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I have been enjoying this role as ad hoc correspondent for several years now. The vanguard in London and, of course, as a reader. I have written about Brexit, xenophobic attitudes towards immigrants, the misdeeds of Boris Johnson and his cronies, the insidious dismantling of the National Health Service, the attachment theory of British psychiatrist John Bowlby, the mistreatment of Julian Assange, and also in defence of humanity in the face of the unspeakable suffering of the Palestinian people. I even wrote an obituary for Her Gracious Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, after almost 40 years of being her “subject”.
On this occasion, from the distance of London, I want to write a heartfelt and close tribute to Efigenio Amezúa (1941-2024), my teacher, mentor and friend, with whom I trained from 1982 to 1984 at the Institute of Sexological Sciences (INCISEX), in the context of The move from Madrid, just before my move to London.
For his pioneering work and prolific teachings over five decades, training sexologists and contributing to the richness of the thinking of other professionals, Professor Amezúa, who holds a PhD from the University of Louvain in Belgium, deserves to go down in history as the “father” of sexology in Spain.
On July 23, I received a call from Nadette, his wife, to tell me that Efigenio had passed away that morning. I felt deep pain; at the same time, I realized that he will continue to be an important part of my life, until my time comes.
I consider Efigenio to be a rara avis who gradually shaped a discipline, sexology, which had been absent in Spain, by decree, during the endless years of the Franco dictatorship.
He gradually shaped a discipline, sexology, which had been absent in Spain, by decree, during the dictatorship.
He was able to combine insights and findings from multiple fields of knowledge like no one else. His humanistic approach to sexuality, based on his own conception of it as the “human sexual fact,” gave rise to an orientation that is at once scientific and poetic, analytical and passionate, countercultural and therapeutic.
That said, the beauty of sexuality can be distorted through reductionist conceptions that perceive it as a plumbing of the genitals, an expression that I learned, of course, from Efigenio Amezúa.
From him I also learned that human sexuality goes beyond anatomy, physiology and procreation: it offers us enriching opportunities to feel desired, loved and valued, and it helps us to know ourselves and accept our body and other bodies, our being. In some way, sexuality is our entire being.
I like to say that sexuality, food and attachment are the three basic pillars of human existence, without which survival would not be possible and life would have no meaning.
Sexuality, food and attachment are the three basic pillars of human existence.
For the co-construction of personal identity, within optimal psychosocial development, the integration of sexuality and attachment is key.
When I talk about co-constructing identity, I mean that this process inevitably involves a tension between the search for singularity or distinctiveness (that which makes each person unique and different) and the establishment of the communality that we share with others and that gives us a necessary sense of belonging.
At this point, I would like to share with the reader some personal reminiscences of my meeting with Efigenio, as an expression of gratitude towards him, for the quality and warmth of his teachings, for his incomparable contribution to the genesis and development of sexology in Spain, and for his influence on my thinking and on my personal and professional growth.
I was privileged to live in Madrid during the beginning of the so-called Movida and to be part of a very special group: the 1982-1984 promotion of INCISEXfounded by Efigenio Amezúa in 1975, the same year that the Generalissimo died.
INCISEX became one of the members of the cultural, sociopolitical and intellectual change that, in a broader context, represented La Movida: a period of extraordinary creativity in which sexuality was largely freed from decades of control and censorship by the Regime, which interfered in the most intimate affairs of citizens, including their sexual lives.
La Movida was a period of extraordinary creativity in which sexuality was liberated
As an antidote to the lack of sexual education during the iron-clad stage of the National Movement, in the first year, Efigenio suggested reading an interesting book, fresh out of the oven: What does power do in your bed? This incisive text, published by Josep Vicent Marqués in 1981, helped me understand some of the controlling and educating dynamics imposed by Francoist structures.
Other texts that were part of the training program for that course were the Book of good lovewritten by Juan Ruiz Arcipreste de Hita in 1330, the erotic-philosophical novel by the Marquis de Sade, Justine, or The Misfortunes of Virtuewhich was published in 1791, and the Phenomenology of Perception by the existentialist Maurice Merleau-Ponty, published in Spain in 1975. Long live diversity.
Efigenio had that touch of genius, of bringing together various branches of knowledge, as well as linking disparate authors. Over time, he was able to integrate this amalgam of “sexological sciences” into a coherent and respected discipline: sexology, conceived from a humanistic perspective.
I remember that, in class, he spoke to us in a slow tone of voice that, at times, seemed to contain a studied reluctance, which seduced us and encouraged us to generate our own thoughts about sexuality, in a broad, critical, original and demystifying way.
On a more interpersonal level, during one of the breaks between classes, I had the opportunity to talk face to face with Efigenio about Main Streeta masterpiece of Spanish cinema directed by Juan Antonio Bardem, which was almost strangled by Franco’s censorship. Efigenio knew very well that Palencia, his hometown, had been chosen by Bardem to reflect the daily life of a provincial capital. Filming began in January 1956.
Poster for the film ‘Calle Mayor’ (1956).
Efigenio was a teenager of barely 15 years old and I had not yet been born. Not without irony, he told me that the lives of his fellow citizens of Palencia were altered by the filming, with its display of the unavoidable cinematic paraphernalia, which included the arrival of famous artists, quite an event for a provincial city.
However, this project did not go as planned. Everything was put on hold after an anti-Franco demonstration in Madrid, where Bardem himself was arrested, along with other opponents of the regime. He was accused of what was then called “crime of opinion”, a common subterfuge used to arrest those who dared to express points of view different from the single way of thinking that prevailed at that time.
Bardem was imprisoned sine die, another very common practice at the time. Franco wanted to replace him with a director who was sympathetic to the regime, but his plan backfired.
In his beautiful and rigorous book, La Rioja in Historyjournalist and author Marcelino Izquierdo narrates in detail the vicissitudes of this film that had as its protagonist the American actress Betsy Blair, who had been accused of being a communist by the senator and witch hunter Joseph McCarthy, of the Republican Party. This forced her to exile herself from the United States to Europe and she established her base in London, where she died in 2009. In this city, she is still remembered with affection.
Betsy Blair was not prepared to give in to the Generalissimo’s demands and flatly refused to continue filming without Juan Antonio Bardem. Her courage attracted the support of world-famous filmmakers, such as the English Charles Chaplin, director, screenwriter and performer of another gem of the seventh art: The great Dictatorreleased in 1940.
Betsy Blair was not willing to give in to the Generalissimo’s demands and flatly refused to continue filming.
Actress Betsy Blair.
Faced with such international pressure, Franco decided to release Bardem. However, when he returned to Palencia to continue his work, the hostile atmosphere towards him that had been generated in the Castilian city made his return inadvisable.
So, the unrepentant director looked for an alternative location and chose Logroño, my hometown, which was also the provincial capital (of La Rioja, to be exact), but which offered a wine that resurrects the dead, according to popular wisdom since time immemorial.
The script of Main Street It is based on the misfortune of a young provincial girl, who sees the years go by without anyone noticing her as a person, while at the same time she feels her beauty languish.
In reality, she was still beautiful; her feeling was the result of the situation in which the female gender found itself in Spain at that time: every woman was forced to marry, become a nun or be a social failure.
Using subtle criticism, Bardem masterfully avoided the oppressive censorship to which he was subjected and analyzed the tragic aspects that a “spinster” (as it was disparagingly called at the time) suffered and the unbearable pressure that society exerted on her. On the other hand, there were no bachelors, but “golden bachelors.” These were the times of “long live gender inequality.”
There were no bachelors, but “eligible bachelors.” These were the times of “long live gender inequality”
A few days after our conversation about Calle Mayor, during an INCISEX work session, Efigenio invited all of his students to think about our own sexual or gender identity. I remember that there was a slight confusion in the classroom. Each of my colleagues stated that their gender identity coincided with their anatomical sexual characteristics.
When my turn came, perhaps influenced by the complicity between Efigenio and me, I said that I was curious to know how the world could be seen from a female perspective. I added that, if I had ten lives, I would like to live three of them as a woman. And I was more than happy.
Immediately, Luis Bellet, one of my group colleagues, commented that those three women would necessarily have to be Augustine of Aragon, Joan of Arc and Marie Curie.
All the members of the group (including Efigenio) laughed heartily. Luis worked as a film director in Barcelona and had a special eye for perceiving subliminal nuances of reality; at that time, he was hatching a fascinating project: Winter’s sun.
Whether I was perceived as a warrior or a scientist, it seemed clear that those roles were still considered masculine rather than feminine. Those were different times…
These memories are part of my immense gratitude to Efigenio Amezúa, founder and honorary member of the Spanish Association of Sexology Professionals, whose legacy will remain and be passed on to future generations. Farewell Efigenio!
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