The example of the Dones Sàvies de Sant Cosme: gray hair, tenderness and sisterhood

  • A score of older neighbors in this hard-working neighborhood of El Prat de Llobregat They have been meeting weekly for more than a decade to take care of each other and take care of their neighborhood, something they have done informally for 50 years, when they saw him born

It takes them little to start singing. It is 11 in the morning of a rainy and cold tuesday in november, but this Sant Cosme women’s group They are the queens of ‘bad weather, good face’. Despite the heavy backpack that each one carries (none are less than 60 years old and not a few over 80), Tuesday mornings are for them and they try to enjoy them. It is your time to meet up, listen to each other and, above all things, take care of yourself. If one is looser for whatever reason, the rest try to tuck her in and make her laugh; in addition to accompanying them to the appointment with the nurse, taking food to each other at a bad time and “whatever it takes.” The Wise Women de Sant Cosme are, as they explain with pride, salt and emotion, a family.

This gray Tuesday there are 14 in the small municipal premises where they meet, in one of the lower blocks of the neighborhood popularly known as ‘the horses’ because of the graffiti on the shutters. Despite the unpleasantness of the morning, getting together does them good. Furthermore, they could not fail. It’s today to share ideas about possible new texts to interpret. One of the many activities they engage in is the theater.

Mothers very present

They sit in a circle and introduce themselves one by one with their two surnames, “so as not to forget the mother’s.” Adoration García Sacristán, Emilia Lafuente Hernández, Paquita Valle Gómez, Iluminada Aceituno Fernández, María Magán González, Adoration López Cosano, Graciella García Pinós, Adoration Villalba Guil, Ana Padilla García, Elena Muñiz Cherneco, María Garcinuño Fuentes, Nicolasa Herance Barbo, Conchita Chinchilla Martínez and María Godoy Díaz. Most have been associated with the Wise Women -they were established in 2009- and even more so sharing a neighborhood. “We have been neighbors for 50 years, and that unites”, he points out. Maria Godoy Diaz, who, at 84, in addition to being an active member of the military in sorority with the Wise Women, participate every week in a program in the radio of El Prat for 17 and gives classes in dressmaking.

She is not the only hyperactive member of the group. Maria Garcinuño Fuentes -whom her friends call ‘La Marquesa’- she also dances sevillanas, dancing in line and, for five years, has had a garden that “gives her life.” Or Nicolasa Herance Barbo, who also does gymnastics and crochet …

The fact that they have been neighbors for 50 years is not a way of speaking. They have been since the neighborhood was built in the 60s of the 20th century to relocate the people who lived in the neighborhoods of barracks in Barcelona, ​​in Montjuïc and Somorrostro. “If something happens to one of them, the other suffers, but we also share the joys,” the majority of women, mothers and grandmothers agree with laughter. them and between them.

The seed of Wise Women -group of neighbors of Sant Cosme from 60 years and until the body endures- was planted in 2009, when the City Council of El Prat de Llobregat summoned them to participate in the Council of Wise Women of St. Cosmas, a participatory project to discuss the needs of the neighborhoods where these women have raised their families and have been linked to the associative and neighborhood fabric, from the fight for decent housing in the 60s to the fight against drugs in the 80s.

I will never forget that old woman in Paris. Every time I see the Eiffel Tower on TV I think, ‘I’ve been there’

Adoration López Cosano, Wise Woman

After that first call, the group grew and consolidated, participating in different existing projects and generating its own initiatives and actions as a group, contributing its knowledge and experience.

From Paris to Belchite

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Shortly after birth, Wise Women they approached, or vice versa, Gats, a social entity that works for community development, which added the Gifts to its projects, such as the Festival of Soups of the World or the Festival Esperanzah! Together with Gats they have lived experiences that have marked them, such as that trip to Paris in 2013 that they organized as a gift to those women who lived at the foot of the airport but who had never boarded a plane. “I will never forget it. Every time I see the Eiffel Tower on TV I think I have been there,” she recalls excitedly. Adoration López Cosano. They were also marked by a trip to Belchite, in which they also participated with Gats in the project First Stone. “We took stones and sent them to personalities around the world, from Merkel to the Pope of Rome, to encourage them to build a more just world, without wars, “he says Ana Padilla García.

The covid was a severe blow to the Wise Women, because of their age and because they were used to a very active social life. “It opened a gap. And, despite the fact that they immediately lifted the restrictions a little, we met again in the street, there are consequences. Right now I see that we are back to being what we were. It is as if I saw them flourish again later. of the long winter of the pandemic “, concludes Ana Garcia Moreno, the technique of the City Council of El Prat that leads the group, about which they all speak with devotion. “Treats us like she’s our daughter“they agree as she gives them a grateful and tender look.

Reference-www.elperiodico.com

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