It was just one word that made all the difference. Last November, in the proclamation in which the mayoress of Almassora (Castellón) announced the opening of the registration period to be part of the Court of Honor of 2023, the “all young people in the town are informed” were changed to the “The entire population is informed.”
And with this, the representativeness of the patron saint festivities was opened to women and… to men, so that this year its May and October festivities will have two women and two men at Court, in addition to the Queen.
They explain in the Almassora City Council that the news has been received very normally among the residents – “people have written to us saying that ‘it was about time’, ‘finally equality’, or addressing them with ‘you will do very well ‘” – although it is possible that they will find some more conservative reaction in the street, when the parades and parades begin.
The trend is becoming more widespread and this has also been understood in Peñíscola, which for the second year will have “cavallers” at its festivities accompanying the Queen as part of her court of honor. The proposal arose in 2019 from the socialist municipal group and ended in a popular consultation that voted against the entry of men.
Subsequently, it was questioned by the Ombudsman and finally the local government decided to adopt the measure, since the participation in the slope was not a majority (400 out of a register of more than 8,000 people). Sources from the Peñíscola City Council explain that the municipal corporation (governed by the PP) accepted the proposal because “it understood that it was necessary to take a step forward and also to avoid further political debate.”
This year they will once again have “cavaller”, a member of the A.C.D. Peñíscola and it is easy for there to be a debate again because the socialist group is considering requesting that men can also be kings of the party, a position that despite the change with the Court of Honor, had been reserved only for women .
The melon had already been opened before in other towns such as Vinaròs, where the 2019 Sant Joan i Sant Pere festivities were inclusive of their representative positions, as there were male representatives in the adult court and also in the children’s court.
With this scenario, this year the current reached València, capital and house of the Fallas and where the figure of the Fallera Mayor is highly institutionalized. However, there has already been a failure in Valencia, as this medium has already reported, which has given way to men also occupying the position of Fallero Mayor, as has been the case with Borrull-Socors.
Now Compromís in Valencia picks up the idea and expands it, focusing on the children’s commission. His proposal was launched this Tuesday by councilor Pere Fuset, pointing out the idea of ??”equating” the representation of the main celebrations of the Valencian capital “to boys and girls.”
“It is good that the debate on a mixed children’s court is opened,” the councilor said yesterday, while pointing out that this is “an already manifest social demand” that is reflected in what “many parents” point out, or in what expressed in the recently created Assembly of Falla Children’s Presidents and in the relevance that commissions give both to these representatives and to the older falleras.
It is true that in practice the child president of a commission enjoys almost the same privileges as a child fallera major, and receives the same tributes. But making the leap to include children in the Court of Honor can be a long-running debate at the Fallas festival.
Nuria Llopis, PSPV candidate for the Department of Festive Culture, is committed to maintaining the representation of women in these positions, and that only they can represent the party.
Its head of ranks, the vice mayor Sandra Gómez, had already explained on some occasion that “the figure of the Fallera Mayor is a terrain that women have conquered”, after the appointment of the Fallero Mayor of Borrull-Socors. For their part, PP sources rule out taking a position on the issue, but defend that “the Fallas will be what the falleros want.”
