Empar Pineda

Empar Pineda i Erdozia (born 1944) is a Spanish feminist activist, winner of the Creu de Sant Jordi in 2008.

Empar Pineda
Pineda in 2010
Born
Empar Pineda i Erdozia

1944 (age 76–77)
Hernani, Euskadi, Spain
Alma materUniversity of Oviedo
OccupationActivist
AwardsCreu de Sant Jordi (2008)

Biography

Childhood in the Basque Country

Empar Pineda was born in Hernani, Gipuzkoa in 1944,[1] and spent her childhood at the family farmhouse with her six siblings. She was very close to her grandfather, a person who was very knowledgeable about plants and ointments – he was called a curandero – and politically aware.

I have always had a very rebellious spirit. I do not know if I inherited it from my grandfather from the hamlet. He was called El Patas, and in '36 he raised all the votes for the Socialist Party in the Urumea valley. He was also my godfather, and with him I went from farmhouse to farmhouse, accompanying him because he was a curandero. I do not know if the courage of that spirit of his came to me, but since I was a child I have always been very rebellious. When I saw that some injustice was done, I rebelled.[2]

She was enrolled in a German nun's school, where she was required to learn English. In 1964 she completed her baccalaureate. As there was no public university in the Basque Country, she moved to Madrid, where her sister lived.

First years of anti-Francoist activism

In 1964, after finishing the higher baccalaureate, Pineda moved to Madrid to continue her studies. She participated in the anti-Francoist student movement and was banned from enrolling at the Universities of Madrid and Barcelona. She ended up enrolling at the University of Salamanca in 1964, and a little later at the University of Oviedo, where she graduated in Romance philology.[3]

She returned to Madrid, where she began teaching Language and Literature at a branch of the Employee's Home while continuing her membership in left-wing organizations, including one called "Lenin", the Federation of Communists, and finally the Communist Movement.[4]

An anti-Francoist militant, she was arrested by the authorities and spent some time in Martutene Prison.[1] In the 1970s, during the transition to democracy, she moved to Barcelona. There she was the leader of the Communist Movement of Catalonia (MCC),[5] which she represented in the Assembly of Catalonia.

In the 1977 election she was a candidate for the Province of Barcelona for Popular Unity for Socialism Candidacy,[6] and was the head of the MCC-OEC list in the 1979 Barcelona mayoral election.[7]

Feminist-lesbian struggle

In interviews Empar Pineda has said she discovered feminism with her colleagues from the Communist Movement of Catalonia.[3] In addition, the United Nations proclaimed 1975 the International Women's Year. The first meetings of the Association of Friends of UNESCO were held, bringing together feminist activists who in May 1976 formed the Feminist Coordinator of Barcelona and organized the First Days of the Catalan Woman[1] under the association's umbrella.[8] They gathered 1,000 women at the Autonomous University of Barcelona to reflect on feminism and women's rights.

In 1977 she witnessed progress in LGBT rights and freedoms, presiding over the banner of the first Gay Pride Day in Madrid.[9]

In 1980 she was co-founder of the Lesbian Feminist Collective of Madrid and participated in the creation of the Right to Abortion Commission, following the irruption of the Civil Guard at Los Naranjos de Sevilla planning center and the detention of its health personnel. She participated in the campaign "Yo también he abortado" (I have also aborted).[10]

Later Pineda was co-founder of the Commission for the Right to Abortion in Madrid, spokesperson for the network Otras voces feministas (Other Feminist Voices), and director of the collection Hablan las mujeres (Women Speak) and magazines Nosotras que nos queremos tanto (We Who Love Each Other So Much) and Desde nuestra acera (From Our Sidewalk).

In 1993 she began working at the Isadora Clinic in Madrid, to which she has remained linked as a consultant since her retirement.[11]

In 2008 she received the Creu de Sant Jordi for "her dedication sustained for so many years in defense of women's rights, from the action – as an active member of various organizations – and reflection – as a co-author of several volumes, including 'El feminismo que existe'."[5]

In 2011, Empar Pineda and another LGBT leader, Jordi Petit, announced that they would not continue carrying the Creu de Sant Jordi as a protest against the "insensitivity" of the Generalitat in not awarding it to "any person linked to the fight against HIV/AIDS, on the 30th anniversary of the pandemic", despite the fact that, they claimed, many entities had requested it. It was also in protest of the honor being awarded to Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida, who had made "discriminatory, anti-homosexual, and transphobic statements".[12]

As of 2018, she is an active part of the Hetaira Collective.[13]

There is an immense task to be done against sexist violence, against the wage gap, against the minimal participation of men in domestic tasks, against the castrating work of the Church. [...] As much as they repress me, they will not make me lose pride in being the way I am and the defense of those who are like me.[4]

Controversies

In June 2008, together with Judge María Sanahuja, Pineda stood against the Organic Law Against Gender Violence for punishing violence by men towards women with greater penalties, pointing out that "there are abused men."[14]

Awards

References
  1. Manjarrés, Juan F. (15 June 2012). "Empar Pineda será reconocida mañana como Hernaniar Bikaina" [Empar Pineda to be Recognized as Excellent Hernani Native Tomorrow]. El Diario Vasco (in Spanish). Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  2. Muga, Aitziber (7 February 2012). "Entrevista a Empar Pineda" [Interview with Empar Pineda] (in Spanish). Batzarre. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  3. Hernández, Carmen Briz (May–June 2013). "Pidiendo el cielo" [Asking the Sky]. Pensamiento Crítico (in Spanish). Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  4. Barbarroja, Cristina S. (6 October 2015). "Empar Pineda, 'lesbiana porque sí'" [Empar Pineda, 'Lesbian, Yes']. Público (in Spanish). Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  5. "Creus de Sant Jordi 2008" (in Catalan). Generalitat de Catalunya. Archived from the original on 25 August 2018. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  6. Carreras i Martí, Joan; Aramon i Serra, R.; Janeras i Vilaró, Sebastià (1983). Gran enciclopèdia catalana, Volume 16 (in Catalan). Enciclopèdia Catalana. p. 568. ISBN 9788485194377. Retrieved 4 June 2019 – via Google Books.
  7. "Tu voto para la izquierda que lucha contra la derecha: MCC-OEC" [Your Vote for the Left that Fights the Right: MCC-OEC]. University of Barcelona. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  8. Amiguet, Teresa (27 May 2011). "I Jornades de la Dona Catalana" [1st Days of the Catalan Woman]. La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  9. Lorente, Celia (27 June 2014). "A ellas les cuesta salir del armario" [They Have a Hard Time Coming Out of the Closet]. Tiempo (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 18 August 2016. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  10. García Muriana, Carmen (March 2014). Esther Ferrer: La (re)acción como leitmotiv (PDF) (Thesis) (in Spanish). Miguel Hernández University of Elche. p. 245. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  11. Rivas Martínez, Laura (23 January 2014). "Mujeres y médicos piden 'asilo sanitario' a Francia por la reforma del aborto" [Women and Doctors Call for 'Sanitary Asylum' to France for Abortion Reform]. El País (in Spanish). Madrid. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  12. "El colectivo gay protesta por la concesión de la Creu de Sant Jordi a Duran i Lleida" [The Gay Community Protests the Concession of the Creu de Sant Jordi to Duran i Lleida]. El Mundo (in Spanish). Barcelona. EFE. 16 April 2011. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  13. Carvajal, Álvaro (27 September 2018). "Pablo Iglesias sujetará al Gobierno de Sánchez pese al 'caso Delgado'". El Mundo (in Spanish). Madrid. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
  14. Morán Breña, Carmen (12 June 2008). "La violencia de otro género también duele" [Violence By the Other Gender Also Hurts]. El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 4 June 2019.
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