In the mid-1980s, the work of the CiudadEscuela Muchachos Foundation (CEMU) caught the attention of Luis Valls, former president of Banco Popular. He developed an extraordinary relationship with its founder, Alberto Muñiz Sánchez (known to all as Uncle Alberto), and the Hispanic Foundation began financially supporting this project through a long-term mortgage loan, which remains active and has very flexible conditions. Uncle Alberto describes Valls as “a banker in sandals, not your typical banker.”

Uncle Alberto spent 15 years as an architect and technical-artistic director of Benposta, formerly El Circo de los Muchachos, an itinerant project located on the outskirts of Orense. When that experience took a different direction, Uncle Alberto chose to create CiudadEscuela in Leganés in 1970. Its objective is “to welcome, protect, and educate children and young people with social adaptation difficulties on their path to integration, as well as external students,” as stated in its statutes. This miniature city also has its school, which is privately funded and differs significantly from traditional schools in its architectural design and philosophy. Every day, around 400 children and young people attend CiudadEscuela to study (school), learn vocational skills (professional workshops), or engage in recreational activities (non-formal education workshops and leisure programs). Forty-five percent of the young citizens are of immigrant origin. CEMU “is a learning space where children and adolescents, both residents and non-residents, study, play, and grow while sharing their aspirations,” explains its directors. Additionally, CEMU has a town council with a mayor elected by all the children, its radio station, a monthly magazine, and a bank with its currency, the CEMU, for internal use.

Question. How did you meet Luis Valls?

Answer. I had heard of him as the president of Banco Popular, but I didn’t know him personally. But one day, in the 1980s, he came to visit us. It was early on when the CiudadEscuela Muchachos (CEMU) project was starting to take off. We had only built a portion of the current facilities at that time. I remember he came here with that elegant appearance, which caught my attention. As an architect, I am very fond of aesthetics, which is a form of ethics. Often, the face is the mirror of the soul. I remember his discretion, that of a gentleman guiding the conversation with long silences and attentive listening. He spoke to me with such knowledge, affection, and empathy that I thought he could be a childhood friend of mine, from the desk next to mine, because I felt like I had known him forever. I remember he started looking through the books in my office and made comments that showed his great culture, but always inquiring with great curiosity.

Q: Your relationship led to the Hispanic Foundation supporting the CiudadEscuela de los Muchachos project. How did it start?
A: One day in that decade, he summoned me to his office at Banco Popular, and I found him sitting behind an onyx table. He struck me as someone who didn’t exactly have the soul of a banker,. He greatly needed to help struggling people, especially children, although he also helped others. I told him about the CEMU project, which was beginning, and he gave us an interest-free loan. We are still servicing the mortgage debt that was generated back then.

Q: CEMU is quite large and covers about two and half acfres. Did the Foundation support the growth of this project?
A: Their role with us has always been vital because we have always been financially stretched. Initially, I bought three hectares, which were then rural and cheap. At that time, I combined my professional work in a thriving architecture studio with my colleagues José Miguel de Prada and Andrés García-Quijada with my commitment to Father Silva’s Circus of the Boys, which I had joined in León. Then, the investment we needed to continue the development of CEMU increased, and Luis Valls appeared.

Q: Is CiudadEscuela’s financial structure currently organized?
A: Yes, we have achieved it because we have a great management team. CEMU is a very complex task, but it makes us happy, and we are persistent. The early years were very difficult because Leganés was a commuter town, and young people had few options; social problems accumulated. For that reason, the authorities liked the idea of creating a school-city to get these troubled boys off the streets.

Q: What are the main principles of your project?
A: For me, the classroom is the expression of education; function shapes the form. And that is overlooked in almost all centers. If you change the facade of most schools and replace desks with beds, it becomes a perfect hospital; or if you change some desks, it becomes a ministry, which is not the right environment for education. Luis Valls understood this; he was enthusiastic about the project and helped us through the Hispanic Foundation.

Q: Did Valls like to come here? Did he follow your project closely?
A: Yes, he came some afternoons or on weekends. About twice a month. Sometimes, he would come without notice. He would walk around CEMU, and then I would be informed he was here and he would come to my office. When we finished the church, he gave us a Christ, a wonderful Catalan sculpture, which is as part of the altarpiece. He also gave us a Virgin, a replica of the White Virgin of Toledo. Luis Valls was a banker in sandals. I painted a mural of an ascending Christ that he appreciated. Because one of my specialties is murals. I’ve painted them in Iran and Africa. They are expressionistic; I like being in an environment where the atavistic and the civic coincide. I want intellectuals and children alike to understand me. I’m not a religious man, but I am a believer. I don’t believe that after this, there will be emptiness. Jesus was an example.

Q: Is this school Catholic?
A: No, we are non-denominational; we have children and young people of all beliefs. Here, education is in freedom, including religious freedom. Of course, there are Muslims who sometimes greet me, saying, “May Allah protect you,” which I find very beautiful. Initially, we made a chapel with a Christ made of recycled iron, but later, we built the church. Valls named it the Cathedral of the Child. His help with its financing was immense. The stained glass windows were made by Luis Zurro, the best-stained glass maestro in Spain and Europea cathedral of light. The monument in front is a tribute to Luis Valls and Luis Zurro, a tribute to the two “Luises” who helped build this cathedral together.

Q: But you have a Catholic church…
A: We are not a religious center; the church means gathering, and many events are held there. CEMU is entirely non-denominational, but for me, the imprint of Jesus’ religion is very strong. I cannot conceive of a Spanish or Mediterranean village without a church tower.

Q: What makes CEMU different from other educational projects?
A: We start from the idea that the child must feel free. And that’s enough for him. Until now, they were passive objects without rights. Childhood was invented very recently on Earth, although now it seems like a basic concept. At CEMU, children have a voice and vote in the weekly assembly, which they lead. As an adult, you must ask permission from the mayor, elected by them, to let you speak. The challenge is to teach the principles of a democratic society. That’s why the educational binomial, “child-adult, adult-child,” exists, and there is interaction. The natural academic authority lies with the adult, but children voice their opinions and defend their positions.

Q: What functions does the child mayor have?
A: They have the maximum authority in political matters, in internal organization. They tackle the citizen game, which is what we call this participatory system. Educators and children are communicating vessels, and in this way, it is possible to promote solidarity in coexistence. This avoids the terrible phenomenon of the class bully who takes away another’s sandwich or generates suicidal thoughts in others without the teachers knowing…

Q: Initially, you said that immigrant children from all over Spain came to CEMU, but now they come from other continents and religions. How do you promote integration?
A: This helps integration because the kids choose their team, their councilors, the person in charge of citizen promotion, public order, etc.

Q: Does the public order person become a policeman?
A: They choose athletes, tough guys because they will have to confront someone taking phones, for example. It’s a system that allows them to resolve things without needing to file a report. They have their internal organization without adult intervention. They can report internally, thus avoiding violence.

Q: Some facilities are schools, and others are residences where children from other countries of immigrant origin stay. How do they coexist?
A: Very well. The problem isn’t with the children. It’s society that instills ways of seeing things; they don’t care about skin color, the color of thought, or religious color. They are more sincere, which is scarce in adults, and I love that. This area of Madrid has always received immigrants since the 1970s. But coexistence has always been facilitated by the character of children, in all eras. Immigrants now come from other countries, unlike when they only came from other regions of Spain.

Q: Why do you have a building that is a bank?
A: Because we have our own currency for internal use. It’s the CEMU in a bill format. One of them features the portrait of Felipe VI when he was a prince and child. After he married Queen Letizia, they visited us and have always had a very affectionate relationship with us. We use it as a tool to encourage saving among the kids.