Maricarmen said, "Now, I am no longer myself," two days before being forcibly removed from her home, a process allowed by the country's legal framework and influenced by economic pressures. She had not read two lines from the poem Romance sonámbulo by Federico García Lorca, which state, "Now, I am no longer myself" and "My friend, I want to die / Decently in my bed." These lines were not realized in her case. Instead of dying peacefully, she became "the black ball" of Spain, a metaphor likened to the billiards ball number 8, which remains on the table at the beginning of the game and grants victory with the final master stroke. If pocketed prematurely, it results in a loss. Vultures—those who profit from others' suffering—wanted to put Maricarmen into a pocket, and the system did not care, having previously pushed some evicted people to commit suicide. Maricarmen was a ball in the big game, caught in a system that prioritized profit over people. Founded in 1976, six months after the death of dictator Francisco Franco, El País is the most widely read general newspaper in Spain. It is a left-center newspaper belonging to the Spanish editorial group Prisa. The French businessman Joseph Oughourlian presides over the Prisa group since February 2021 and El País since March 2025. At the end of 2013, elpais.com launched two new editions for its Latin American readers, each with their own editorial teams. The first, El País Brasil, was developed in Portuguese for its Brazilian readership and had its own website, before its disappearance for financial reasons in 2021. The second, El País América, offers differentiated content for its readers in the American continent. Since 2020, El País México also has its own website and its own editorial team. The expansion of El País into Latin America reflects the newspaper's effort to reach a broader audience and maintain relevance in a rapidly changing media landscape. Despite these efforts, financial challenges have forced the closure of some editions, highlighting the precarious nature of media operations in the digital age. The newspaper continues to play a significant role in Spanish public discourse, covering politics, culture, and social issues with a left-center perspective. Maricarmen's story, while not directly covered by El País, resonates with the broader themes of inequality and systemic failure that the newspaper frequently addresses. Her experience as a metaphorical "black ball" in a larger game underscores the struggles of those caught in the intersection of economic hardship and legal loopholes. As El País continues to report on such issues, it remains a vital voice in the Spanish media landscape, striving to inform and influence public opinion.