Working women and pioneers of Xinzo in the 20th century

When the CDR O Viso and the CEIP Rosalía de Castro presented the book Mulleres ilustradas da Limia in Xinzo, the historian Edelmiro Martínez Cerredelo welcomed the initiative but noted that many women were missing, especially from rural areas, and in March 2025 published a complementary list in Historia de Xinzo. This page summarises those belonging to the world of work, commerce and higher education, leaving women victims of repression to the historical memory page ^[1].

Matriarchs of commerce

• Blanca Asorey. Widow of Antonio Gelpi, with twelve children, she moved to Xinzo in the 1930s to take over the house and grocery warehouse of her brother Manolo Asorey. The family ran for almost all of the 20th century the Almacenes Asorey, food and drink, in the Praza Maior, with wholesale sales across the comarca ^[1].
• Celia Alonso Durán. In the 1940s, with her husband Manolo Cerredelo, she took over the grocery shop a relative had handed on; when he died, in 1962, she continued the business with her children. In 1967 they moved the warehouse and shop to Curros Enríquez street, where they became A Limia’s largest food and drink distributors, later expanding drinks distribution. Cerredelo places the shop beside the Asoreys and the Díaz warehouses as the town’s food references ^[1].

Cooks and hospitality

• Felicia Durán Ojea: for over thirty years she was the soul of the kitchen at the Fonda Ledo (today Curros Enríquez street) and then at the Hostal Avenida, on today’s Rúa de Ourense ^[1].
• Pura Gómez Losada: head cook of the bar-restaurant Maragón, one of the most reputed in Xinzo and run by women, from the 1950s at least until the 1970s ^[1].
• Corona Cerredelo Pardo: studied at the Ourense school in 1927 and worked in the kitchen of the El Retiro tavern (Praza de San Roque), the Platillo Volante bar (Wine street) and the Gran Taberna (today Avenida de Madrid) from the mid-1940s until about 1974; according to the author, that hospitality made tapas fashionable in Xinzo and she never refused anyone the recipe ^[1].

Pioneers in higher education

Cerredelo stresses that these women were born in families with the means to give them an education, which was uncommon, and that they deserve credit for studying, in most cases far from home and in a patriarchal society ^[1].

• Dolores Salgado Feijóo (1912): studied Teaching in Santiago, where she met her husband, a Pharmacy student, and was a teacher in Xinzo ^[1].
• Rosa Salgado Feijóo: studied Teaching and worked at Rebordachá, Seoane de Oleiros, San Pedro de Laroá and Parada de Ribeira; after a period in Valladolid (1952-1963) she returned to teaching and ended at the CEIP Rosalía de Castro in Xinzo until 1988 ^[1].
• Isabel Penín Rodríguez: teacher and then pharmacist, she ran the Penín pharmacy in the 1950s until her death in 1962 ^[1].
• Adela Carril Fernández: widow of the pharmacist Celso Peláez (died 1948), she ran the pharmacy until 1972; her daughter Adelita Peláez Carril graduated in Pharmacy in 1954 and later moved to Catalonia ^[1].
• Nieves de Saa Carrera: one of the few Limia women with a university degree, a pharmacist in Sabarís (Baiona) from 1963 until retirement ^[1].

Culture and theatre

Rosa Caval Martínez, a Mexican who came to Xinzo through her aunt and uncle, married in town and was a great cultural promoter between the 1940s and 1970s, above all in theatre, which she directed and taught at the Casino and the Los Molinos cinema ^[1]. See Cultural life of Xinzo, 1948-1970.

Frequently asked questions

What is "Mulleres ilustradas da Limia"? A book presented in Xinzo on the initiative of the CDR O Viso and the CEIP Rosalía de Castro; the local historian added a list of women who, in his view, also deserved inclusion ^[1].

Links

• History of A Limia
• Xinzo: people and businesses in the 20th century
• Xinzo: industry and services in the 20th century
• Olimpia Valencia

Sources

1. Edelmiro Martínez Cerredelo, «Outras mulleres ilustradas e traballadoras da Limia», Historia de Xinzo, 06/03/2025. https://historiadexinzo.wordpress.com/2025/03/06/outras-mulleres-ilustradas-e-traballadoras-da-limia/