For this article, I wanted to highlight one organization that integrates immigrant families in Lavapiés in a creative way. Dragones de Lavapiés (Dragons of Lavapiés) is a soccer team that makes respecting equality and multiculturality a priority through sport! It was created in 2014 by parents in the neighborhood who saw an interest in sports and a need for the youth of Lavapiés to have a healthy outlet and build community. Their mission is to build solidarity and teach respect by encouraging conversations between people from diverse cultures. They currently have more than 200 boys and girls from 40 distinct nationalities playing together. Dragones de Lavapiés also has an adult team with 40 men and women from different backgrounds. Players come from Spain, the U.K., Italy, Senegal, Morocco, Gambia, Bangladesh, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Taiwan, Ukraine, Romania, Uruguay, Russia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Paraguay, Mexico, Cuba, Argentina, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, the U.S. and more! Could you have ever imagined that people from all over the world would be playing on one team for one neighborhood together?
Dragones de Lavapiés includes anti-bullying education and doesn’t tolerate violence or violent language. They also stand for larger issues from around the world, such as Black Lives Matter and gender inequality in sports. They aim to form a new team with 70-80% of its members being refugees living in the neighborhood. Aside from soccer, Dragones de Lavapiés teaches Spanish, Arabic and English.
