International Women’s Day (March 8)

A stone may stay in place until it’s kicked, but humans roll on by their very nature, and their migratory movements are inseparable from life itself. People respond to individual needs, tastes, and desires. Now as in the past, they choose new scenes for their personal or professional futures.

For centuries, Sitges had seen many of its children leave, some to return while others do not. But new people are always arriving, some to become real Sitgetans as integrated residents, some regarding themselves as expatriates from their home country. Only a core of twenty-five percent are sitgetans de tota la vida. Many of the newcomers are part of the LGTB+ community, who are attracted to an open and relaxed atmosphere that allows them to live in peace and harmony. All of them find in Sitges a veritable Mediterranean Arcadia.

As Valentí Mongay beautifully reminded us in his 2016 Festa Major proclamation, there is also a grand diaspora of Sitgetans around the world.

This year’s Feminine and Feminist Route, presented annually in association with the Colors Sitges Link in observance of International Women’s Day (March 8), incorporates five compelling stories of American women who came to Sitges at very different times and in very different circumstances: Carola Condé (Hollywood, California, September 29, 1937–Sitges, July 2022), who was a friend of the writer Fanny Todd Mitchell (St. Louis, Missouri, September 14, 1897–Sitges, February 8, 1978); the painter Grace Ravlin (Kaneville, Illinois, April 15, 1873–September 25, 1956), friend of the patron Marion Deering; and furthest back of them all, the entrepreneuse Emily Sturdevant Saunders (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 1, 1830–Sitges, December 23, 1892).

For the Route on Sunday March 10, registration is required on the Colors Siges Link website: «Route Discovering the Feminine and Feminist Sitges».