The Tribute to Mrs. Emilia Pardo Bazán

In 2002, on the occasion of the celebration of the central Acts of those HOGUERAS, the Board of Directors of the Promoting Commission agreed to celebrate a floral offering, as a tribute, in front of the monument to the distinguished writer from A Coruña Ms. Emilia Pardo Bazán that stands in the gardens of Méndez Núñez.
The date set for the celebration of the event was June 22, contextualizing it, since then, within what was called “Day of Tribute to Coruña Women.” A day that began that morning with the delivery, by the Meigas, of floral presents to the women of our city, continued in the afternoon with the tribute to Pardo Bazán and concluded with the central act of the tribute that was celebrated in the Plaza de María Pita, in front of the monument to the heroine.
Returning to the homage to Pardo Bazán, from the beginning the participation of the Meiga Mayor, the Meiga Mayor Infantil, the Meigas de Honor and Meigas de Honor Infantiles, wearing the regional costume of Galicia, as well as the Lady of San Juan and the Brackets, Heralds and Heralds of the Honor Guard of the Meigas, with their corresponding clothing, a folk group, a Choir and a Music Band.

The structure of the act was relatively simple. With all the participants present in the vicinity of the monument, the Folkloric Group interpreted a muiñeira, after which a member of the Board of Directors read a gloss on the personality of Dña. Emilia and her close relationship with the city , as a Coruña female icon.
Next, the participating Choir interpreted a Galician work so that later, to the chords of a pasodoble, the Lady of San Juan and the Meigas de Honor and Meigas de Honor Infantiles, made a floral offering that was completed with the one that both the Meiga Mayor Infantil as the Meiga Mayor, who deposited, at the foot of the monument, individual bouquets of flowers.

The act concluded with the interpretation of the Anthems of Galicia and National that put the finishing touch to this simple act of tribute.
The objective of the act was twofold, on the one hand, purely pedagogical since it served so that the Meigas knew the personality of Pardo Bazán, as well as his work and his connection with our city, and on the other, to pay tribute to a woman who walked the name of La Coruña beyond our local borders, becoming a female icon of the first order at the international level.
After that first tribute, the Board of Directors of the Commission agreed to celebrate it annually on the afternoon of the day the Day of Tribute to Coruña Women was held.

Prior to 2002, one of the visits made annually, both by older Meigas and children, was to the House Museum of Doña Emilia Pardo Bazán, located in Coruña street of Tabernas, in the Old City, where they approached the knowledge of the life and work of this distinguished woman.
As of 2014, within the context of this day of tribute to the Coruña Woman, the Association of Meigas also wanted to remember other immortal Coruña women: Teresa Herrera, Juana de Vega and Concepción Arenal, for this, before the act began before the monument to Mrs. Emilia Pardo Bazán, the President of the Meigas Association, accompanied by the Meiga Mayor and the Meiga Mayor Infantil, placed a bouquet of flowers at the foot of the monument to Concepción Arenal, also located in the gardens of Méndez Nunez.

When the Association of Meigas took over the organizational management of the HOGUERAS program, it maintained, within the general programming, the Day of Tribute to Coruña Women, keeping within its structure the act in memory of Mrs. Emilia Pardo Bazán that It only stopped being held in 2020, due to the COVID 19 pandemic.
This year, to celebrate the centenary of his death, the Association of Meigas plans to carry out a new tribute in memory of Ms Emilia Pardo Bazán.
Eugenio Fernández Barallobre.