Nevenka Fernández returns to Ponferrada 25 years later

BarcelonaNevenka Fernández, twenty-five years later, has returned to Ponferrada to close a circle. If in 2001 she disappeared from this Leonese city, a victim of a smear campaign, despite having managed to get justice to condemn the town's mayor, the popular Ismael Álvarez, for sexual harassment, this Saturday Fernández returned accompanied by Minister Sara Aagesen as a star participant in a conference on reparation and memory. "I am very nervous, but very happy," she said, emotional to thank the strong ovation with which the auditorium received her.

In many circles, the bravery of that young Fernández in denouncing the all-powerful mayor was not understood in Spain, where women's morality was valued according to the size of the skirt they wore and they were held responsible for men's behavior. Fernández took the step of raising her voice against the social and political majority of Ponferrada, who shouted at her and accused her of having taken advantage of the mayor. Even when a sentence ruled in her favor, the pressure and insults she received forced her to leave that hostile environment, first to Madrid and later to the anonymity of the United Kingdom, where she has started her family. A quarter of a century later, with the explosion of feminism and consent and respect in sexual relations, Fernández has returned home, this time not through the back door but the main one. "It took me a while to realize that what happened to me was bigger than me," she admitted to an audience captivated by the day's events, and she underlined the importance of the Me Too movement in her recovery, as it served as a mirror for her. "I felt like it wasn't just happening to Nevenka. Her story was the story of many. It brought me the light I needed," she reflected.The price of breaking the silence

In fact, her return is the chronicle of changing mentalities, of the "gigantic" victory of justice, although the former councilwoman has clarified that one cannot lower their guard against the deniers of sexist violence. "The hardest thing is daring to speak when your whole life you've been told it's better to stay quiet and not get into trouble," she indicated.Fernández, for whom a documentary has been made and a Netflix series, has publicly reunited with Charo Velasco, the then PSOE spokesperson in the City Council and one of the very few people who supported him in contrast to the cold shoulder he received from people on the street and his municipal government colleagues. Some citizens defended the convicted mayor with demonstrations where shouts against Nevenka could be heard. For Velasco, who highlighted Fernández's "dignity," the great victory of the event has been more vital than judicial, because although it has been late, he has been able to set foot in Ponferrada again without hiding. "It is very important that you can come here and say: 'This is my city, I want to be here with my friends and my family,'" he told him. The Ponferrada that 25 years ago was silent today has stated that shame has changed sides.