PODCAST TRANSCIPT

Manuel: Hello, I’m Manuel

Aroa: And I’m Aroa

Manuel: and this is our podcast Our city’s hidden women.

Aroa: What are we going to talk about today, …?

Manuel: It’s better to ask: who are we going to talk about today?

Aroa: So we are going to talk about a person

Manuel: Of course! Today we are going to talk about Concepción Arenal, she was one of the pioneers of Spanish feminism

Aroa: I know her, do you know what she did?

Manuel: Yes, but first, we are going to explain who she was

Aroa: Before starting, I've got a question for you. Let me see how much you know about her.

Manuel: Go ahead!

Aroa: She had a lot of names, how many names do you think she had?

a) five

b) three

c) eight

Manuel: That’s a difficult question, but i’ll say b) three are a lot of names

Aroa: Well, you’re wrong, but you were close, the right answer is a) five. They are a lot of names, aren’t they?

Manuel: Yes, I had never imagined someone with that many names

Aroa: me neither, but that’s right, her entire name was Maria de la Concepción, Jesusa, Luisa, Petra, Vicenta, Arenal Ponte

Manuel: Yes, it is, now we are going to talk about her. She was a writer, journalist and activist

Aroa: She was the first woman to work as a prison officer in a prison for women, and she was the first woman who was awarded by the Real Academia de Ciencias Morales y Políticas.

Manuel: Yes, she was also responsible for starting the Red Cross in Spain and she defended women's rights

Aroa: She did a lot of things, I have a question, where was she born?

Manuel: She was born in Ferrol, the 31st of January, in 1820

Aroa: But she lived in Pontevedra, didn’t she?

Manuel: Well, she lived in Pontevedra, but she also lived in Santander, Madrid, Vigo and Cantabria too

Aroa: That’s incredible, so, she moved five times in her life

Manuel: Yes, when she was 9 years old, her father got in jail, and then, he died, so she moved with her mother and her two sisters to Cantabria. There, they stayed at her grandmother’s house.

Aroa: This house had a huge library where Concepción spent most of her time. She loved reading and it helped her become a very intelligent person. Thanks to this, she was self-taught.

Manuel: Five years later, in 1834, she moved to Madrid and there, she studied in a feminine school, then, she studied law, but she never got a degree because it was forbidden for women.

Aroa: So she had to do it dressing up like a man because women couldn’t study there, and she wasn’t allowed to communicate with other students.

Manuel: No one noticed that she was a woman?

Aroa: Yes, they did, but she did a very good exam so they let her continue studying

Manuel: Then, in 1857, her husband died and she had to move to Cantabria with her two sons, Fernando and Ramón

Aroa: But, when did she live in Pontevedra?

Manuel: She lived there a few months in 1889, at the number 27 in rúa da Oliva. In fact, nowadays, there is a sign in that street which says that she lived there. The rúa da Oliva is as revolutionary as Concepción was, because when it was open, everybody in the city could walk together, regardless of their social status, condition or class, and contrary to the Alameda, where people from different classes were separated by the trees.

Aroa: That’s true, when she lived in that house, she wrote plays like El visitador del preso. Many of her books were translated into different languages, so she was well-known internationally. So she died in pontevedra, didn’t she?

Manuel: No because she moved again to vigo, she was old and she died there de 4th february 1893

Aroa: Now, we are going to talk what did she do for feminism and women rights. Well, she did a lot of things, she was one of the pioneers of feminism in spain, she wrote plays like La mujer del porvenir, her first play in 1869, it criticises theories that defend women inferiority based on biological reasons

Manuel: She defended women’s right to go to school

Aroa: In 1891, the essay El trabajo de las mujeres talks about the bad preparation for women for going to school compared to men’s preparation. She did many other things.

Manuel: I see, she was incredible. Do you know one of her most famous quotes?

Aroa: No, which was it?

Manuel: She said: Open schools in order to close jails

Aroa: Wow! She was incredible.

Manuel: Of course she was.

Aroa: This was all for today!

Manuel: Remember joining us again soon!

Aroa: We hope you liked it!

Manuel: Goodbye!