In the context of the 25th of November, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the daughter of Ana Orantes (the woman whose television testimony marked a before and after in Spain) has once again raised her voice. Raquel Orantes has launched a strong message about the reality of gender violence almost three decades after the murder of her mother, warning that “there are many more Ana Orantes”: women who remain silent out of fear and others who, like her mother, dared to denounce publicly.
His speech took place during an event organized by the Bar Association of Valencia (ICAV), where he recalled that, despite the legal and social advances since that crime that shocked the country, there are still discourses that try to minimize or deny gender violence: “They deny us as victims, as sons and daughters, and try to return us to the label of ‘domestic violence'”.
Who is Raquel Orantes and why her voice is still indispensable
Raquel Orantes has turned the memory of her mother into a tool in the fight against gender violence. At the event held by the ICAV (under the slogan “Breaking the fear: Voices for freedom”) she explained that she herself is a victim of vicarious violence, a form of abuse that directly affects the sons and daughters of assaulted women.
Accompanied by jurists and specialists such as the magistrate Helena Amorós, author of the book “Hijas del miedo”, Raquel stressed that there are still obstacles and prejudices that silence the victims: “It doesn’t help that there are those who try to deny what we experience. I suffered vicarious violence and my mother suffered gender violence. Not acknowledging it puts us at risk again.”
Her role, she says, is to keep her mother’s story alive so that it will not be repeated: “Ana Orantes’ voice will not be extinguished as long as there is a society that does not look the other way”.
The television testimony that changed Spain
Ana Orantes was murdered on December 17, 1997 by her ex-husband, thirteen days after recounting decades of physical and psychological abuse on television. The interview, broadcast on Canal Sur, revealed a life marked by control, isolation and failed attempts to separate due to a judicial system that did not protect victims at the time.
Raquel recalled that her mother “shared a broken life,” subjected from the age of 19 to an abuser who repeatedly displaced the family to remove her from any support network. Even in 1986, when Ana tried to separate, a judge denied her, forcing her to return to live with her abuser and her children.
It was not until 1997 that she managed to formalize the separation… but a court ruling forced the ex-couple to live in apartments in the same building, separated by only one floor. That detail was decisive: her murderer only had to go up one floor to commit the crime.
Raquel stressed that, during the last year of her life, her mother experienced for the first time a sense of real freedom: “She was able to have a coffee without fear, to go out without looking at the clock. That freedom cost her her life.”
What has changed (and what is still to come) since the crime that marked a before and an after.
The murder of Ana Orantes was decisive for Spain to pass the Comprehensive Law against Gender Violence, considered a pioneer in the world, years later, in 2004. For Raquel, this legislative change is the only consolation that remained after the loss of her mother.
Even so, she warns that “there is still a long way to go”. She insists on reinforcing specialized training, improving risk detection and maintaining the gender perspective as a mandatory criterion in the actions of judges, prosecutors and security forces.
The magistrate Helena Amorós, also present at the event, agreed that the progress achieved is today threatened by negationist discourses that question the existence of gender violence: “We cannot lower our guard”.
