commemorative plaque to Josefina Carabias

The commemorative plaque to Josefina Carabias sits on a building facade at Calle de Zurbano 67 in Madrid's Chamberí district. It marks the home where this pioneering Spanish journalist lived and died.

Who was Josefina Carabias?

Josefina Carabias y Sánchez-Ocaña was born on 19 July 1908 in Arenas de San Pedro, a town in the province of Ávila. She died in Madrid on 20 September 1980, in the very apartment at Zurbano 67 that the plaque now marks. She worked as a journalist, writer, foreign correspondent and radio presenter across three sharply different periods of Spanish history: the Second Republic, the Franco dictatorship and the early years of the democratic transition after 1975.

She is widely regarded as the first woman in Spain to work in a newsroom under conditions comparable to those of her male colleagues, at a time when journalism was almost entirely a male profession.

What shaped her career?

Carabias made her professional debut in 1931 in the magazine "Estampa", where she published a feature on female university students and interviewed Victoria Kent, then the general director of Spain's prison system and one of the first women to hold such a senior public post in the country.

Her career gained an international dimension in 1955, when she became the first Spanish woman to work as a correspondent in the United States, reporting simultaneously for three newspapers. That assignment made her one of the trailblazers of Spanish-language foreign correspondence written by a woman.

Why is the plaque specifically on Zurbano Street?

The plaque does not mark her birthplace or the start of her career — it marks the home where she spent her final years and where she died in 1980. This is a common way Madrid honors notable former residents: through the place tied to their everyday life rather than only the sites of their public achievements.

Zurbano Street runs through a quiet, residential stretch of the Chamberí district, close to Paseo de la Castellana, one of Madrid's main north-south avenues.

Is her legacy honored in other ways today?

Yes. On 8 March 2018, Spain's Congress of Deputies established an award bearing her name. It recognizes journalists who stand out for their coverage of parliamentary affairs or for defending civil rights and freedoms — a clear sign that her role as a pioneer of independent, factual political journalism is still remembered within state institutions.

Madrid also has a street named after her, Calle Josefina Carabias, located in a different part of the city from the Zurbano plaque.

Frequently asked questions

Where exactly is the plaque located? On the building at Calle de Zurbano 67, in Madrid's Chamberí district.

What does the plaque commemorate? It marks the home where Josefina Carabias lived and where she died on 20 September 1980.

Who was Josefina Carabias? A pioneering Spanish journalist, writer and correspondent, considered the first woman to work in a Spanish newsroom on equal terms with men, and from 1955 the first Spanish female correspondent in the United States.

Are there other places in Madrid linked to her memory? Yes — including a street, Calle Josefina Carabias, and a journalism award created by the Congress of Deputies in 2018 that bears her name.