This Monday marked the 20th anniversary of the murder of Rosario Endrinal, at a time when there is a resurgence of aporophobia; a crime that has often been made invisible and must be addressed by involving all agents in our society.
On a cold morning like this Monday, December 15, 2005, three young men —one of them a minor— murdered Maria Rosario Endrinal, known as Charo in her immediate environment. The woman, who was homeless, was sleeping in an ATM when her executioners sprayed her with solvent and, later, one of them threw a cigarette that ignited the fire. Endrinal, 51, died two days later at the Vall d’Hebron Hospital, where she had been admitted with second and third degree burns to 70% of her body.
Now that we commemorate the twentieth anniversary of her death, we would like to be able to tell Rosario Endrinal that her murder served to eradicate aporophobia. Unfortunately, however, this form of hatred is still more alive than ever. This is evidenced by recent events such as those that occurred in Benacazón (Seville), where two young minors recorded themselves burning the hair of a man who lived on the streets because they did not like his hairstyle.
To a large extent, this increase in aporophobia is closely linked to the rise of hate speech, which has burst into both the regional parliaments and the Spanish State parliament by the hand of far-right forces.
These are speeches that must be confronted and combated with data and facts. And the reality is clear: a succession of bad circumstances can lead anyone to live on the streets or to a situation of social exclusion. This is what happened to Rosario Endrinal, who had worked as a management secretary in a major supermarket chain. In just one year, however, she lost everything: her job and her partner. A vital process that ultimately led her to live on the streets.
The data corroborates this. According to the National Institute of Statistics, in 2022 there were 28,552 people in a situation of homelessness in the Spanish State, 24.5% more than ten years ago. Of these, 51.1% had Spanish nationality and more than a quarter, 26.8%, ended up living on the streets after losing their job.
Underreporting: a pending challenge
Another of the great challenges is the underreporting of attacks, aggressions or aporophobic discrimination. In order to make their real scope visible, it is essential that these events are registered and counted.
One of the main reasons for this lack of reports is the historical invisibility of people in a situation of homelessness. It is no coincidence that terms such as homophobia (coined in 1967) or xenophobia (from 1880) have been part of common language for decades, while it was not until 1995 that the philosopher Adela Cortina created the concept of aporophobia, which literally means hatred of poor people.
It still took more than twenty years for the Royal Spanish Academy to incorporate this term into its dictionary, in 2017, and until 2021 for it to be included in article 510 of the Penal Code, relating to hate crimes. In Catalonia, however, it remains a pending challenge, as the Institut d’Estudis Catalans has not yet incorporated it into the Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana.
Since its inclusion in the Penal Code, complaints of aporophobia have increased timidly: 17 cases in 2022, 18 in 2023 and 24 in 2024, according to the annual report of the Ministry of the Interior. However, the figures remain clearly insufficient.
This low number of complaints is often explained by the fact that many people in a situation of homelessness are unaware of their rights. We live in societies that value people based on their consumption capacity or their material goods, a framework that makes it difficult for those who experience situations of social exclusion to identify and defend their fundamental rights.
Equating rights to combat aporophobia
Without a doubt, the great challenge in dealing with homelessness is to guarantee equality in access to basic rights, especially the right to decent housing, as set out in the Spanish Constitution and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Access to housing is not a privilege, but a fundamental right. However, since the 2008 crisis we have been living in an unprecedented situation that has turned this right into an unattainable luxury for many people and families, due to the increase in the cost of renting and buying a home.
To combat aporophobia, it is also necessary to guarantee equal rights and conditions. People experiencing homelessness must be able to access a safe and stable roof from which to rebuild their lives.
With this philosophy, the Housing First model was born in the 1990s in New York, promoted by psychiatrist and psychologist Sam Tsemberis, which is based on a key idea: the first thing a person living on the street needs is stable and safe housing.
In Barcelona, this model was implemented ten years ago with the Primer la Llar project, promoted by the Municipal Institute of Social Services and managed by the UTE formed by Suara Cooperativa and Pere Claver Grup, as well as such as Sant Joan de Déu Serveis Socials. A pioneering project in Spain that has been possible thanks to the collaboration between the City Council and social entities.
Along the same lines, the Sara project, by Càritas Terrassa, managed by Suara Cooperativa, also stands out, which has been offering a long-term resource with no time limit for people in a situation of homelessness and HIV for thirty years.
The cameras on the bench where Rosario Endrinal slept put a face to aporophobia. A crime that has too often fallen into oblivion. Twenty years after her murder, we will continue to fight so that there are no more Rosarios Endrinals.
However, social entities cannot do it alone. The involvement of citizens is necessary so that they do not look the other way in the face of aggression and support the victim; as well as that of administrations, which are essential to provide social services with the necessary resources so that all people —including those living in a situation of homelessness— can access such a basic right as decent and stable housing.
Twenty years ago, the person sleeping on the street was Rosario Endrinal. Tomorrow, it could be any of us.
Anna Domingo
Operating director of Suara Cooperativa and specialist in homelessness
