For the first time, the city is hosting a dedicated programme that raises awareness of the realities faced by the LGBTIQ+ Rroma community as part of Pride 2026, featuring events, theatre and cultural activities
On Thursday, Seville hosted the first edition of Rroma Pride, a pioneering initiative that forms part of the city’s Pride programme under the slogan ‘Diversity without permission, Pride without limits’. The project aims to raise the profile of the voices, experiences and demands of the LGBTIQ+ Rroma community.
The Equality Officer for Seville City Council, José Luis García, emphasised that this proposal represents a step forward towards achieving “a Pride that truly belongs to everyone and is for everyone”. As he pointed out, the LGBTIQ+ Rroma community faces a dual reality, and recognising their activism, culture and diversity represents “an act of justice and respect”.
The programme kicked off at the Hogar Virgen de los Reyes with a gathering of the Rromani gender and sexual minority community, where activists from Andalusia and other parts of Spain shared experiences and strategies to strengthen the Rromani LGBTIQ+ movement.
Debate and culture as tools for change
The event also featured discussions and round-table sessions open to the public, led by Iñaki Vázquez, director of La Fragua Projects. These sessions addressed topics such as Rromani culture as a driving force for social transformation, Rromani transfeminism, masculinities and the so-called ‘Romani closet’.
The first day concluded with a theatrical performance of ‹Puños de harina›, by Jesús Torres, at the Teatro del Hogar Virgen de los Reyes, as part of a programme combining social activism, art and reflection.
The events will continue this Friday with the launch of the books *Biopolítica del armario* and *Propaganda queer* by Javier Sáez, as part of the cultural programme for Rroma Pride.
The initiative forms part of Seville City Council’s Diversity Month, a programme through which the city commemorates LGBTIQ+ Pride and champions equality and the rights of the community in all areas of society.
The RJE Network brings together organisations from Barcelona and the Camp de Tarragona to strengthen the collective response to racism
The Racial Justice & Empowerment Network (RJE Network) took its first steps on 2 and 3 June with an inaugural in-person meeting at the Casal de Barri Congrés-Indians in Barcelona and at the Casal de les Dones in Reus. The meeting brought together various social organisations working to defend rights from an anti-racist and feminist perspective, with the aim of beginning to build a collaborative network to strengthen support for migrants, refugees, Roma people and racialised communities.
Although the network is still in its early stages, it already has nine member organisations. Organisations such as MigrESS, Metzineres, Médicos del Mundo, Heroïnes Anònimes and H2O took part in this first meeting, sharing their knowledge, experiences and needs in order to begin to envisage how this alliance might work in practice.
The RJE Network was established as a forum for cooperation to improve access to resources in situations where rights are violated on racist or xenophobic grounds, and to tackle under-reporting from a collective and community-based perspective. Its objectives include strengthening coordination between organisations, facilitating case referrals, sharing tools and developing joint responses to the inequalities that many people face in their daily lives.
Furthermore, the network is committed to pooling diverse knowledge and skills, promoting training, forums for exchange and advocacy initiatives that contribute to a more effective defence of human rights from an intersectional perspective.
These meetings on 2 and 3 June served not only to present the initiative, but also to launch a collective process of development. The participating organisations began to jointly define the network’s values, priorities and organisational structures, in an exercise centred on listening, care and collaborative work.
At present, the RJE Network is in a start-up phase in which the foundations are being laid: from formalising memberships to creating forums for coordination and shared tools.
The medium-term objective is to establish a stable network that will enable joint initiatives to be sustained, increase the number of organisations involved, and continue to strengthen support that is more accessible, coordinated and people-centred.
This first meeting thus marks the start of a collective journey that seeks to transform, at a community level, the conditions that allow racism and inequality to continue to restrict genuine access to rights.
Source: La Fragua Projects Photos: La Fragua Projects
T.I.C.T.A.C., EAMISS and Canódrom are the venues where the activities took place.
The Cafè Barcelona 2026 (CafèBCN 2026) project, initiated by La Fragua Projects, continues to establish itself as a space for gathering and collective reflection on a range of issues. In recent months, three Participatory Spaces for Democratic Innovation (EPIDs) have been held, bringing together migrant, Roma and/or racialised participants to discuss rights, coexistence and access to opportunities.
Spaces for Participatory Democratic Innovation
Participatory Spaces for Democratic Innovation are safe spaces where migrant, Roma and/or racialised people can express their views and share their experiences on a range of social, political and cultural issues, amongst others. These spaces are based on a methodology known as the ‘World Café’, which brings together groups of four people at four different tables for successive rounds of discussion. This methodology, adapted by La Fragua Projects with an intersectional perspective, takes place in a café setting, to make the space safe and welcoming, encouraging participants to express themselves freely. This project has been running since 2025, and this is its second edition. At the end of the project, the participants’ experiences and opinions are gathered and analysed to identify their needs, with a view to advocating for policy change.
CafèBCN 2026 has created participatory spaces in which to address, from a variety of perspectives, key issues such as access to healthcare, culture, housing, working conditions and the use of public spaces. The sessions have provided an opportunity to share experiences related to city life and to initiate discussions on topics such as discrimination, social inclusion and relations with public institutions.
In this regard, the EPIDs have served as safe spaces where people can voice concerns and share their thoughts—things that do not always find a place in other contexts. The diversity of voices has enriched the dialogue, making it possible to identify common ground despite our different personal backgrounds.
Furthermore, the process has highlighted how many of the difficulties faced in everyday life stem from shared structural dynamics. This collective awareness paves the way for new ways of tackling social challenges through collaboration and mutual recognition.
Three forums for dialogue to address inequalities and community life
In the three EPIDs produced so far, participants have been able to discuss healthcare, culture, housing, migration and exceptional regularisation, amongst many other topics.
The project’s first event and launch took place at the headquarters of the organisation ‘Workshop for Critical Transfeminist, Anti-Racist and Militant Interventions’ (t.i.c.t.a.c.), a transfeminist, anti-racist and decolonial space. Marité from t.i.c.t.a.c. opened the doors of her home to us and welcomed us as if we were part of her family. One of the questions put to the participants concerned the extraordinary regularisation process and how this administrative measure would affect their lives. Opinions were largely in agreement from a positive perspective, as, for them, this measure represents a benefit both for people in an irregular administrative situation and for Spain. They hope it will help reduce situations of abuse, precariousness and crime; as one participant said, “those who are against this proposal are those who want to abuse us, treating us like slaves”.
The second session, held at the EAMISS Centre, focused on the city and access to it. One question that stood out concerned housing: “When looking for a place to live, have you ever felt that this city is for some people but not for everyone?” The responses were largely in agreement; for example, one participant commented that “the city should be for everyone, but the reality is that you need a lot of money”.
The third and most recent session to date took place at El Canódrom. Various topics were discussed, such as the Catalan language and social inclusion, the presumption of innocence, being in public versus private spaces, and religious education in schools. On this last topic, the question posed was: “Does the educational community take all religious or spiritual beliefs into account?” The participants highlighted the value of religious diversity and the importance of learning about different religions; consequently, they agreed that rather than selecting a single religion to study, this educational space should be turned into a subject called, for example, cultural diversity, where pupils can learn about different religions.
Shared challenges and lessons learnt
In general, the participants felt hopeful and optimistic that the abusive and precarious situations would come to an end. They were also very pleased to be able to share their views in a safe and welcoming space, and emphasised the need for such spaces where they could share their experiences and opinions and be heard.
The EPIDs from CafèBCN 2026 highlight the need to continue fostering spaces for dialogue and participation that bring diverse realities to the fore and help build collective responses to today’s social challenges.
CafèBCN 2026 is a project that not only encourages reflection, but also fosters connections and helps identify common concerns that cut across different aspects of urban life.
The next and fourth EPID event is in collaboration with Bayt Al-Thaqafa on 11 June. And the final EPID event will be organised by the Mujeres Pa’lante Cooperative, a safe space where women from different countries and with different backgrounds will take part.
Source: La Fragua Projects Photo: La Fragua Projects
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