Who Is Fernanda De La Figuera?
📷 The Olive Press
Today we celebrate the International Women’s Day across the globe with the aim to eradicate discrimination against women and help women gain full and equal participation in global development. For this reason, we will be sharing the story of Fernanda de la Figuera - probably the biggest influence within the Spanish cannabis movement.
Fernanda, commonly known as La Abuela (“The Grandmother”) lived her early years at in Barcelona, until she moved to Malaga in the 1970s. She started growing cannabis in 1973 and has been a well-involved activist since then. After almost 20 years of growing cannabis, she was prosecuted in 1995 which led to the first exonerated case in Spain - which initiated the A.R.S.E.C.A. foundation (Asociación Ramón Santo de Estudios sobre el Cannabis de Andalucía) of which she became honorary president. By this point, La Abuela’s involvement with the herb was far from over, as she followed on to co-found the C.P.V. (Cannabis Party of Valencia) and the F.A.C. (Federación de Asociaciones Cannábicas) and has represented the European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies in Spain. Furthermore, Fernanda started a cannabis social club in Málaga named Marías X María - which is exclusively a space reserved for women to consume cannabis and currently comprises of over 200 members. In 2010, the harvest for this club was raided by the police after strong criticism from conservative press was publicised.
La Abuela has been described several times as a loving individual, with a desire of people to try her homegrown products, as well as being more than happy to share her vast amount of quality recipes for concentrates, edibles or even growing techniques and tips. 50 years after her first toke, Fernanda has accomplished what very few cannabis activists in the world have been able to achieve.
In 2012, she received a Cannabis Culture Award from Amsterdam’s Hash, Marijuana and Hemp Museum - being the first Spaniard and being the first ever woman to receive such award.
“I think people really listen to senior women because we’ve been working with this stuff for years. We just know about marijuana, and if there were problems with it, we’d know about them as well”, she said. La Abuela also credits her admirable health at the age of 79 to regular cannabis consumption.
From Kushtopia, we thank you Fernanda! Thank you for your perseverance, continuity and passion.