- The tour has begun in the Free Institution of Teaching, passing through the Residence of Young Ladies and the International Institute
The delegate of the Government of Spain in the Community of Madrid, Francisco Martín Aguirre, has participated today together with workers of the Delegation of the Government on a guided route through the neighborhood of Chamberí in search of the traces of women that history has made invisible but whose life and work has contributed to the construction of the identity of Madrid and Spain today.
The tour has begun in the Free Institution of Education and has ended in the office of Victoria Kent, passing through the Residence of Young Women and the International Institute, spaces where they studied, lived, fought or worked.
The tour has followed the trail of breakthrough women such as Maruja Mallo, Concha Méndez, Jane Whitney, María de Maeztu, Alice Gordon Gulick, Rafaela Ortega y Gasset, Delhy Tejero, Ángeles Santos, Josefina Carabias, Carmen Castro, Victoria Kent, etc., by the guide Eulalia Ramírez Nueda, researcher of the invisibilization of women.
Three routes through Madrid
In order to bring your stories to light, in addition to this route, there are two other itineraries available.
One of them is that of “Las Matildas”, by the Barrio de Justicia, about women whose scientific achievements, works of art, philosophical, literary… were undervalued and relegated or simply usurped by a man. There is also talk of those who, under pressure of “amorous dumping”, immolated — sometimes involuntarily and unconsciously — their scientific, artistic or literary life to the success of their husbands, all with the approval of society.
It also talks about the first Spanish plenipotentiary ambassador, or the first architect. Among others, we visit the Foundation for the Teaching of Women, the Lyceum Club Feminine, in the company of María Goyri, María Lejárraga, María Teresa León, Zenobia Camprubí, Marta Gil Roësset, Matilde Huici, Isabel de Palencia, Elena Fortún, Margarita Nelken or Carmen Baroja.
The third, dedicated to pioneers, heroines and some witch, by the Barrio de Universidad, focuses on the heroines of the Dos de Mayo, of the Thirteen Roses, of the first who could go to university without a special permit, of the first who could work there, of some who had to go into exile for denouncing a case that we would call today a “herd”.
Spaces such as the Plaza del Dos de Mayo, the first Modelo School in Madrid, the Gota de Leche, the old Central University, Women’s Prison… allow us to talk about Emilia Pardo Bazán, Carmen de Burgos, Clara Campoamor, Julia Conesa, Clara del Rey, Manuela Malasaña, Rosario de Acuña, Juana Capdevielle, the “Red Virgin”, Clara Stauffer or Rosa Chacel.