Classicism, homophobia and tipophobia In 2019, a significant portion of our country’s population Video of some young people from Sevilla cheering for Virgen de los Dolores During a Holy Week procession in Seville. “Dolores, beautiful!”, “Queen of Holy Tuesday!”, “The whole neighborhood is for you!”, they shouted excitedly. The footage also reached out to Jesús Pascual, a young director born in Alcalá de Guadaíra in 1997 who was then a graduate of the University of Seville in Audio-Visual Communication.
“I was not at all surprised by what came out in the images,” he explains. “Such expressions of enthusiasm are quite common in Andalusia. What caught my attention were the comments made by many on social networks: mocked the heroes of the video with cruel comments. I had the feeling that many critics did not fully understand what they were seeing. Even I missed most of the codes in the game: I knew it there was a figure of the ladybug little chapelbut I had a lot of questions about it so I started researching.
This is how Jesús began filming the film. ‘Dolores is beautiful!‘ approach, sensitive and beautifully filmed.but also direct and very enlightening, weird culture which exists today and for decades around Holy Week in Seville. Over the years I’ve been trying to understand how and why it’s brewed. Pascual continues: “For the filmmaker Antonio Bonilla, the main theme has always been a sense of belonging to the city. I was more interested in exploring the local pattern of homosexuality that existed in Andalusia up to a few decades ago, and whose traces I believe are particularly preserved in the realm of fraternities. In any case, the movie first of all talks about the following topics: has to do with identity. I tried to reflect this from the first sequence in which the images were combined with another essential element in ‘¡Dolores guapa!’: sound, verbal testimony”.
Therefore, the documentary is mainly based on its characters: a gallery of people from the Sevillian LGTBIQ+ community who tell us their stories. experiences and reflections Around Holy Week, religion, Seville as a concept (we could almost say a ‘mood’), fraternities, the attitude of the Church, and all the complex ramifications of all these issues. “Finding the heroes was easier than you think,” Pascual admits. “We were surprised how many people were willing to talk about it. Many of the topics we wanted to cover in the documentary were topics that they had previously pondered and discussed among their queer fellows in the fraternity. We started chatting with the profiles that interested us the most, and these often led us to other people, their friends, who were expanding the lineup”.
What failed to make its way into the public domain, of course, was everything to do with desire and sexuality. Even though everyone imagined the sissy having sex, it was completely taboo.”
Memories of former heroes, especially 88-year-old Antonio, known at the time as Palomita de San Gil, almost inevitably bring up the traditional relationship that Seville residents have traditionally had with homosexuality. It seems that even in the dark times of Francoism, there was an unprecedented tolerance towards these people in other parts of our country. “In the local model of homosexuality that prevailed in Franco’s Andalusia, the housewife had some social functions reserved for her,” explains Jesús. “This has allowed many to experience their pens with greater visibility.. Antonio, for example, says he walked around town in a dress and high heels in the fifties and assures that he was never retaliated. At least he didn’t perceive them that way. Another of these “social” functions was to joke, to amuse, to amuse. There were also certain crafts peculiar to ladybugs, and of course there were studies in the religious-ritual field that allowed these people to achieve a certain social prestige”. According to Pascual, embodied gender violation even the ladybug figure was necessary for the rest of society. Can we talk about tolerance then? Yes, but it doesn’t fit into a simple answer with the shades and nuances the director has provided us with. “Of course, what didn’t make it into the public realm was everything about desire and sexuality. “Even though everyone imagined their sissy having sex, it was completely taboo,” she says.
Why this commitment?
But why Easter? What has traditionally driven Sevillian gays to join fraternities? “That was a question we asked, and no one gave us the exact same answer,” admits the director. “In many cases, a aesthetic fascination since childhood it makes you come closer. It is also normal for most of the people of Seville to come to a fraternity according to family tradition. Then inside, you meet others like you, your age and older, who serve as references and with whom you can share this fascination”.
It is a choice that can take many different reasons and forms. Some do it a glorification of beauty; others, as a collective intoxication, a catharsis, without the need for drugs that would be almost Carnival-related; others as a theater and others even liken the celebration to the television show ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’. Where is religion in all this? “The thing is these are all closely connected with religious feeling!” replied Jesus. “They all sound like Baroque and Counter-Reformation to me, including ‘RuPaul’. In the documentary, Antonio talks about folklore as if they were Virgins, and Virgins as if they were folklore. Another interviewee describes how she bought the same wig she saw on a transvestite friend for her brother’s Messiah. Religion, as experienced in Seville and Andalusia, contains all these fantasies. Now, let’s not get caught up in the brilliance of all these elements; In no case do they invalidate anything reactionary stemming from institutions like the church. It is okay to walk with lead feet, always question them”.
Bachi, one of the protagonists of the documentary, at one point said “There are two religions, that of Rome and that of Seville.”. For the director, this sentence, which may seem exaggerated to many, makes a lot of sense. “As soon as you come in contact with the way religion lives in Andalusia, you immediately realize that in many ways there is something different from pure and simple Catholic doctrine. I read to Amiri Baraka that the God mentioned in the black songs is not the same God mentioned in the white songs, although the lyrics are the same.
Perhaps for this very reason, and as the documentary implies, the Church has been somewhat vague about co-existing with the LGTBIQ+ community during Holy Week. It seems that the institution takes advantage of the enthusiasm of these people, but does not completely accept them. “At the beginning of the 20th century, Seville writer and journalist Chaves Nogales already wrote that religious authority was one of the main enemies of Holy Week,” the director explains to us. “They told us this during the investigation phase. Archbishops are often unaware of all the details of the fraternities. his stance on this issue is ‘to reach out’ unless there is a ‘scandal’. There is no unanimity regarding the relationship with the Church. There are those who feel that the sects are within the Church but work differently, there are those who are Catholic and go to mass every Sunday, there are those who are atheists and criticize the Church but pay their brothers and leave as Nazarenes. .. People we interviewed actively participate in the life of the sorority throughout the year As a small group of people they have always known and seen often, they told us about their fraternity and acknowledged that there were homophobic and transphobic people within the fraternities. In that sense, they often compared it to any work environment.”
Some sects have historically and in many ways been a sanctuary, a meeting point for those who are different, including fags.”
Despite Many of these fraternities have been a haven for Seville gays, especially in the past.a site where they can be themselves without censorship, feel useful and loved, and even flirt, it should be clear that It is not always a safe environment for people in the community.. “There is a girls’ dormitory and a girls’ dormitory, each of which has its own characteristics. But it is true that some have historically and in many ways been a haven, a meeting point for those who are different, including fags. As I said earlier, the model of homosexuality in effect in Andalusia before the post-Stonewall effect gave a certain visibility to the sissy; especially when it comes to gender violation. Within the fraternities there were practically assigned tasks: dressing Marian images is perhaps the most paradigmatic”, comments Pascual.
Definitely, “Dolores is beautiful!” It’s more of a love letter to Seville than Holy Week.to his art, the way of living and living, and the city’s LGTBIQ+ community. It is a fact that some of us may have intuited, but that most of us who do not live in Andalusia do not know. “That’s how we always understood it,” explains Jesús, “especially producer Antonio Bonilla.” Unfortunately, there was no room in the piece to show off everything they had gathered during their research. “There were some great anecdotes that had to be dropped, and even all the interviews had already been staged and disappeared,” says Jesús. “We are so grateful to everyone who collaborated with us, even more so than the people featured in the documentary. But without a doubt, I have a special love for Palomita de San Gil Antonio. I was very surprised to meet him. Being able to record his expression is what makes me most proud in the film, it’s a privilege to be a part of it. The documentary is dedicated to him,” he concludes.