The two carts of Colita that revive the first major LGTBI+ demonstration in the State

MadridA group of trans women momentarily leads a protest on Barcelona's Rambla. Fists raised, shouts immortalized in the expression of their faces, and a banner with the slogan We are not afraid, we are just behind him. It is one of the images that captured the photographer Isabel Steva Hernández, known as Colita (1940-2023)"At first I wasn't aware of the danger, but I was aware that we were attracting attention," explains Sofia, who was walking in the group of "the transvestites, as we were called then," and ended up being hit, in addition to the insults and mockery of some pedestrians. The Government delegate in Madrid, Núria Marín, recalled that "the law on dangerousness and social rehabilitation" was still in force and highlighted that Colita put "her camera at the service of the cultural, social, and political transformation of our country." The exhibition's curator, Rafael Doctor, insisted that it is "100% relevant" for the exhibition to take place now, in the midst of a surge of the far-right that endangers conquered rights and "freedom with a capital F." After its run in Madrid, the exhibition will move to the old Model prison in the Catalan capital, which is precisely where some of the people who participated in the protest photographed by Colita ended up, and which is relived almost fifty years later.