Las Águedas

Yesterday, February 5, was a festival typical of Salamanca that is La Fiesta de las Águedas. Without going too much into the history of the festival, I think that mostly what you need to know was that Águeda was a female Christian martyr and so the day of her feast is about women. I learned about this festival in my Spanish culture class during the month of January and Rufi told us about it when the date approached. When I learned about the festival, I realized that we do not really have a day like this in the United States, other than Mother's Day, but that mostly focuses on women who have children, but this day in the States does not even compare to the festival in Spain. On this day, women have power in the city of Salamanca (or whatever city they may find themselves in). As I understood it at the time, if a woman approached you and asked you to do anything (typically for some money), you were to comply. If you did not, your reputation was stained. Rufi told us that in the villages and towns surrounding Salamanca, such as the one in which she grew up, if a man did not give the woman what she asked for on this day, he lost his pants. And not just his pants, she told us, but he was required to strip to bare butt. The mental scene that was produced in my head as I listened to this story was a comical one, but when the day actually came I had a different reaction.

As I walked around the city, every woman I saw I viewed as a potential threat or a potential person who would ask me for money. I tried not to make eye contact with women and tried to just fly under the radar the entire day because I did not want to give them money nor did I want to lose my pants if I declined them money. I am not exaggerating when I say every woman, because as I walked I was not sure when a woman would approach me and demand that I do something.

Women (and a few men) during the festival of Águedas.

By the end of the day, I had managed to escape without being bothered by a woman, but I got to thinking about my way of thinking and my attitude toward the world. First, it must be remembered that the gender roles on this day are flipped, with women being in charge (one of them actually was bestowed the [albeit symbolic] power of the governor for the day) and men typically at their mercy. The way I thought and behaved yesterday seems to me to be the way that women behaved for a long period of time in history and how some cultures (including our own) treat women today. Really thinking about it, I think it makes sense. Women were supposed to be submissive, not speaking up, and were to do as the man said. They were second-class citizens and I would assume that if they were to be walking around the streets of the city, that they would be left completely to the mercy of any passing man and they could not protest whatsoever. I am completely hypothesizing this situation, but I do not think that a woman on the street being a man's property is completely unfounded or outrageous. I think it is actually quite truthful or representative of the situation that women faced for many years. 

For this reason, I gained a new appreciate for women yesterday. I realized the struggle that they faced for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years and that many still face to this day. I could not imagine living each day as I did yesterday, but many women do. I commend women everywhere for being brave, holding their head up high, and walking with the world and all of their dignity. It amazes me that women are able, despite all odds, to finally speak up for their bodies, their livelihood, their being. It would take a lot of courage, that is for sure. 

Women, thank you for being so great, for bearing with men's stupidity and violence, and also thank you for saying something, for speaking up, for telling us that what is happening is not right. For those women that are still living in these conditions, please have courage. Please talk about your situation and about how you are being maltreated. You are not second-class citizens. You are individual human beings with the same rights as every other human being. Nobody should treat you otherwise. Fight, women, fight.