From the Black Market to the Black Community

By Nyles Pollonais

When I first arrived in Spain, I was struck by the lack of community. I’m sure that sounds odd to a number of you readers. There are countless images of communities of people enjoying evening dinners in the summertime, attending yearly festivals, and the constant meet ups that seem to take place every evening here in Spain. So, how could this be? What community is Spain lacking? 

See, I travelled here from the United States to join a program called the “North American Language and Culture Assistants Program,” or NALCAP for short. This program enabled me to work in the school system alongside their English teachers to help them increase levels of pronunciation, communication, and cultural awareness for the students. As of writing this piece, the program is on its way out due to challenges in communication between the Autonomous Communities and the Spanish government and because of the alleged labor violations of the position of the “auxilliar de conversacion” itself. The communities of Valencia and Andalucia will not take part in the program for the 2026-2027 school year, and the future of the rest of the autonomous communities that participate are in limbo. Yet, regardless of the people in my position who will no longer be here, this is not the missing community I refer to. This community is present in Portugal, the United Kingdom, and France, yet it lacks structure, visibility, and representation in the center of them all, here in Spain. 

As I entered the school system, one thing was abundantly clear: there were little to no Black students, and virtually no Black teachers. There is one Black student in my school this year, and there was one Black teacher from France in my school last year who mentioned she was the only Black teacher in the entire Valencian Community. (Side note: I have not mentioned the small number of mixed-race students whose self-identity I have not asked). Obviously, my presence was a gift to the students, teachers, and community altogether. Representation in the teaching staff, the subjects I brought to class, and the simple act of being in that position as a Black person brought something that was missing in a world where Blackness was already consumed. Yet, while we lacked presence in the school system, we did not lack presence in the public. I lived in the small coastal town of Torreveija, and what I saw there mirrored my experience across my travels from the city of Valencia, to the beautiful Barcelona, and even to the capital of Madrid. There are Black people here. These Black people would come out at night or at times without police presence, and on the beachfront boardwalks or wherever they found themselves, they would lay blankets with items assumed to be counterfeit, presented for the spectators to buy. Everything from the latest jerseys, shoes, bags, necklaces, and even the services of the people themselves (hair-braiding and other forms of labor) was up for sale. So, where was this community? 

I had become so used to a Black populace that I had taken it for granted, and by the time I had completed two weeks in Spain, I yearned for that connectivity again. Blackness in the United States is a multicultural, multi-generational, and multi-ethnic force that has shaped politics, culture, philosophy, and history through perseverance, unity, and grit in the face of overt oppression and racism. Due to the sheer nature of exclusion of whiteness, the historical battle for Spain from North African conquerors, and the emphasized binary of purity and sin offered by Christianity, it is nearly impossible for a person who looks like me with visibly Black features to be truly included in the psycho-social fabric that makes up these Spanish communities. I believe that in the psyche of the Spanish majority, often reinforced by the religious celebrations and the celebrations of war victories, that it is nearly impossible for the Spanish of all backgrounds, Catalunian, Murcian, Valencian, Sevillan, Basque, Galician, etc., to ever truly accept another majority of people here without them feeling as if they have betrayed their people, their homeland, their ancestors, and their chosen histories. This was not the “New World,” composed of immigrants. I was the outsider, and as long as I lived here, I would be. There was no room for “another community.” The only way I could live here long term, and survive—if this could even be called survival—would be to assimilate and accept the role of the perpetually sinned, saved, emasculated, childlike, person of no history who was allowed to come here by the graciousness and goodness of their government. 

Here are just two examples to my point on a lack of community integration I have witnessed firsthand in the classrooms: Students of a Moroccan and Romani background, otherwise negatively referred to as Gypsies. First, let’s focus on the students of Moroccan background. From my vantage point, I have seen two versions of these students. These students are either Spanish citizens with a recent parentage and lineage that trace back to Morocco or immigrants themselves in the process of citizenship. Many of these children are Muslim, some are fluent in Spanish and others speak Arabic (or a combination of Arabic and French) and are learning, albeit difficult, alongside the rest of the students. I remember this year an English teacher being scolded for doing a short informational lecture on Ramadan. The school only found out because the markings were left on the chalkboard for the next teacher to see. The English teacher was ultimately told not to discuss such things in the classroom although Christmas, Semana Santa, and the “Moors and Christians” festival are widely discussed and part of the school system’s planned holidays. Spain and Morocco’s history is as old as time, yet the people seem more segregated than ever (except in sports, but that’s nothing new).

Next, let’s take a look at the children of the Romani people. These kids are left out to dry, and that is the best way that I can put it. They are proficient in the Spanish language, (by culture) practice a sect of Christianity, and have been in the school system from a young age, so I have to only wonder why they are also so disconnected. I have yet to the day of writing this piece see any teacher sit with one of these students and try to encourage them to join the rest of their class. It seems to be common knowledge to adopt a defeatist mentality and not try to work with these students. Now, there may be a reason for this. Maybe the teacher or school has tried before, and gotten no result. Maybe the student feels so disconnected from the coursework and expectations that they simply check out. Maybe the parents aren’t encouraging the students to work hard in school and have caused some disruption between the administration and themselves leaving the only result being the legal necessity for the student to remain in school because of their age. Regardless of why it might be, both the Moroccan students and the Romani students seem to display that they too are not part of the overarching common culture of the Spanish school system, and ultimately the social fabric of the Spanish community. To this end, I have never met a teacher, administrator, or person of power within the school system of Moroccan or Romani descent. And yet, these students too have their own fully established well formed communities in neighborhoods or parts of town that are separate from the Spanish majority. It reminds me of the phrase, “separate but equal.” And no, Black people are not found in those communities either, with exception given to places of worship.

Recently, Spain announced their Mass Regularization Program, passed not through normal legislative procedures but with the hand of the monarch, with the intention of welcoming 500,000+ migrants and refugees into the country with citizenship and the immediate access to the ability to work. This has been a major point of contention for the Spanish people due to the double edged sword of reality that faces Spain. On the one hand, Spain under the leadership of Pedro Sanchez’s left-wing government must continue to portray the liberal imagery his party is known for. To act out, and mirror any inkling of authoritarianism in response to the “migrant problem" faced by the United States and Europe is to show favor to this type of heavy-handed rule and potentially lose favor with the liberal public, other liberal parties in countries that make up the EU, and their global foreign allies. On the other hand, Spain has had to come to terms with the economic reality faced by the majority of their own citizenry. Housing shortages, the cost of living crisis, lack of job opportunities, and overpopulated major cities have forced the government to evaluate its position on profit over people, investment over public interest, migrants over the homeland, and ultimately us versus them. Has the Spanish government chosen to abandon their own community in favor of welcoming this new group of people mostly Black) with no requirements of a cultural education or language adaptation, without question, all in the name of liberalism? 

Lately, I have been brought back to the discussion point between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley about what to do about “The Negro Problem.” Aired on the National Educational Television (NET) Network and hosted at Cambridge University in London, the question debated in 1965 was, “Has the American Dream been achieved at the expense of the American Negro?” If I was to rephase that question for 2026 in context for this article, the question would become, “Can the Western Dream be achieved for the Spanish people in Spain at the expense of the West African Migrant Laborer?”

It does not escape me the need to position all these recently positive liberal changes within the current global context of the threat of war, the fracturing of long term allies, and the shifting of economic policies and monetary hegemony. Spain, in its recent clashes with the American government and President Donald Trump, has made its position clear that they will no longer support the politics of the president or his MAGA agenda. However, I see this as a political move based solely in international optics as opposed to practice. Slavery, or the forced labor of enslaved Africans, and the practice of undocumented migrant labor has brought an untold amount of wealth to the American capitalist elite and the Colonial Spanish Empire. I believe it is not farfetched to assume that the ‘liberal’ move of the Spanish government with little visible pushback from the right-winged factions of the Spanish political parties aims to do the same thing here.

To regularize and employ the 500,000+ migrants who already work, to send them to parts of the country that need assistance—farmlands, construction, industry, and beyond—and then to ultimately tax their work satisfies both the left and the right wings of the Spanish government. It is simply not possible for Spain to compete on an international level with countries like Brazil, India, China, Germany, the United Kingdom, or the United States without a workforce that mirrors the underbellies that prop up these countries. A new, visible, Black community and labor force is on its way to Spain as soon as this summer. 

The Spanish community, from my personal experience, seems to have a fascination with American culture—modern white American culture. This (obviously stemming from the generations upon generations who have consumed American media) has led to an intimate relationship of emulation, jealousy, and repudiation. On the one hand, it’s cool to dress like the Americans, to make rap music like the Americans, to consume and to be blindly led by your desires like the Americans, and to segregate like the Americans. Yet, on the other hand, it wouldn’t be very European of the Spanish to fully accept the way of life they know isn’t truly sustainable in the New World. The pride of the Spanish alone wouldn’t allow this adoption. 

Publicly, the Americans are critiqued for not being sly enough about the white supremacy littered in their politics. They are critiqued for their food habits and health outcomes, for their foreign affairs and the lack of political agency exercised en masse against the authoritarian regime. A cognitive dissonance has been reached in Spain, yet even in the confusion some things hold true—cheap and, in some cases, free labor has the potential to support a struggling middle class and to enrich the already wealthy. The new Black community coming to Spain will come to shoulder the burden of work that cannot be done by the Spanish people and in doing so, earn their freedom if ever possible. This is the agreement reached by both the right and left wings of the Spanish political apparatus, in my opinion. The Spanish communities will be preserved, along with their histories and traditions in more ways than one. A resolution about how to “be like a modern Western nation” without actually “being like them” has been reached and aims to quell the cognitive dissonance, appease the right wing, placate the liberal masses, and all the while ensure profit for the most wealthy. Just like the Americans, the Spanish will have their own Black and migrant community all under the guise of freedom, open borders, and a challenge to authoritarian rule.

In February 2025, during my second semester of my first year, I decided to bring a Black History lesson to my students (and teachers). However, the impetus was not on the Black leaders or historical figures of the West, it was the Black people of Spain. I aimed to have the students focus their efforts and thoughts on the Black community that I knew existed here, but was hidden from the eyes of the larger Spanish community. Through that work, I was able to find and connect with Puerta de Africa. Their work, based on transforming the relationships between Africa and Europe through the youth and the diaspora, inspired me. This was the first place I had encountered a Black community similar in ways to the one I had known. Groups like this are popping up all over Spain, and in days to come will begin to lay the groundwork for the sociopolitical network of the Black Spanish community, who will no longer be hidden and restricted to street vending, but in full view of the people, politicians, and police. The need for cross-cultural education between Black allies across the diaspora of the West is needed now more than ever before. The ability to learn from, be in partnership with, modify and customize per situation, adjust and frame in context, and adapt to the sociopolitical arena that is the Spanish community will be of utmost importance for the survival and resistance of this new Black community here in Spain. An emphasis on labor laws and practices, cultural awareness and language learning, political participation and an understanding of the rights granted will lay the groundwork for the beginning of the Black community soon to come. Additionally, a reliance on the few Black youth and those who have already been introduced to the Spanish community by way of integration into the school systems can help bolster a smoother transitionary period for the hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom are Black, making their way from the black market to the Spanish workforce. 

— Nyles A. Pollonais 

2026

Note: 

This article was meant to be released in March, however we waited for the final publishing of the Mass Regularization Document by the Spanish government before publishing this. The official document is posted here. Once we reviewed it, my suspicions were confirmed. There are no language, cultural, or any type of assimilation measures aimed at the people who this process is intended to support. This is in contrast to other citizenship pathways like the arraigo social which requires applicants to complete some form of knowledge based assessments. This process, started in April, will continue until June 30th for the irregular (note: people are not called undocumented or illegal here). 

Moreover, I was asked to do two things. (1) Include more suggestions of what those in the Black community should do to foster community and bolster their success and (2) report as a journalist the progress of the creation of this new community. I pushed back on the first. In my rebuttal, I argued that it would be very Western of me to tell, suggest, or try to force any type of guidelines or rules for a group of people in another part of the world. Access to information is plentiful, and equally as accessible here. Those who wish to read and structure their approach with information from the West may do so freely, but I will not force my opinions on this matter. I will, however, be here as a support, a member, and an educator for those who seek the information. On the second point, I was uncertain at the time. I did not know - and still do not know - if I would be here long enough to report such things. I do have contacts here like I mentioned in Puerta and around the Southern region of Spain who I can gladly check in with to gauge progress. Only time will tell how this community develops, and everyone will be privy to this information by way of news, word of mouth, and lived experiences. If anything changes, so will my approach. Y’all know I can’t stay away from an article.  

Meet the Writer

Currently living in Torrevieja, Spain, Nyles A. Pollonais is a man of many titles who spends most of his time engaging in healthy living, creative expression, communications, education, liberation, and critical thought. He holds a Bachelors of Arts in Political Science from New York University and a Masters of Arts in The Design and Technology for Learning from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Nyles is a longtime contributor to Audacity Magazine & Events and our most read writer of 2021. He has recently released his first EP, Seasons, under the stage name First Amiri and is working on furthering his artistic endeavors through various mediums. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Nyles is never shy to discuss his Caribbean heritage and New Yorker identity and he just might cook you something to eat. Check out his YouTube channel under the handle @nnnyles.