The players who paved the way for women's football in Dénia in the 70s, with a World Cup achieved 5 decades after their feat

Behind a great woman... there are many, many, many great women. The motto of the campaign of the International Women's Day in Dénia, Xara and Jesús Pobre chosen this year by the Department of Equality of the Dénia City Council perfectly reflects the history of the women that the Dénia Women's Council has chosen this year to pay homage on the occasion of the anniversary.

Dénia's first women's soccer team

On March 12, at 12:00, the act of recognition of the women who were part of the first women's soccer team in Dénia will be held at the Social Center, "facing the criticism and gender prejudices of the time and contributing thus to democratize sport in the city and to create a more just and egalitarian society”, in the words of the Councilor for Equality, Javier Scotto.

The team, formed in the 1970-1971 season, represents the starting point of a path that has advanced to a standardized practice of football by women and the creation of base teams in Dénia. An evolution that five decades later has experienced the greatest football achievement ever led by an athlete in Dénia, Fiamma Benítez, winner of the under-20 world championship and the under-19 European championship with the women's national team.

«Fiamma was a member of the Dénia Base Soccer School and has developed a successful sports career in large women's soccer teams in the Valencian Community. She is a benchmark for a long path of normalization for women who play football, started by that team created in Dénia in 1971. A path towards equality in which progress has been made, but which still presents obstacles that we must knock down. between all of us, aware that sport is a very important tool for social transformation”, adds Scotto. For this reason, the young Dianense will also be honored at the ceremony on the 12th, along with the pioneers who made up that first women's soccer team.

This is one of the central acts of a program that runs through the months of February and March and that claims equality from various manifestations: talks, exhibitions, movies, music, monologues and conferences, to name a few.

Talks and an exhibition on feminist art

In chronological order, the program begins with the series of conferences entitled Masculinities. Equality. Building care spaces from masculinities which will be given by the sociologist and sexologist specialist in gender, equality, masculinities and prevention of sexist violence Erick Pescador Albiach. Five sessions have been programmed, each one addressed to a social and festive group in the city: the Federation of Moors and Christians, Fallas, the student body of the secondary institutes and Creama.

On February 24, Friday, at 19:00 p.m., it opens at the Center d'Art L'Estacio an exhibition on the vanguard of feminist art in Valencia, with works by Ángela Garcia Codoñer, Isabel Oliver and Maribel Domènech and curated by María Victoria Margarida. The sample can be visited until March 29 and two guided tours are scheduled for March 9 (11:00) and March 22 (19:00).

Collaboration of UNED and Matria

The associated center UNED Dénia contributes to the program with an exhibition and a conservatory on the subject SDGs and women and two conferences. The first, on March 9, will be given by Elisa Guillem de la Cruz, a professor at the Dénia associated center, and will address the world of the Alcoyan proletarians: from the cardadoras to the bambuneras (popular name given to the group of working women in the alcoyana paper industry). The other talk is scheduled for March 23 and will deal with women in the consumer society, led by the marketing and communication technician Marina Mas Guillem.

The Matria women's association is in charge of organizing the screening with subsequent discussion of the film the maternal (2022), directed by Pilar Palomero, on Sunday, March 5 at 19:00 p.m. at the Social Center and the feminist network convened for March 8, at 19:00 p.m., at the Calle Marques de Campo.

Institutional act and street show

This date commemorates the International Women's Day and the Dénia City Council has organized an institutional act at 12:00 in the Plaza del Consell in which the manifesto agreed by the Council of Women of the city will be read. The act will be completed with the show I will migrate, from the Maduixa company, which last year won the award for best street show at the Valencian Performing Arts Awards.

monologues and recitals

The monologues also have a place in this programming. On March 3, Silvia Pérez Martínez, a sexologist, will offer one titled Appointment with your sexologist, addressed to the Dénia Housewives Association. On the 4th, at 19:00 p.m., at the Social Center, Pepa Cases will offer the public the monologue hyperactive soc , a feminist text where the protagonist will not only make you laugh but also reflect on those little everyday and macho things "that make us all be somewhat hyperactive." And on March 10, at 19:30 p.m., the comedian Chely Capitán will interpret the monologue for adults Strawberry gin and tonic in the municipal library.

On March 7, the Dianense guitarist Hugo Moltó will offer a classical guitar recital around the guitarist composers and that the interpreter has titled silenced notes. It will be at 19:00 p.m. at the La Estación Art Center. On March 10, at 20:00 p.m., at the Social Center, there is another appointment with music with a piano recital by Silvia Gómez-Maestro, professor at the Superior Conservatory of Music of Alicante.

children audience

And for the smallest public, the Laboratory of Women Writers, a tour to disseminate and give voice to the women writers who have made history and also the current ones, by the hand of the company Va de Cuentos. The activity will be on March 3 at the Enric Valor de Jesús Pobre reading agency and on the 8th, at the Dénia Public Library. Both afternoons, at 17:30 p.m.

All events aimed at the general public organized by the Denia City Council are free to enter until full capacity is reached.

Diagnosis of the Equality Plan

Finally, the Department of Equality has chosen these weeks of activities around Women's Day to schedule, on March 20, in the Public Library, at 19:00 p.m., the presentation of the diagnosis of the IV Equality Plan between women and men from Dénia, Xara and Jesús Pobre.