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Santa Águeda Espinosa de Henares Español
Long restaurant table with a yellow tablecloth, wine and cups, with dozens of women seated on both sides, many in patterned shawls, and two young women smiling at the camera in the foreground.

Chapter 11 of 12

Lunch and dance

In the early years they ate around the fire in the square. Today they gather in a large hall, and the brass band keeps playing between courses.

The sisters’ table

The meal is another of those moments when many sisters come together: one long table, laughter, jokes and songs to the rhythm of the brass band, which is not left outside. It is paid for with what has been raised and what each woman contributes. By the 2010 report there were more than eighty at table.

Long restaurant table with a yellow tablecloth, wine and cups, with dozens of women seated on both sides, many in patterned shawls, and two young women smiling at the camera in the foreground. (enlarge)

Everyone’s dance

Then comes the dance, paid for by the Brotherhood with help from the town hall, and outsiders come too. It is, Mínguez wrote in 1991, a festival «of the rank and attendance of a larger city».

Interior of a dining room packed with women in traditional dress, black satin blouses and checked ribbons in their hair, mostly seen from behind and chatting; one of them smiles at the camera. (enlarge)

Photographs