"If you don't mind, you can turn off the radio for me, because if any music that interests me plays, I might go after it and disconnect," warns Isabel Segura, while enjoying an iced coffee.
"Reading has shaped me. The same happens with the archives I turn to in search of answers to questions that interest me," explains this tireless historian, researcher, and essayist specialized in the passage and weight of women in our urban history. "One of the first books I wrote was Guía de mujeres de Barcelona, after asking myself, for years, how Roman women lived and what they did, how they managed in the Middle Ages and, later, in the industrial era. In an attempt to investigate how they lived and what desires they had, I undertook the work that ended up in the form of a book and an exhibition."
From then on, Isabel never stopped asking questions: Dones de L'Hospitalet, Dones de Sant Andreu, Els feminismes de Feminal, Barcelona Feminista or Dones de l'Eixample are just some of the titles she has collected, in a conspicuous work of which the most recent fruit is the open-air exhibition Barcelona Fotògrafes. This can be visited in front of the Born and offers a visual chronicle of the city's recent history, from the 1930s to the 1990s, through the eyes of 21 female photographers, with the idea of claiming the work of many forgotten women in the construction of Barcelona's image and modern soul.
"It's a double journey, on the one hand, to learn about the creative work of the photographers and, on the other, the city itself."
In the warmth (or coolness) of a library
Aware that hers is often a solitary job, she highlights "those episodes in which the mix between research and socialization has led to collective projects, in the form of vindication or collective creation."
Some of these projects are exhibitions, always related to women and feminism, such as 50è aniversari del dret de vot de les dones, Les dones i la ciutat de Barcelona or Dones de L'Hospitalet. Itineraris històrics.
Born in Barcelona in 1954, Isabel has also been literary director of the collection Clàssiques Catalanes, from the publisher LaSal and of Espai de Dones from Edicions del Eixample, and was awarded, in 1993, the 8 de març de Maria Aurèlia Capmany prize.
"Who I am and what I have been doing is understood a little more through the places I frequent daily, which are libraries and archives. That daily transit began with the first courses of my History degree, and we're still there. They seem like places of recess to me. If it's hot, you take refuge in those spaces with high ceilings, well-ventilated or air-conditioned, you can check out new publications, the daily press, ask librarians for advice, and, when the cold chills you to the bone, in the library you find various warmth."
--Does this love for reading and research come from afar?
--At 25, after an illness, I decided to leave a stable and well-paid job to dedicate myself to what I liked, which is, indeed, reading and researching.
A decision that feminism and, more generally, culture, and, broadening the focus, simple common sense, applaud in unison.
A Barcelona to reclaim
Despite not liking the fact of having to dodge bar tables in a distorted Boquería Market, Isabel defines her relationship with Barcelona as "amiable, warm, but always having another city on the horizon. Sometimes, for long periods, it was Havana, sometimes, New York." From her idyll with the Cuban capital, her works such as La Habana para mujeres or Viajeras para la Habana stand out, and, from the United States, the volume Barcelona-Chicago-Nueva York.
But, dwelling on Barcelona, she fondly recalls an episode, one more, from the city's long history of protest: "The Rebombori del Pa, the bread revolt of 1789. A few months before the French Revolution, the women of Barcelona took to the streets to demand a reduction in the price of bread and, during three days of revolt, they achieved not only that reduction, but also that of meat and wine, basic food products. Wine too!"
--Hey, and since we're talking about basic foods, you, in addition to all that has been said, being the author of the book Cuines de Barcelona, are you going to want to eat something?
--Well, a menu, because a first course, second, and dessert is always appreciated. Since I don't usually do it at home, it almost always seems like a luxury to me.