Victoria Kent Siano
Pioneer in the rights of prisoners
She was born in 1892, at the current number 25 of Lagunillas street in Malaga, in a humble liberal family.
She was one of the first Spanish lawyers and the first to practice before a military court. A member of parliament in the Second Republic, together with Clara Campoamor and Margarita Nelken, she was also director general of Prisons, appointed by the provisional government presided by Alcalá-Zamora, in April 1931. She would occupy this position for just over a year during which she witnessed the misery and neglect of Spanish prisons.
She was in Malaga on June 5, 6 and 7, 1931, being received by a commission from the Radical Republican Party. She stayed at the Caleta Palace hotel. That night she had dinner at the home of her friend D. Bonifacio Gómez, and there she received a visit from Mr. Baeza Medina, mayor of Malaga. The next day she visited the Provincial Prison, where she spoke with some prisoners who made some requests of her. Later she visited the construction of the new prison. At the Town Hall she visited different rooms and was treated to a glass of Malaga wine.
On the 7th she went on an excursion to the Caminito del Rey, and in the evening she gave a lecture at the Economic Society of Friends of the Country entitled: "Women and Politics". This was the first political lecture held at the Society after the establishment of the Second Republic. Among other things she said: "For me there are no men or women, only abilities and work." On the role of women in politics she said: "Does a woman have to live only in her home and for her home? Is there no other home than her own? Are there no other children than her own, and are there no other beings worthy of protection than those she has given birth to? No, women have the obligation to take an interest in the government of the country, which is the government of our own home."
When the conflicts began after the Second Republic, he had to go into exile in New York, where he died in 1987.
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