Women's voices from La Gomera: Multiactivity and self-recognition on a terraced island

This work aims to contribute to the knowledge of the way of life of the inhabitants of terraced agricultural landscapes, with special attention to the work carried out by women and to the self-recognition of the value of their work. For this, it is necessary to listen to the female voices that have been made invisible and undervalued by a patriarchal society and by a historiography practiced by men.Through interviews with women over 70 years of age, from different locations with terraces on the island of La Gomera, the aim is to incorporate the female experience into individual and intra-history. of these cultural agro-landscapes during the last stage of the Franco regime. This work is based on the concept of cultural landscape. Terraced landscapes are landscapes built, cultivated, inhabited and perceived by its inhabitants, an expression of the deep knowledge of the environment by its inhabitants. For this reason, the interviews have tried to address all these aspects. The results show that women from La Gomera has also formed an active part in the structure of economic, social and domestic life in these cultural landscapes. They have been the custodians of the rich and diverse intangible heritage since time immemorial, although agricultural abandonment is endangering the survival of that legacy. The women interviewed recognize the important work carried out by them, individually and collectively in the survival of these landscapes in a hard period in the history of La Gomera.