• Documentary Snack with Colita

  • Tribute at the FAD "The panorama in Catalonia is sinister"

"Ai, I'm still

jet lagged,

" Colita sighs on this rainy morning as she bustles around her study. She has been traveling and performing for a few hectic days: her flamenco exhibition at the Spanish Theater in Madrid and the stop at Paris Photo, where her image of some nuns hanging clothes (which she took at the age of 24 from the roof of her house) has been chosen. as one of the top 20. "Wait, I put a little makeup on," he says before the photo is taken. "I brought this shit-colored scarf, better not, right? And this Chinese shirt that a local dressmaker made for me for three pesetas ... », she continues before she is the one who is put in front of the camera, although her place has always been on the other side.

Colita (or Isabel Steva in her DNI) is The Photographer of a Spain still in black and white, a Spain that was torn between the death throes of Francoism and a necessary modernity. «The first was me, that is undoubted. Once I left school, I lived surrounded by photographers. 'If they do, why don't you? It's not that complicated either ... '. Then more girls came out », he says. Many of his photos are now classics: the Somorrostro gypsy barracks, the great

Carmen Amaya

("when Carmen looked at you ... what strength, what power!"), The Gauche Divine festivities, the nights in Bocaccio, the alleys of the Chinatown (today, a sanitized Raval) and a whole gallery of artists ranging from

Lola Flores

to

Orson Welles

... But Colita had «a nailed thorn», a pending account with the dictatorship that censored her more than once, like that short-lived exhibition

La gauche qui rit

(The left that laughs) that lasted just two days before it was closed .

«At 81 years of age, the dream book has come to me. Look, I have made books ... But none like this one », admits Colita. He talks about

Antifémina

(co-published by the City Council and Terranova), a book-object that he published in 1977 together with

Maria Aurèlia Capmany,

one of the most prominent intellectuals and feminists of the time. «It was the first feminist photography book. Then nobody was interested. But now that we are with Me Too, the 'no es no' and the mother who gave birth to us all ... I meet my favorite mayor

[Ada Colau

], I show him this feminist book and he almost dances a jota of joy, "he lets go.

Antifémina

was a banned book.

It was published by Editorial Nacional because the director was a friend of Capmany but ... when someone from the regime realized what they had printed, the director was dismissed and the 3,000 copies of

Antifémina

ended up in the shredder.

«They turned it into confetti to celebrate the National Holiday.

The one in this book is a tragic story: they have humiliated him, they have destroyed him, but they have not been able to with him.

In the end, we won, although 60 years later », recognizes Colita.

Only the few copies survived that had already been sent to bookstores and that, over the years, acquired stratospheric prices.

One of Colita's photographs from her series on models.

Colita sits at the table with a latte and

mini-croissants

.

Croissants

that this rainy morning they function like Proust's magdalena: «Maria Aurèlia and I were neighbors. We were doing the shopping in the morning. We went to the same bakery owned by a very tall and half-crazy aunt who had 20 cats but made great bread ... They came from all over Barcelona to buy it. We were in the queue waiting and Maria Aurèlia asked me: 'Do you have a lot of photos of women, right?' ». Between the two of them they composed a plea on the meaning of being a woman, with texts by Capmany and photos of Colita. A reverse of the femininity imposed by the regime: "Here is the ideal of the Spanish woman dictated after the Glorious National Uprising: HOME, KITCHEN, CALCETA", Capmany writes, to add ironically that "the Nazis were more liberal." «At that time you had to be an anti-woman.Not being a feminist was throwing stones at your roof like an idiot, "claims Colita, who was then the director of photography for the feminist Vindication magazine (" she also played errand girl and mop girl, "she adds).

These anti-women (or women, simply)

used to be seen often in the dungeon

: «I have been in jail with an aunt who was put there because she wanted a divorce. They put me in for driving while intoxicated, uh, don't think that for any military feat ... I left Bocaccio lost in a thrashing and ran a traffic light ... Total, I ended up in jail with all the prostitutes, what they were charming and invited me to snuff. Then there was a woman in a corner, crying desperately: her husband had put her in prison because he had found her with someone else. She couldn't get a divorce or have a new boyfriend. " The Adultery Law was not abolished until 1978: the penalties could go up to six years in prison. To legalize abortion, we would have to wait until 1985. «It was all so unfair ... With the death of

Franco

there was an explosion of joy thinking that the whole forest is oregano.

But no, the body was still there, the usual ones continued to send ... ».

Women walking the streets of Chinatown in the 60s.

- How do you see feminism today?

- A monumental mess!

Because there are also things that, honestly, I don't understand.

I must be very old, which I am ... But all this trans people and all this history I don't understand ...

- Are you referring to the controversy of the Trans Law, the confrontation between Irene Montero and Carmen Calvo?

She widens her eyes between indignant and scandalized.

And that few things can scandalize Colita ... But seeing women, feminists, confronted, the sulfur.

- I do not understand.

If I want to call myself Pepito, then my name is Pepito, and stop the hostility and nonsense!

[raises her arms, very theatrical] If you want to call yourself Juanita ... What does it matter to me?

If you are happy and satisfied with your life, then that's it ... come to the happy group!

- Do you see feminism divided?

- Before, we were all in agreement: women had to have the same rights as men.

We wanted divorce and abortion, very basic things.

Today we should do a bit of reflection, sit down and say 'let's get rid of the most important thing and then we fight like greengrocers'.

But, please, the most important thing let's do it once and for all.

For that we must all be united.

- How has the concept of woman evolved?

Are we more

anti-feminine

now?

- It hasn't evolved that much ... They cook beans everywhere.

Now you are going to find

anti-women

disguised as

millennials

.

But there are still women who are afraid of the male, of feminist ideology, of freedom.

And we are seeing it on television every day, baby: they have taken her children from whore, the other her husband has been murdered, one has been raped ... And there are still people who say that feminism is over?

How dare they say that?

[he says this phrase with a rage that comes from his guts]

- So is the phrase in the book still valid:

Women are marginalized beings whether they are born a nun or become a prostitute

?

- Yes, true and valid.

Nuns and prostitutes, old women and gypsies, plump midwives and factory workers, objectified models and surrendered wives ... All of them parade through

Antifémina

on the same level of equality while the authors wonder where are real women in the history of femininity? And they break the cliché of aesthetics, of advertising, of the so-called perfect woman. In the chapter

The Art of Becoming a Thing

they revolt against a severe diet, constant exercise and eternal youth in order to become a "beautiful doll that almost floats out of space-time" (Capmany's words). «The ideal woman would have to be burned alive like Joan of Arc. Ideal women have done a lot of damage ... and continue to do so », Colita's words.

Antifémina

closes with a very common scene then. In the series El piropo, several men approach a woman sitting on a terrace. «She was having her coffee and there was a play next to it. Those in the play came by and got involved with her, in a nice way, yes ... But it's the theme of a single woman: three men passing by and having to mess with her for her holy balls. It is a touch between critical and sympathetic so as not to end the book like Madame Guillotine doing wham! Also at that time we were not as evil as we are now. What do you mean by so wicked? "Well, now everyone says what comes out of the potorro and stays so wide, hurt or not, right or wrong. In the time of

Antifémina

Fortunately, we were more naive, we believed that we would change the world or, at least, that we would fix it a bit.

Today Colita defines herself as that

vieille dame indigne

(unworthy old lady) to whom they already paid homage in

Antifémina

: a

Bertold Brecht

character

who, after being widowed and a whole life dedicated to the family, finally feels free and, in her old age, he does what he pleases, with the consequent horror on the part of his children at this unworthy behavior. And how much dignity there was in the unworthy. "It was unworthy the National Award that an ignoble being who took charge of Spanish education [Minister Wert, in 2015] wanted to give me," Colita remembers. "You had to throw a shoe at his head and I had no other than that," he adds. This time I would accept it, right? «Now yes, it is something else! In addition there is my beloved chubby stuffed adored ... [the minister

Miquel Iceta

].

But I don't want them to give it to me anymore, it wouldn't make sense, "says Colita, la

dame très dignne.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Spain

  • Catalonia

  • Barcelona

  • Irene Montero

  • Jose Ignacio Wert

  • Ada Colau

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  • Photography

  • Feminism

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  • history

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