Lucía Asué, Living Unchained in Madrid...

Live Unchained brought me to the best part of Madrid, the terrace of Lucía Asué Mbomio Rubio. A place where I had a wonderful welcome party, great conversations and filmed the video you see above.

One day, many months ago, I decided to promote Live Unchained via facebook and came across a page posted in Spanish for an organization called Alto Consejo de las Comunidades Negras. I contacted every member that was on Facebook at the time, including Lucía, the director of Communications and Media. She sent me back a beautiful and encouraging response--the last line of which read: "Vuestra lucha es también la mía," Your fight is also mine. True to her word, she has been eager and generous in supporting and promoting Live Unchained.

To Live Unchained she is contributing a documentary, "The Invisible City: Voices in the Cañada Real Galiana." The documentary portrays the largest illegal settlement in Europe. Lucía artistically captures the challenges facing the forty thousand residents that occupy the Cañada Real. Diversity and contrasts characterize this zone; One can see, "chalés of luxury and shacks, addicts and volunteers, businessmen and pariahs...without access to a hospital, nor a school" (for a more detailed description see this PDF). The documentary has been shown at the World Social Forum in addition to receiving various accolades in different countries. Here is a teaser.



Aside from her art, she has one of the most enviable jobs in Madrid. She is a television personality for Españoles en el Mundo, which airs on the national channel, RTVE. As a reporter for this program, she has had the opportunity to travel all over the world including my hometown Chicago and her Father's homeland, Ecuatorial Guinea. You can see the full episode of Ecuatorial Guinea here.

Fluent in Spanish, French and Portuguese, her language skills have served her well. Her most recent trip for Españoles en el Mundo was to Lisboa, Portugal. On Friday, she will visit Montreal.



Lucía's Fall trip, however, is for her own interests. In October, Lucía will travel to Paris, France to conduct an interview and research for her next documentary. Her next project is about the life of José Carlos Grey Molay, also known as Carlos Greykey. A black man who fought in the Spanish Civil War and served in a concentration camp during World War II. (Lucía is still in the documentation phase and if you have any information you would like to share with her regarding this project, you can reach her at: luciambomio@hotmail.com.)

A major goal for Live Unchained is that it be a platform where women from various and, in some cases, very distant places, can share ideas and resources; to be what it has been for me and my new friend. I am so happy to have met Lucía, to have learned from her and to have eaten her food (she's a great cook). She has encouraged Miriam and I to follow our dreams for this project. Given her boldness and the many things she puts her energy into, Lucía continues to lead by example. She Lives Unchained.

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Here is a picture from the party Lucía threw on her terrace in June. The women depicted are from, in no particular order, Columbia, Russia, Guinea, Chile, Spain and the U.S. (of course). We had the BEST tortilla Española and sang along to "Me and Mrs. Jones."