We are 10 million
Around March 8, the legacy of women who were pioneers or stood out in different fields is claimed. Women who leave oblivion for a few days, but who often do not have many other spaces where they are remembered.
The first female mayor of Catalonia
One of them is Natividad Yarza, the first woman elected mayor in a democratic election. It was in 1934, during the Second Republic, in Bellprat (Anoia). The late Antoni Dalmau and Isidre Surroca spent years retracing his story until building a complete biography available online that was published last year by the Josep Irla Foundation. But despite the research and some initiatives to remember her memory, the first female mayor of Catalonia remains a great unknown to the majority of the population.
Forgotten women in public space
One of the factors that explains the ignorance of many female references is their absence in the public space. Only 4% of the country’s streets have women’s names, and many of the proper feminine names of streets and squares are of saints and religious women.
The house of Natividad Yarza
Yarza herself serves us as an example. Only three municipalities dedicate a street to a figure who should be key to municipalism: Mont-ras, Viladecans and el Bruc, which was the first municipality to dedicate a street to him, in 2018.
Calle Natividad Yarza is austere, without sidewalks. At one end it has views of Montserrat and at the other it ends abruptly next to the A-2 motorway. It is close to the school and the monument to the timbaler del Bruc, a symbol of resistance.
The municipality inaugurated it with a cycle of activities to publicize the figure of Natividad Yarza with the help of different entities in the municipality, including the school’s AFA. She did it as mayor Bárbara Ortuño, who defends that “to normalize, first there must be someone who explains the person’s story; if not, it is very difficult to recognize”.
The importance of remembering
Now removed from politics, the ex-mayor of Bruc recognizes that “there is still a lot to be done in normalizing the presence of women in public positions” and remembers that when she spoke with other female mayors “in a small committee and with sincerity, all we agreed: many of the things we experienced would not happen to us if we were men”. Therefore, there are no reasons left to remember the pioneer of Catalan municipal politics.
Factors that contribute to forgetting
In the case of Yarza, other factors add to the oblivion imposed on the losers of the civil war. One of these is that she won the election as an ERC candidate. And this, having been mayor with a party that still exists today, has translated in practice into a fierce defense on the part of her own and quite apathy on the part of the rest.
And two more facts that seem to want to condemn Natividad Yarza to oblivion. The pages of her period as mayor are torn from the minutes book of Bellprat Town Hall. And in a previous reference, the transcriber makes a mistake and calls her Maria Pilar Ayarza.
conclusion
At least whoever passes through this small street in El Bruc will have an excuse to wonder who Natividad Yarza was.
