Plazuela Cigarerra Micaela de Castro, Cadiz.
History was never written in female. It was the man who stood on two feet, went hunting and fought in wars. They dominated power, they became kings of the tangible and the intangible, they invented weapons and money, they learned to write and told their story. Where was the woman during all those centuries? Where did all those men come from if it wasn't from the pain of a woman? In 1929, Virginia Woolf published her article Women and Fiction, where she raised the following question: what is more important, the woman who writes or what is written about women? And it is that not even the streets of the cities have been written with the name of a woman. Currently, only 7% of the roads have female names.
Seeing that at that time, being a widow, she raised her children, encouraged her companions not to let themselves be exploited and that being 63 years old, being taken away and killed makes me feel very honored
For a few days, the name of a woman who played a fundamental role in the trade union struggle during the first decades of the 19th century has been added to the street map of the Cadiz capital. Many will not know who Micaela de Castro was or why she deserves such recognition. She was born in Cádiz in 1873 and, together with her sister Ángela de Ella, worked at the Tobacco Factory where both developed an enormous union and associative action. " This activity began in 1918 when some 200 workers met, on June 16, at the Center of Workers' Societies, to found the Society of Cigarettes. The work of the Castro sisters was valued by their companions in the election of the Board of Directors, naming Ángela president and Micaela vice president. From that moment on, the cigar companies fought to achieve labor improvements and recognition of their society by the company", as historian Rubén Benítez relates.
In 1918 these workers declared a sit-down strike in support of some fired colleagues in Coruña. The following year, Micaela travelled to Madrid to try to solve company conflicts. Upon her return, she offered a meeting for her companions at the Comic Theatre where she came to express the following words: "Comrades: you all know that I have three little ones and I only count on the product of my work. However, I will be in my position, and if I lack bread for my little ones, I will go looking for a ranch in the barracks, I will ask from door to door to feed them, before going back to work to be mocked and stripped of my rights.
According to Benítez, "during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, the cigarette companies took the opportunity to demand economic and social improvements for the working class", but after not achieving what was expected, Micaela disappeared from secretary life until the proclamation of the Second Republic. She and she does it by being close to the communist edge, in an act where she "took the opportunity to request that women's suffrage, approved by the Constitution, come into force immediately." The woman finally voted in 1933, the year in which Micaela de Castro appeared on the list of the Single Revolutionary Front. "In this way, Micaela became the only woman candidate for Congress. Her work in defense of workers throughout her life served the coup plotters so that a 63-year-old woman was imprisoned in the Cadiz Prison on 4 September 1936, and the following day taken to the Puerto de Santa María prison. However, there is no record of his entry into the Puerto de Santa María prison". De Castro disappeared on the way, so it is very likely that the fascists killed her. Today her remains are unaccounted for.
Text courtesy and translated from andaluciainformacion.es/cadiz
Plazuela Cigarerra Micaela de Castro, Cadiz.
History was never written in female. It was the man who stood on two feet, went hunting and fought in wars. They dominated power, they became kings of the tangible and the intangible, they invented weapons and money, they learned to write and told their story. Where was the woman during all those centuries? Where did all those men come from if it wasn't from the pain of a woman? In 1929, Virginia Woolf published her article Women and Fiction, where she raised the following question: what is more important, the woman who writes or what is written about women? And it is that not even the streets of the cities have been written with the name of a woman. Currently, only 7% of the roads have female names.
Seeing that at that time, being a widow, she raised her children, encouraged her companions not to let themselves be exploited and that being 63 years old, being taken away and killed makes me feel very honored
For a few days, the name of a woman who played a fundamental role in the trade union struggle during the first decades of the 19th century has been added to the street map of the Cadiz capital. Many will not know who Micaela de Castro was or why she deserves such recognition. She was born in Cádiz in 1873 and, together with her sister Ángela de Ella, worked at the Tobacco Factory where both developed an enormous union and associative action. " This activity began in 1918 when some 200 workers met, on June 16, at the Center of Workers' Societies, to found the Society of Cigarettes. The work of the Castro sisters was valued by their companions in the election of the Board of Directors, naming Ángela president and Micaela vice president. From that moment on, the cigar companies fought to achieve labor improvements and recognition of their society by the company", as historian Rubén Benítez relates.
In 1918 these workers declared a sit-down strike in support of some fired colleagues in Coruña. The following year, Micaela travelled to Madrid to try to solve company conflicts. Upon her return, she offered a meeting for her companions at the Comic Theatre where she came to express the following words: "Comrades: you all know that I have three little ones and I only count on the product of my work. However, I will be in my position, and if I lack bread for my little ones, I will go looking for a ranch in the barracks, I will ask from door to door to feed them, before going back to work to be mocked and stripped of my rights.
According to Benítez, "during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, the cigarette companies took the opportunity to demand economic and social improvements for the working class", but after not achieving what was expected, Micaela disappeared from secretary life until the proclamation of the Second Republic. She and she does it by being close to the communist edge, in an act where she "took the opportunity to request that women's suffrage, approved by the Constitution, come into force immediately." The woman finally voted in 1933, the year in which Micaela de Castro appeared on the list of the Single Revolutionary Front. "In this way, Micaela became the only woman candidate for Congress. Her work in defense of workers throughout her life served the coup plotters so that a 63-year-old woman was imprisoned in the Cadiz Prison on 4 September 1936, and the following day taken to the Puerto de Santa María prison. However, there is no record of his entry into the Puerto de Santa María prison". De Castro disappeared on the way, so it is very likely that the fascists killed her. Today her remains are unaccounted for.
Text courtesy and translated from andaluciainformacion.es/cadiz