Explanation of the object
This object is a visiting card from my great-grandmother, Amparo, who worked as a dressmaker in Valencia. It of course relates to me because Amparo was my great-grandmother and, although I never got to meet her, my mother still remembers her and occasionally tells a story about her life.
In order to understand this object better, I will make a quick summary of Amparo's life:
Amparo Teba Mora was born in 1923 in Martos, Jaén. When she was a teenager she started as an apprentice in a tailoring workshop in her hometown. There, she mostly made uniforms for soldiers. This was due to the Civil War, which was still being fought back then.
Amparo married a soldier, Ángel, in 1942, And that same year the couple moved to Fuerteventura, where they had their first daughter (my grandma, Mª del Rosario), in 1943.
Only two years later, they moved to Seville. Then, Ángel left his job in the military and began working as a peddler in order to maintain the family. At the same time, Amparo began sewing for her friends and acquaintances.
In 1951, they moved again, but this time to Valencia. Amparo continued sewing, but now she made clothes for everyone who asked her (not only friends), so she started to get more money for her job. She didn't have a sewing machine, so she went to the customers' houses and used theirs instead. Eventually, the couple had a son, Ángel, and this caused Amparo to feel overwhelmed at home so, they decided that Rosario would leave school in order to help her mother with her work, when she was only 12 years old. Amparo only made male clothing for her relatives, because she was a dressmaker. She never had en employee, but had a few people come work with her as apprentices.
When Rosario was 18 years old, the whole family moved again, but just a few streets away from their previous flat. By this time Amparo had saved up enough money to buy a sewing machine and a table for cutting, so she made her own workshop at home. She even made wedding and communion dresses, and it got to a point when her job was the main form of income the family had. This is important because she, a woman, was the head of the family at a time when men were considered superior, and this makes her story even more inspiring.
Sadly, Amparo Teba died in 1970, after achieving so much, and not long after Rosario had her third daughter.
The object I chose is a visiting card from when Amparo finally made her own workshop and started working at home. Back then, she lived in Valencia (Padre Viñas street). This card is just an item used to promote Amparo's business, and it doesn't have any economic value, only sentimental. My grandma found it in her house a few months ago and it was a very happy surprise for her so, I knew from the beginning that this was going to be the item I would choose for this project. Furthermore, all my family was happy with the discovery, and my granparents now keep it in their house and are very careful not to lose it, because it represents a very important part of my great-grandmother's life. This card has a lot of sentimental value and in this case this feature determines its heritage value.
When it comes to historical value, it is not that important of an item, but in my opinion it is important because it shows how my great-grandmother was a strong woman and ahead of her time, because she was the head of the family, instead of her husband. I think that this object reinforces the ideas of equality and in some way, feminism, due to it showing how a woman can also work and be a leader, something that our current society still doesn't understand. In conclusion I estimate that it's historical value isn't too much, because she didn't change the country or do anything very important, but I think this has more value in the current vision of history, due to it being part of the everyday life of a family and, I believe that the message it contains is what ends up being more important.