On January 28, 1987, the first lines of the minute book of the Bellavista Women’s Cultural Association were written. The very neat handwriting that recorded the issues discussed was that of Áurea Chacón, secretary and promoter of the association. “Women did not have any kind of place to do what they wanted and then with the association everything changed. We had frenetic activity,” she says proudly, despite the fact that “many did not see it as essential for women to be interrelated.” They organized workshops on clothing, theater, photography or talks on sexual health. At its peak there were 2,000 members; Now, they don’t reach three hundred. Its president, Trinidad Camacho, is 66 years old and joined as a gym teacher when she was only 23. Already retired, she is one of those who maintains the hope of reliving those times. She is in charge of collecting the fees, two euros a month, like Chacón did before. In the beginning, many paid behind their husbands’ backs. “Our party has always been women and their development,” proudly says this historic neighborhood activist, who was in charge of teaching reading and writing to other women who came to her aid. “I accompanied them to the bank or to sign papers, because they were illiterate, but they worked and in abusive conditions,” he laments.
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