The City Council celebrates March 8 by recognizing Estepona women who have excelled in the artistic field.

The award winners were the writers Pilar Laura Martínez de la Puerta, Yohana Anaya Ruiz and the painter Rocío Garín.

The City Council of Estepona has recognized today with the ‘March 8 Awards’ to the writers Pilar Laura Martinez de la Puerta and Yohana Anaya Ruiz, and the painter Rocio Garin, for their work in favor of equality in the field of arts.

The presentation of these awards took place during the official ceremony to commemorate International Women’s Day, which was held in the Plenary Hall of the Consistory.

Pilar Laura Martínez de la Puerta has been recognized for her facet as a writer. Born in 1945 in Jaén, her parents, teachers by vocation, influenced her love for teaching. A woman ahead of her time, she was taught ballet and classical Spanish dance for thirteen years and obtained her degree as a primary school teacher.

In 1969 she arrived in Estepona with her husband, where they settled and had five children. After teaching for several years in Manilva, she moved to CEIP Santo Tomás de Aquino until her retirement in 2006. In 1989 she was a pioneer teacher of the educational project ‘Grandparents in the classroom’. Her early love of writing and reading has led her to participate in various contests and competitions; in 2014 she published her first novel ‘Tú serás la que vengas a buscarme’, based on the story of her family. In her second novel, ‘El placer del poder’, women are again the protagonists. The profits from this book were donated to the Association of Relatives of Alzheimer’s Patients of Estepona.

The young Yohana Anaya Ruiz has also been recognized with the ‘Premios 8 de Marzo’ for her literary activity. Born in 1994, at the age of 16 she wrote the biography of her grandfather, and at the age of 18 she published her first novel “La última lágrima”, followed by “Mi reflejo”. As for poetry, she has published three books: ‘Resilience’, ‘What is left of me’, in which she recounts in verse form her personal experience with gender violence when she was a high school student, and ‘Meowing in the big city’. As a result of her volunteer work in Honduras, she has written ‘Pájaros enjaulados’, a collection of 40 biographies of Honduran women with the aim of giving them a voice and denouncing the mistreatment and injustices that many women are suffering. With the same objective, a month ago she finished writing ‘Las mujeres del Istmo’, in which she compiles the biography of twelve women from Chame, a town in Panama where she also worked on another volunteer project. All profits from the royalties of both books are donated by the author to the NGO she worked with in each project: Acoes and La escuelita.

Currently, Yohana is studying to become a teacher of Language and Literature, gives school support at IES Puerta del Mar, within the PARCES project, and teaches creative writing classes. In addition, she has been a volunteer at the Red Cross in Estepona and participates in various initiatives against gender violence.

Finally, the painter Rocío Garín has also been recognized with the ‘Premios 8 de Marzo’. Born in 1977 in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, she studied at the Monterroso High School in Estepona, and in 2001 she completed her studies in Fine Arts at the University of Seville, where she began working as a restorer of some of the most significant monuments in the capital of Seville.

After her return to Estepona in 2002, she worked as a monitor at the Day Center for the Elderly and later at the Aprona Ceramics Workshop. She currently teaches at the Drawing and Painting Workshop of the municipal delegation of Culture, an activity that she combines with other aspects of her artistic facet: as a researcher, as an artist, and as a disseminator, through conferences, with special relevance to those dedicated to women artists. Another of her contributions in the field of equality is her participation, as a juror, in the Poster Contest ‘November 25th. No to Violence’.

In 2013 she published a “Manual of Drawing and Painting” in which she collects the main techniques and tools to be taken into account in the first year of training of students.

After the awards ceremony, the 4th and 6th grade students of CEIP Simón Fernández performed the play ‘La mujer de la cueva’. The event concluded with a performance by the singer Rocío Romero, a student of the Training Academy for the Promotion of Andalusian Culture ‘El Patio learns to sing’.

In addition to this official act, the program of commemorative activities will continue with the ‘ICT Women’ Workshop for women, by the Cibervoluntarios Foundation for the elimination of the digital divide, in which basic tools for job search will be presented. The activity is free and will be held on March 12 and 14, from 10:00 to 12:00 hours, limited to 12 participants.

Also, the delegation of Women has organized a workshop on ‘Planning and basic financial education’ for women and users of the Municipal Women’s Information Center, to be held on Wednesday March 13, from 10:30 to 12:30 and Wednesday March 20, from 17:30 to 19:30. It will be given by María Ángeles Blanco, financial consultant of OVB Allfinanz España.

Both workshops will be held at the Padre Manuel Cultural Center, upon registration at the municipal delegation of Women.

The commemorative activities will also be present in Cancelada, with the conference ‘Origin of March 8 Day’, on Thursday, March 21, at 10:00 am, at the Mayor’s Office, by Leticia Hidalgo, Agent for Equality of the Municipal Center for Women’s Information, CMIM.