Francisca Moya del Baño, the first female professor of Latin at the University of Murcia and founder of the Classical Philology Degree at that institution, author of "Abrieron mentes" (They Opened Minds), has donated the profits from her book, in equal parts, to the Padre Salmerón Municipal Library in Cieza and to the libraries of the Diego Tortosa and Los Albares secondary schools, funds destined for the acquisition of books and teaching materials.
The donation was formally presented at Cieza Town Hall on Friday, May 10th. Mayor Tomás Rubio; Councilor for Education María Turpín; Secretary of the Los Albares Secondary School, Joaquín Ríos; and Director of the Diego Tortosa Secondary School, Ana Espiñeira, attended a reception for Francisca Moya del Baño as an official ceremony.
At the event, those present expressed their gratitude to the Cajamurcia Foundation and the author for this initiative, emphasizing the need to ensure that the memory of those generations who contributed to the construction of society is not lost.
Creation of the book
The work "They Opened Minds" has been published with the sponsorship of the Cajamurcia Foundation and the collaboration of the Cieza City Council, the Fray Pasqual Salmerón Center for Historical Studies, the University of Murcia and the Royal Academy Alfonso X El Sabio.
The presentation ceremony was held in Cieza on April 23rd at the Aurelio Guirao Auditorium, where all copies of the first edition were sold. The "little book," in the words of its author, is the result of contributions, in the form of written and graphic testimonies, from many of the former students of the now-defunct "Nuestra Señora del Sagrado Corazón" school, who worked to find information and revise and expand it. It is a fitting tribute to the school and its founder and director, Professor Pepita Semitiel, whose aim was to offer young women in the region the opportunity to continue learning after primary school, without the onerous effort of traveling to Murcia.
Pepita Semitiel School of Cieza
Thanks to Pepita Semitiel's tenacity, patience, and academic rigor, many women from Cieza, Abarán, and Blanca earned their high school diplomas, and some began and completed university studies, becoming pioneers and influencers in numerous professional fields, like Francisca Moya herself. In 1973, the school disappeared, and its students joined the other young people in the region at the High School, later called "Diego Tortosa," and at the end of the same decade at the Vocational Training Institute, now "Los Albares." Francisca Moya's book delves effortlessly into the history of the school's two decades from an important perspective, one that Pepita Semitiel instilled in her students: the training and education of women, like that of men, must be based on humanism and always strive for the highest.