Por Redaccion 
La histórica militante socialista da nombre a unos jardines, «espacio de encuentro entre la historia y el futuro»
Gijón has paid posthumous tribute this Friday to the historic socialist militant María de los Ángeles Flórez Peón ‘Maricuela’, who passed away on May 23, 2024, at the age of 105, by naming a garden after her near where she lived and placing a monolith in the same location.
«My mother was Spanish, she was from Asturias, she was a socialist from head to toe,» said her son Antoine Rozada Flórez, who was accompanied at the event by his sister María Ángeles. «She was a republican, but above all, she was a democrat,» he emphasized.
Rozada Flórez, who expressed gratitude for this tribute, drew attention to the fact that it was carried out by a government of a different political affiliation than his mother’s, which, in his opinion, gives him hope and is an expression of what Democracy is.
He especially thanked the initiator of the initiative, former socialist councilor Alberto Ferrao, a close friend whom his mother «loved very much.» He also highlighted the naming of the gardens, given his mother’s love for nature and flowers. As an anecdote, he mentioned that she cared for flowers she brought from France for 50 years, adorning her balcony in Gijón. «She cared for those flowers, just as she liked to care for people,» he praised.
«In a world that is losing its values and is a bit upside down, we must celebrate those moments of democracy because there is the bad part,» he pointed out before referring to the events of October 7 in Israel and the country’s response to the Palestinians.
«We cannot accept selling weapons, we cannot accept buying ammunition, we cannot look the other way,» defended Rozada Flórez, who believed this is what his mother would say. «My mother looked ahead, without turning her head back, always asking for democracy to be stronger than barbarism,» he emphasized.
In this sense, he quoted ‘Maricuela’ who said, «the path to peace requires more strength and courage than the path to war.» For all these reasons, he expressed his wish that if a child passing through these gardens asks who she was, they will know what she did and that she stood on the right side of history.
And so that, according to him, beyond the ideas she defended, those young people and children who are the future of Spain and the world, knowing what has happened in history, «can think about what the future will be like tomorrow,» he said.
Before him, the Secretary General of the Socialist Group of Gijón, Monchu García, the Deputy Mayor and Councilor for Urban Planning, Jesús Martínez Salvador, and the Vice President of the Principality of Asturias, Gimena Llamedo, spoke at the event.
García, for his part, highlighted the fact that this day also marks the 51st anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, «which took the first step towards the freedom of our Portuguese neighbors and generated hope in those who had a desire for freedom here in Spain, including Maricuela, as a beacon of hope and a first step for all of us.»
«This initiative is fair because it recognizes a person who has become part of the heritage of all democrats,» noted the local Socialist leader, who highlighted Maricuela’s life story, now considered «heritage for all.»
For him, people like Maricuela have shown that it is possible to overcome dark moments throughout history and continue forward without giving up on those values of defending democracy and freedom, but above all «away from resentment, without hatred.»
People like the honoree, who «gave their lives and the best of themselves promoting democracy, peace, and coexistence, accepting those who think differently, being able to understand that we had to share a space, a common space of coexistence, and that differences had to be resolved democratically and that violence had no place,» he added. Furthermore, García encouraged defending democracy as her legacy.
At the same time, he briefly recounted Maricuela’s difficult life, being imprisoned and having to live in France, a country from which she returned to settle in Gijón in 2003.
«I am glad to know and say that her legacy transcends us, it is not just the heritage of her fellow activists, it is now for anyone who feels democratic values,» he stated firmly.
On his part, Martínez Salvador, who apologized for the absence of the mayor of Gijón, Carmen Moriyón, emphasized that on this day, homage is paid to a woman whose life became «a symbol of memory, resistance, and dignity.»
«With this, we not only dignify this place, but we also seal a commitment as a city to democratic memory and the values that she represented,» he noted regarding the naming of the gardens.
He pointed out that Maricuela witnessed and participated in the «most tumultuous» century of recent history, but also was «an tireless fighter for freedom, justice, and equality.»
He also noted that «her commitment to democratic ideals led her to fight as a militiawoman during the civil war, to endure imprisonment during the darkest years of the dictatorship, and to live in exile in France for more than half a century.»
«She paid for it with confinement and uprooting, but never with silence,» he emphasized about Maricuela, «a living reference for collective memory, the defense of human rights, and the construction of a fairer and more tolerant society,» he added, stressing the «profound» respect she garnered throughout Asturian society.
In addition, he pointed out that with this act, the need to make women visible in public spaces, especially in the streets of Gijón, where their presence is still much lower than that of men, is being vindicated. «Not only does it recognize her figure, but it also repays a historical debt to so many women who, like her, have contributed decisively to the construction of our society and whose memory deserves to be remembered, told, and transmitted,» he argued.
«This garden, bordered by Baleares, Roncal, and Valencia streets, today becomes a space for encounter between history and the future,» the councilor pointed out. «Gijón honors not only an admirable woman, but also all the people who, like her, fought for a freer and more humane society,» he added.
Llamedo, for her part, noted that on this day, a space is not only inaugurated, «today we plant memory,» she emphasized about the tribute to a woman «tremendously generous and affectionate.»
«She was a woman who resisted when everyone was silent, who spoke when everyone was afraid, who lived with admirable coherence between what she thought, felt, and did,» he highlighted about her. «She was an example of life that obliges us to look back without fear but also to look forward without excuses,» he pointed out.
For Llamedo, «Maricuela is the heritage of the entire left, but also of all democrats,» he stressed that «there are lives that do not fit into a single party.»
He also emphasized that she was a woman who understood from a very young age that one cannot be neutral in the face of injustice, that there are moments when one must take a stand.
«She was a brave woman who defended democracy, who believed in freedom, who believed in equality, who believed in justice, who believed in Asturias, and who never stopped fighting for a dignified society,» he indicated how he would like her to be remembered. These values led to her appointment as the favorite daughter of Asturias in 2023.