06/07/2023 and las 19:37 CEST
The singer, actress and LGTBIQ activist, whose concert was stopped by a Murcia police officer, warns that freedom of expression is in danger
He is one of the faces unknown to the general public, Rocio Saiz, singer, LGTBIQ activist and actress, who has achieved visibility in a very dodgy way: being the object of repression by a police inspector who did not let her show her chest at a concert in Murcia -as she has been doing since she founded her group, the Chillers, who do ‘covers’ of Rocío Jurado or Camela-. After the euphoria of the Pride celebration, on July 6 she shared the stage with Sidonie in Alicante and her singer, Marc Ros, went completely nude to the astonishment of the public and even Saiz herself. For her, and despite the fact that the Murcia episode was an individual initiative for which the police have apologized, it is one more action in a harsh cultural offensive that the governments in which it is agreed or signed are already tuning in. govern with Vox. Hard times for battles that were believed to be won. To Saiz -who also has a countercultural section on Radio 3, ‘I have the pussy in airplane mode‘- we caught her in a swimming pool in Madrid, where naturally she practices ‘topless’.
How are you living this week of tension in the networks in which they call you the least ‘pretty’ of all?
I’m exhausted, social networks are fuming. They’re also leaving behind Sidonie’s, who have always been an indie group, formal and highly accepted. I like it because they have always been super masculine and now they have lent themselves to this.
Did you have an agreement that you and Marc Ros would undress?
Not to that point. I proposed it on stage. So I took off my shirt, I stayed in my panties and out of the corner of my eye I saw that Marc was taking everything off, chopped ball, but with the pinkis, yes. We have had to post the censored images on the networks, but it was the only way for people to know what had happened.
You’ve been showing your breasts on stage for seven or eight years.
I started doing it because I read a book from 1960, the manual of the good wife that gave you about 10 tips to be one: be quiet, always have food ready and be discreet. So I went on stage and said: “for all those who said that women had to be discreet.” And then I took off my shirt.
So it has a claim meaning.
One hundred by one hundred. I do it because people keep complaining. The day I take it off and no one says anything, I’ll stop doing it. Well, I have to say that in Catalonia I have never had a criticism, I lived there for a while. Sometimes the brown mess singing outside “Catalunya triomfant will return to be rich and full” and of course there are those who get angry, but I don’t care. If everything I do helps create a state of opinion that prevents repealing laws, welcome.
“Regarding the boobs, I always say that Rigoberta Bandini puts on the music and I do the body”
Are boobs still scary as Rigoberta Bandini proclaims?
Yes, but she has never taught them. I always say that she puts the music and I the body.
The police apologized to you, are you still filing the complaint?
Yes, of course, the No Te Prives association will also denounce it and I imagine the prosecution, which has really acted very quickly. However, that is not happening with the other censorships of the PP and Vox in which budgetary reasons are alleged. Now a battle is going to start in which we don’t know how we will have to fight against the powers that be, because they don’t usually protect the weakest.
Do you think that your case is the link in a chain of growing repression?
Many artists, creators and stage directors are creating a platform against censorship and we will soon release a manifesto. I am one more, but the repression is growing, every day we learn of a new case: Paco Bezerra on the Channel, Buzz Lightyear in Cantabria, Virginia Woolf’s play in Mallorca. It is a chain effect and before that there was Eugenio Merino who was censored in Arco for a Franco put in a fridge. They also know how to hide his censorship very well, they leave the contract unsigned until the last day and then they inform you of a budget change. The general feeling is that freedom of expression is in danger.
“Women have not been allowed to show their chests outside of the sexual sphere”
Can you explain why showing your chest can be a symbol of feminist advocacy?
Because historically we have not been allowed to show it outside of the sexual realm. The female breast is for sexual purposes and theirs is not.
You star in a lesbian comedy, ‘My friend’s friend’, which can be seen on Filmin and has garnered very good reviews in ‘The Guardian’.
Yes, it’s a dyke movie, we also went out there with boobs. In Spain it has stayed on the ‘underground’ circuits, but it is literally going around the world through many festivals. Also on Filmin you can see a documentary, ‘La revolución bailando,’ about my work on stage.
Do you think that lesbians have achieved greater visibility in recent years?
The truth is no. Much less than gay men. They tend to associate us with a bad mood, ugly aesthetics, and conflictiveness. And we’re not like that, that’s why we’ve shot a funny comedy about those topics.
Did Rocío Jurado’s ‘As I love you’ need you to take off your shirt?
Well yes. They criticize us on the networks saying that Rocío Jurado would not be in favor of this, and shit. She was always by our side. I believe that all women have to be united. These days have also given me surprises, like the fact that people like Ana Rosa Quintana and Esperanza Aguirre have supported me. I freak out But it’s okay.
What would you say to your ‘haters’?
I don’t understand why they don’t respect our way of loving, because Ryanair leaves us all stranded, regardless of who you sleep with. The enemy is your life of shit, your house of 22 square meters and your derogation of freedoms and rights, not my tits.