A local grassroots activist, Maria Àngels Rivas Ureña arrived in Barcelona in the 1960s with her two children after living in Morocco, Tangiers and Switzerland. At first they lived in a boarding house in Plaça Reial, and later settled in the La Guineueta neighbourhood. She had only been there for a short time when together with other residents, she demanded the installation of traffic lights on Pg. Valldaura to improve road safety. Years later she joined the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia, where she worked unstintingly to improve the social reality of the neighbourhood: getting it connected to the telephone network, and protesting against the expropriation of homes to make way for the construction of what is today the Ronda de Dalt ring road. The protests led to the modification of the plans for the ring road. As a result of her leadership skills, she became chair of the La Guineueta residents’ association and was deeply involved in the struggles of the new Canyelles neighbourhood, which was built in the 1970s. She was the first chair of the Canyelles residents’ association.
A neighbourhood activist, she came to Barcelona after living in Morocco, Tangier and Switzerland. She was the president of the residents’ association of La Guineueta and Nou Barris, where she fought to improve the social situation.