Survivors struggle to rebuild lives
By CNN's Matthew Chance
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 Video of the March 11 bombing of a Madrid commuter train. (Viewer discretion advised)
 Two survivors of the Madrid bombings struggle to rebuild their lives.
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MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- It has been a year since the devastating terror attacks in Madrid, in which a string of powerful bombs were detonated on the city's packed commuter trains.
The blasts killed 191 people. Many others were injured, and survivors are still struggling to rebuild their lives.
Even now, images of Spain's tragedy are hard to bear. And memories still haunt the survivors. A year on, broken families still meet in Madrid's main square to share their torment, and tears.
Mothers like Rita, who moved to Spain from Ecuador to give her son, Jose Luis, aged 11, a better life.
"Our hope was that he would become a professional: a doctor or a lawyer. We thought he'd have a better chance here, a better future. But we were wrong. We brought him to his death," she said.
Rita invited us to her home -- now a shrine to her dead son. Rooms are filled with favorite toys, pictures - and his ashes. She can't bring herself to scatter them yet, she told me.
Jose's bedroom is untouched. In the wardrobe, his blood-stained shoes, recovered from the bomb site, and kept to remember. A year on, memories are still bitter at what happened.
"I don't feel angry at the bombers. My son and I had believed that violence and poverty ferment hatred. But I am angry at those who could have prevented it," she said.
Just three days after the train bombings here last year, the Spanish government -- allied with Washington over Iraq -- was voted out of office.
The new administration withdrew its troops and is urging diplomacy for the future -- a stance more in tune with the feelings of many here in Madrid.
Zahira Obaya, now 22, lost an eye in the bombings. She blames Spanish involvement with the Iraq war and Afghanistan for making them a target.
And she is convinced tighter security is no answer.
"We have to stop trying to solve problems with war and bombs. We'll not be safe until then. There are police everywhere in Madrid now, but that has the opposite effect. They are only here because it could happen again."
And the real fear of more bombs -- another outrage like a year ago -- is one shared in this city and far beyond.
