingly innocent lunch and photography lesson spiraled into chaos; I found myself in the middle of a protest with 100,000 people in attendance, which wasn’t what I had in mind. Alexander Guillen, the Photography Club president at SLU-Madrid and I finally found the time to meet for a much needed lesson on working the manual settings on ‘professional’ cameras. After a quick munch and swig on the Capresse tostadas and lattes we had, we set out on a leisurely walk around Lavapiés. After some equally failed and successful attempts at taking pictures, we were unknowingly walking towards Atocha, where the finish line of Vuelta de España – the biggest cycling event in Spain –  took place. We somewhat expected a pro-Palestinian protest to be nearby, since we had occasionally seen a person or a family carrying the recognizable flags and colored face paint. But neither of us knew what the Vuelta was, nor that it was taking place. As we approached the lively chants and flailing flags, we were met by dozens of ambulances, police trucks and armored tanks blocking Paseo del Prado. In our confusion and curiosity, I saw an opportunity to put what I learned into practice. As we were splitting up in opposite directions, Alex warned me to be careful when taking pictures of the police, since some may want to retaliate. An hour or so passed, so we reconvened and shared our stories and pictures of the event. There were two worlds converging into one moment. Police on guard, crowds chanting in solidarity, paramedics at the scene of an injury and the watermelons being the symbol of the movement.