#Elisa y Marcela

[seals-are-cool]

Some of my favourite wlw films!!!

🌼//All images from Pinterest//🌼

[celine-song]

Elisa y Marcela (2019) dir. Isabel Coixet

[hard--headed--woman]

Sorry for the very late post! I had to change my plans, because I wanted to talk about someone else but changed my mind for some reasons ; so I had to find another story and rewrite everything.

This time, the post isn’t going to be about one woman, but two. Last year, I had already made a post about these two women, but I couldn't just not talk about them this month given how amazing their story is.

Here is the story of :

Elisa and Marcela !

Marcela Gracia Ibeas and Elisa Sánchez Loriga got married on June 8, 1901, in A Coruña, at Galicia, in Spain. Their marriage was the first homosexual marriage in Spain since the Roman imperial era and happened more than 100 years before the country legalized homosexual marriages !

To achieve this, Elisa disguised herself as a man, and adopted a male identity, Mario Sánchez, which is the name on their marriage certificate. Their lie was later discovered, but their marriage was never annulled, and they remained married for the rest of their lives.

There is a Netflix movie about them if you want to see it. Though it has it flaws, I personally enjoyed it a lot, and from what I know, it is not too bad historically speaking. There's just one thing that happens in the movie that we are far from sure happened in real life. (I personally do not believe it did) Here's the trailer if you are interested! It's a very good movie in my opinion!

(But if you plan to watch it, maybe you shouldn't read the rest of the post as it's gonna spoil you everything lol)

The two young women met at the teacher training college in La Coruña. Marcela, 18, is a student there, while Elisa, 23, works there after completing the same course. They become friends, then lovers. Marcela's parents, fearing a scandal, send their daughter to study in Madrid, but this is not enough to put an end to their romance. Marcela is appointed teacher in Vimianzo, in the village of Calo, while Elisa, not far from there, works as a temporary replacement in Couso. They decided to live together in Calo until 1889, when Marcela left to teach in Dumbría, while Elisa remained in Calo. They kept in touch, writing to each other, until Elisa joined Marcela.

They live their love for years, hiding their relationship, until they get fed up and decide to hatch a plan to get married.

In 1901, Elisa adopted a masculine appearance. She created a past for herself based on a cousin who died in a shipwreck, and claimed to have spent her childhood in London with an atheist father. She was baptized as Mario on May 26, 1901, and made her First Communion under the same identity.

The couple married on June 8, 1901. A brief wedding ceremony was performed before witnesses, and the couple spent their wedding night in the Corcubión inn on Calle de San Andrés - Elisa and Marcela were officially the first Spanish homosexual couple to marry. Their plan was a success.

Unfortunately, the villagers began to have doubts and realized that this marriage was what they called "a marriage without a man".

The Galician and Madrid press reported the affair, and the two women lost their jobs, were excommunicated and placed under arrest.

Here's a picture of them after their arrest :

Despite this, and attempts by the Guardia Civil to prosecute them, their marriage was never annulled, and the two lovers managed to run away. Their story became famous in Spain and many other European countries.

(Un matrimonio sin hombre = a marriage without a man)

After that, we don't know what happened to them. The last thing we know fore sure about them is that they embarked on a ship bound for South America - perhaps Argentina, like so many other Spaniards of the time, where they spent their honeymoon and settled.

A book published in 2008 tries to tell their story after they left Spain for Argentina, but this books seems suspicious to a lot of people, including me, and I don't trust it so I am not going to talk about it but finding informations about it is easy if you are interested !

Anyway, this story is just incredible!!! It is so so important in lesbian history (though we do not really know if they were lesbian or bisexual. Elisa was probably a lesbian, but the book, based on some rumours, claimed that Marcela slept with a man in order to have a child, so she might have been bi if it is true) and so, so interesting. I can't believe it's not like 100× more famous. The fact that two women got married in 1901!!! Whith one of them dressed as a guy! I love it.

[lovedpoetical-ly]

movie that looks like poetry / show about poetry

[killerwhalebr]

Elisa and marcela irl vs in movie

[zozomaggie]

Elisa y Marcela

[wlwmoviebracket]

round 2 (10/64)

[cami-stuffs]

Have a great Wednesday, people! 🤤

[eufoniasdelarteemm]

“Hasta donde mi memoria alcanza, tuve una infancia feliz. Pero crecí y entonces empezaron las preguntas. Y con las preguntas, el dolor. ¿Quién soy? ¿De dónde vengo? ¿Cuál es mi historia? ¿Quiénes eran esas mujeres cuyos nombres se pronunciaban siempre en voz baja cuando creían que no escuchaban? ¿Quiénes eran? ¿Quiénes eran?”.

[genderfluid-and-confuzled]

women will literally choose to leave their umbrellas at home so their crush can dry them off

[hauntedbythenarrative]

Constanze Saemann and Charlotte Foubert photographed by Ryan Brabazon//Photographed by Roberto Rubalcava//Elisa y Marcela (2019)

[starsstillshine]

elisa y marcela was like plot no dialogue, arty soft core fucking for half an hour, gay scheming, sad butch angst, immeasurable grief, bittersweet elder lesbians

[hard--headed--woman]

3rd day of Pride Month - 2nd LGB history 🏳️‍🌈

Today is the second day of my "post about one lgb icon/story everyday" thing for Pride Month, and I am gonna talk about the first lesbian wedding in Spain !

It's a quite famous story, but I wanted to talk about it anyway.

Here's the story of Elisa and Marcela !

Marcela Gracia Ibeas and Elisa Sánchez Loriga got married on June 8, 1901, in A Coruña, at Galicia, in Spain. Their marriage was the first homosexual marriage in Spain since the Roman imperial era (though some documents were found, proving that two men got married in Spain in 1061, I'll talk about it in another post !) and happened more than 100 years before the country legalized homosexual marriages !

To achieve this, Elisa disguised herself as a man, and adopted a male identity, Mario Sánchez, which is the name on their marriage certificate. Their lie was later discovered, but their marriage was never annulled, and they remained married for the rest of their lives.

Here's a picture of them after their wedding :

There is a very good movie on Netflix, called Elisa y Marcela, that tells their story. I watched it and liked it a lot, though there are some little criticisms to be made, and if you're interested, you should watch it too! I really enjoyed it and will probably watch it a lot of other times.

Note that there are some differences between the movie and the real story, and if you watch if, I think you should also read their true story, like reading their Wikipedia page. But the biggest part of the movie (except 1-2 details and the end) is pretty accurate, so if you want to watch it and to discover their whole story like that, don't read the end of this post ! I'll tell their story in details here. Keep reading only if you don't want to watch the movie/don't care about already knowing the entire story before watching it.

▪︎

The two young women meet at the Teacher Training College in A Coruña, where future primary school teachers are trained. Eighteen-year-old Marcela is studying there, while twenty-three-year-old Elisa is working there after completing the same course. They become friends, and then lovers. Marcela's parents, fearing scandal, send their daughter to continue her studies in Madrid, but it's not enough to end their love story. Marcela is appointed teacher in Vimianzo, in the village of Calo, while nearby Elisa works as a temporary replacement in Couso, a small parish in Coristanco in the province of A Coruña. They decide to live together in Calo, until 1889, the year in which Marcela leaves to teach in Dumbría while Elisa stays in Calo. The two keep in touch, writing to each other, until Elisa joins Marcela.

They live their love for years, hiding their relationship, until they have had enough, and decide to hatch a plan to get married.

In 1901, Elisa adoptes a masculine appearance and applies to the College of Education under the name of Mario. She creates a past for herself based on a cousin who died in a shipwreck, claims to have spent her childhood in London with an atheist father. She gets baptized as Mario on May 26, 1901 and gets her First Communion under the same idendity.

The couple gets married on June 8, 1901, after publication of the banns. A short wedding ceremony is performed before witnesses, and the couple spends their wedding night in the Corcubión guesthouse on Calle de San Andrés - Elisa and Marcela are officially the first spanish homosexual couple to get married since the Roman imperial era, their plan was a success.

Unfortunately, the villagers begin to have doubts, and realize that this marriage is what they call "a marriage without a man".

The Galician and Madrid press reports the case, the two women lose their jobs, are excommunicated and placed under arrest.

Here's a picture of them after their arrest :

Elisa tries to pass herself off as intersex (using the term hermaphrodite at the time) when a doctor checks whether she's male or female, to no avail. Despite this, and the Civil Guard's attempts to prosecute them, their marriage was never annulled, and the two lovers manages to escape. Their story becomes famous in Spain and many other European countries.

(Un matrimonio sin hombre = a marriage without a man)

After that, we don't know what happened to them. The last thing we know fore sure about them is that they embarked on a ship bound for South America - perhaps Argentina, like so many other Spaniards of the time, where they spent their honeymoon and settled.

But in 2008, a book, Elisa e Marcela – Alén dos homes (Elisa and Marcela – Beyond men), by Narciso de Gabriel, was published in A Coruña, and tells their story from 1901 to 1904. It narrates the events in Porto, Portugal, where they were imprisoned, tried, and later released. They fled to Argentina after the Spanish government demanded their extradition from Portugal. The book tells that before leaving Porto for the Americas, Marcela gave birth to a girl - I couldn't find any other information about that. It also tells that after they landed in Buenos Aires, Elisa (under the alias of Maria) married Christian Jensen, a wealthy immigrant from Denmark 24 years her senior, in 1903 and that Marcela, under the alias of Carmen, pretended to be her sister and stayed there with her daughter.

Elisa refused to consummate the marriage with Jensen. He grew suspicious and tried to have the marriage annulled on the grounds that Elisa wasn't, in fact, a woman. This claim was never substantiated: Three medical examinations confirmed that Elisa was a woman.[11] Since the marriage was between a man and a woman, and therefore valid, no charges were brought against Elisa. After this time, there is no further record of Marcela and Elisa. Still according to this book, Elisa refused have sex with Jensen, who grew suspicious and tried to have the marriage annulled on the grounds that Elisa wasn't, in fact, a woman. It didn't work : three medical examinations confirmed that Elisa was a woman, and since the marriage was between a man and a woman, and therefore valid, no charges were brought against Elisa. After this time, there is no further record of Marcela and Elisa - though some sources claim that Elisa killed herself in 1909.

I'm sorry if some things aren't very clear - sometimes the sources I've found contradict each other, and there are differences in information between French (I'm French), Spanish and English sources. Sometimes even the same source says two different things. I've done my best, and I hope what I've written isn't too far from the truth.

This is a very interesting sorry, that is very, very important in LGB history, and I encourage you all to do your own research, read the book and watch the film! Personally, I'm very happy to have discovered this story, which I like very much.

See you tomorrow for another story/lgb icon :)

[queerstuffonscreen]

Elisa & Marcela (Elisa y Marcela) (2019)

118 min.

Country: Spain

Genre: Romance, Drama, Biography, History

Language: Spanish (stream with English subtitles)

In 1901, Marcela Gracia Ibeas took on the identity of Mario Sánchez to marry her lover of fifteen years, Elisa Sanchez Loriga.

Watch on Netflix

[pirateade]

reviews I like about a very specific subject in a movie pt. 3

[thomas-mvller]

Elisa y Marcela (2019)