Journalist and writer Sonsoles Ónega, the herald of the San Isidro 2026 festivities, has launched a love letter to Madrid with a “woman’s soul,” “adoptive mother,” “the 7 of Melancholy Street and the Girl of Yesterday,” the one that “welcomes without looking at who.” However, her speech also included criticism. “It hurts me, like everyone, that you have to be a vulture and not a dove to live here,” she said from the balcony of the Casa de la Villa, accompanied by the city’s mayor, José Luis Martínez Almeida, and several councilors from all political groups.
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Without hiding her emotion, and before a square packed with people waiting for the start of the city’s most important festival, the journalist described Madrid as “a promised land from the plateau, a desire in Despeñaperros, the nursery of all emotions.” Madrid is “number 7 Melancholy Street, it is the Girl of Yesterday, the chotis of the meadow, Madrid is La Elipa and Atocha at its noon. It is Retiro and also the Ateneo and at all hours Matadero, gatherings, theater, rich salons and poor attics,” she continued. “Madrid is the mother who gave us birth!”
The herald, the first woman to take on the responsibility since Almeida took office, also spoke about migration: “Madrid is the dream of the provinces, the first time of the emigrant, the excitement that is not hidden.” At the same time, she praised the open character of the capital, assuring that “Madrid is always an outstretched hand, welcoming without looking at whom.” “There is room for all of us here,” she said, alluding to Madrid’s social and cultural diversity, which “practices adoption like no other.”
In a particularly emotional moment, the journalist defended the everyday essence of the capital against its current tensions. She took the opportunity to echo the city’s “moan” because “the housing wound does not heal.” “It hurts me, like everyone, that you have to be a vulture and not a dove to live here,” she lamented, then thanked the mayor for handing over the keys to 116 apartments in El Cañaveral two days ago, “116 lives that are set in motion.”
The other “intimate wound” for which she finds no bandage is that of “modernity.” “We are scratched by the closures of bookstores, small businesses, we hurt for the neighborhoods that are being emptied of lifelong locals. They are compensated, and it is also fair to recognize, by those who come, those who undertake, those who bet on Madrid,” she pointed out.
She also stated that “the construction works hurt like molars from clenching them so much.” “I think they got a discount for doing them all at once. Luckily, they then shine on Madrid,” she joked with Almeida.
After the proclamation, the start of the San Isidro festivities continued with live music in the Plaza Mayor with the presentation in a free concert of the new work by the artist Rels B ‘love love FLAKK’.
However, the journalist and the singer were not the only protagonists of the evening, as before the proclamation the traditional giants and big-heads paraded through the Plaza de la Villa to the rhythm of popular Madrid songs, in a lively parade that sparked applause and smiles among attendees. Likewise, about ten couples dressed in traditional chulapo attire filled the Plaza de la Villa with a Castilian atmosphere to the rhythm of the chotis, reinforcing the traditional character of the celebration.