A nurse
born in Equatorial Guinea is now a lawmaker in Spain. DW's Lauren Frayer
reports on how she is helping the western European country to nudge back the
frontiers of diversity.
"I was
born in Equatorial Guinea when it was a Spanish colony," explains Rita
Bosaho. "My parents died when I was very young, and I came to live with a
foster family in Spain."
Bosaho's
foster father was in the military, so they moved around, living in several
Spanish cities. She was the only black child in a white foster family and in
all of her schools, until university.
Compared
with the rest of Europe, Spain is a relatively homogenous society. It has
traditionally sent emigrants abroad, rather than receiving them, especially in
the 1970s, when Bosaho was growing up. She is now 50.
She says
she credits her foster parents with teaching her the values of equality and
justice. She became a hospital nurse and volunteered with disadvantaged
populations of Roma and other minorities in the rough northern barrios of
Alicante, on Spain's Mediterranean coast.
 |
Rita Bosaho is a lawmaker for Podemos, which came third in the December 2015
elections. Spain still has no government |
Then, two
years ago, when Spain's new left-wing political party, Podemos, began searching
for diverse, accomplished people willing to go into politics, Bosaho signed up.
'Lots of
people don't understand I'm Spanish'
In
elections on December 20, 2015, she won a seat in Spain's parliament becoming
the first person of color, male or female, ever to do so in modern Spanish
history.
Bosaho is
still coming to terms with her newfound fame.
"I
feel humbled and proud, and hope I can empower minorities," she says.
"There are lots of people who don't understand that I'm Spanish. They see
that I'm black and think those two things can't go together."
But the
Spanish population is changing. More than 10 percent are immigrants who've
become Spanish citizens, though most are lighter skinned, from Latin America or
Eastern Europe.
Spain
received a wave of Latino immigrants in the 1990s, during its economic boom
years, when there were ample jobs in construction and home health care. Spanish
law allows citizens of most former Spanish colonies, many of which are in Latin
America, to obtain Spanish passports within just two years.
Under-represented
in politics
Some of
those Latinos returned to their countries of origin after Spain's economy began
faltering in 2008. Spanish unemployment remains stuck above 20 percent, and
many immigrants worry they are over-represented in the jobless ranks while
under-represented in politics.
At a recent
community gathering in Valencia, on Spain's Mediterranean coast, immigrants
from several Latin American countries packed into a local Podemos office to
meet Bosaho, their new lawmaker.
"I'm
so proud to see a woman, an African woman, no less, representing us in
parliament," says Patricia Villalba, an unemployed 58-year-old originally
from Ecuador. "Immigrants should be more visible in Spanish society."
 |
| Rita Bosaho answering questions from high school students in Alicante |
Europe has
struggled with an influx of migrants and asylum seekers that brought more than
1 million people to its shores in 2015, with more than 140,000 more following
since January. Many are fleeing the war in Syria, but economic migrants have
also joined their ranks.
Arab and
African migrants and refugees typically want to go to more prosperous northern
Europe, and while Spain has agreed to accept more than 17,000 refugees under
European Union quota plans, just a small fraction of those have arrived from
landing zones in Greece and Italy. Madrid's city hall is nevertheless draped in
a "Refugees Welcome" banner.
Unlike in
other parts of Europe, there is no major far-right, anti-immigrant political
movement here, though racism exists. In 2014, a banana was hurled at a
Brazilian soccer player in Spain's Villareal stadium, and spectators taunted a
Spanish team's Senegalese player by making monkey noises.
Bosaho's
own party, Podemos, has been criticized for promising dignity to unemployed
protesters in the street but not yet backing that up with policy. Bosaho has
yet to author any legislation. But she's changing perceptions about those who
do.
The
stereotype of a Spanish politician "is always a man, the typical white
man," says Aitana Christensen Ribera, an 18-year-old high school student
who met Bosaho when the lawmaker visited her high school. "And now you
have her! That's the new politics."
But Bosaho
is aware of the scope of the challenge she faces.
"People
in Spain see me differently," she says. "And I worry they value me
differently. How can I convince people I'm Spanish, just like them?"
