Gretel Ammann

Margarita Ammann Martínez, better known as Gretel Ammann (17 January 1947 in Donostia – 2 May 2000 in Barcelona) was a Spanish philosopher, essayist, activist, radical feminist, and lesbian separatist. She was a pioneer of feminism in Barcelona.

Early years and education

Margarita Ammann Martínez was born in Donostia. Her mother was Basque and her father was Austrian, a fugitive from Nazi Germany. When she was two years old, the family moved to Barcelona, the city where she lived the rest of her life. Since childhood, she was trained in different artistic disciplines, in writing, drawing, photography and music. Her baccalaureate and elementary school studies occurred at the German school in Barcelona, where she created her first magazine, which was very critical of the school's policy, leading her to being asked to leave.[1]

Ammann studied philosophy and literature at the University of Barcelona, University of Barcelona. In the first year, she organized a public reading of poems in which she participated with her poetry and accompanying the recital on guitar with music composed by her. She also creates a student magazine.[2] In 1971, Ammann went to Paris for a year, where she studied at the Sorbonne and learned French. She found it easy to learn other languages, and spoke five of them correctly. After returning to Barcelona, she worked in various schools and academies before entering the Escola Tramuntana, Escola Tramuntana in El Carmel.

Career

Activist

Ammann's involvement with working families led her to settle in the same neighborhood where she worked, El Carmel, and to get involved in the neighborhood demands and those of the school.[3] Working in a clandestine manner in different militant parties and collectives, in 1976, Ammann joined the Communist Movement of Catalonia, which was Trotskyism-leaning. She was a committed and restless woman, who actively participated in movements in favor of peace and disarmament, ecology and human rights. She was, above all, an activist in the movimiento feminista and a defender of women's rights. She was a leader in lesbian issues in Catalonia and in the rest of the Spain.

Feminist

A multifaceted woman with a lot of energy, during all her life she combined militancy and activism with her artistic side. From a very young age, she participated in the creation and promotion of women's groups and publications, most of them financed with her own money. In 1976, she participated in the first Jornadas Catalanas de la Mujer.[4] In 1978, she created the first musical group of women. In the following year, she presented her work "Feminism of Difference" at the 2nd Jornadas Estatales sobre la Mujer en Granada,[5][6] which served as a starting point for the long discussion of feminism throughout the Spanish state that would take place in the following years.

In 1980, with three friends, Ammann opened the first Casa de la Dona on Cardenal Casanyes Street in Barcelona. This was the beginning of an intense feminist militancy. Ideologically, she defined herself as a feminista radical y lesbiana separatista.[7] She translated and published the SCUM de Valerie Solanas manifesto, and participated in the Spanish version of the book "Our bodies, our lives" of the Boston women's collective (ed. Icaria). In 1981, she created "Amazonas" magazine, an exclusive publication of lesbian creation, and participated in the first television program on lesbianism broadcast by a public television for the entire country.

In 1984, Ammann founded the Center for Women's Studies "El Centro",[8] a non-profit association from which various entities and projects would emerge. Her most fruitful stage was developed in this space, participating and creating different initiatives of women, such as the Assembly of Independent Feminists of Barcelona, the Cultural Association of Women "La Nostra Illa", Gram Teatro de mujeres, the first feminist summer school, and the "Amazonas" network that organized the First Lesbian Week in Barcelona in 1987, with European participation.

Work

In 1989, Ammann created the magazine Laberint, whose heading stated: "This magazine aims to open a debate from Radical Feminism and Separatist Lesbianism. For this, we contribute reflections, discussion, creations and information". There were 36 issues published, the last of them in 1999. Ammann intervened on behalf of all the demands of women's spaces, such as Ca la dona and the Francesca Bonmaison Women's Culture Center, as well as in the establishment of the Feminist Network of Catalonia. Most of Ammann's work was developed in conference, meetings, journals, and assemblies, and was not been published, or was published in what is called Literatura gris, which does not use the usual channels of production and distribution. Upon her death in 2000, the Feminist Network published a compilation book of some of his texts, with the title "Escritos". Her file of feminist documentation was donated to the Documentation Center of Ca la Dona, by her companion of the last 18 years, Dolors Majoral.[8][6]

References

  1. ↑ "Gretel Ammann". www.caladona.org (in Catalan). Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  2. ↑ "Desconocidas y Fascinantes: Gretel Ammann con Isabel Franc y Dolors Majoral". iVoox (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  3. ↑ "Edición del Domingo 16 de Enero de 1983". archivo.elperiodico.com (in Spanish). El Periódico de Catalunya. 16 January 1983. p. 17. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  4. ↑ Amiguet, Teresa (27 May 2011). "I Jornades de la Dona Catalana". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  5. ↑ Prades, Joaquina (13 December 1979). "La sexualidad y la lucha de clases, temas clave en las jornadas feministas de Granada". EL PAÍS (in Spanish). Ediciones El País. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  6. 1 2 "Sobre los conceptos utilizados en el feminismo" (PDF). caladona.org (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  7. ↑ Elejabeitia 1987, p. 6.
  8. 1 2 "El Centro de Estudio de la Mujer / Centre d'Estudis de la Dona8-034-7" (PDF). caladona.org. Retrieved 1 November 2017.

Bibliography

  • Elejabeitia, Carmen de (1987). Liberalismo, marxismo y feminismo. Anthropos Editorial. ISBN 978-84-7658-034-9.
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