Ageism on stage: "Actresses grow up and disappear."

Barcelona"Which actresses over 60 do you have in mind?" The question is asked. Vicenta Ndongo, actress still in her fifties, who had previously said how she was amazed at the lack of knowledge that exists among the talent pool of actors who fill television and platform series with names like Maribel Verdú, who has dedicated her entire life to the sector. "You get older and you disappear," she proclaims, not without pointing out that in her case, as a racialized woman, she also does not fit the "stereotypical mother." For the moment, she has not played a grandmother yet, she clarifies.

On the other hand, Mercè Comes has not had any problem getting older: more than thirty years ago she lent her body to one of the legendary Teresinas, the quintessential stereotype of Catalan single aunts, and 25 years ago she was given the cane of grandmother Asunción de Dirty dishes When perhaps, due to her age, she was more suited to the role of the daughter of those characters. "I've been lucky enough to always play the older woman," she says. A statement that draws laughter from the audience at the first national conference on ageism, organized by the Barcelona Provincial Council from this Tuesday until November 7.

If there are professionals who are impacted by ageism, discrimination based on age, mid-career, it's actresses, because the industry or society as a whole doesn't forgive them for aging and for their faces changing as they get older. In this way, the profession swallows up names, and few, very few, enter the Olympus of legends, while, to answer Ndongo's first question, among the leading men, one can choose and shuffle among a range of all ages. "They don't know the wonderful Ana Torrent [an actress who began acting at a very young age], but they do know Alejandro Amenábar," she says, to summarize the state of affairs.

The fascination of youth

But in a profession where "the fascination with youth" prevails, in the words of journalist Milagros Oliva, who moderated the two actresses' talk at the opening of the Congress, Ndongo wanted to shed some light: "Things are changing," she said. The change that means there are more leading roles for women over 40 or 50, or more scripts with stories about women, is being led by "other women," from directors and producers to screenwriters who are shaking up the industry, dominated by "dinosaurs who have all the power" and who dominate "all the -isms," from masismo, from masismo, to the actress. Ndongo admits that it has traditionally been very difficult for network executives or production companies to trust the talent of female professionals and, instead, they accepted proposals signed by men and starring men. "For them, everything was easier," both artists agreed.

Both Ndongo and Comes have taken up writing, and the latter is even touring with two of her own shows, which she has written, adapting them to her personal circumstances. "In one, I can sit or walk with a cane, and in the other, I'm in a doctor's office," she notes.

Ageism, a structural discrimination that affects all areas and social classes, is the central theme of this Sunday's ARA special dossier. You can find first-person accounts and the interview with Vânia de la Fuente, an international leader in the fight against ageism and author of the strategy that the Barcelona Provincial Council wants to deploy. The goal is to "make discrimination visible" and raise awareness in society about the importance of "not losing the legacy of older people," said the president of the Barcelona Provincial Council, Lluïsa Moret.