The mantecados from Estepa began to be marketed by a woman. And it was a woman, the same one, who in the second half of the 19th century perfected the traditional recipe until obtaining the product we know today. Micaela Ruiz Téllez, the Mattress, is a transcendental figure in the pastry industry of this Sevillian town, as are the thousands of butter who have worked in the workshops for more than 100 years. Because this Christmas candy grew and is still alive thanks to female hands.
“In the town, the Iberian pig slaughters took place in October and November. At that time, a surplus of them was used and sweets were made with the butter of this animal, wheat flour, sugar and some spices,” says José María Fernández, president of the YoProtected Geographical Indication Mantecados and Polvorones de Estepa. “Here in each house there was an oven, but what was produced was for self-consumption,” says José María. What was a simple gastronomic custom without any profit, from the last third of the 19th century gradually became an industry that currently provides more than 2,000 direct jobs and generates an economic impact of 70 million euros in a town of about 12,500 inhabitants, according to data from the IGP.
“I don’t know how he didn’t end up in jail.”
“Micaela was dedicated to making slaughters in the town, and with the excess fat she made sweets that were similar to today’s mantecados,” says Santiago Fernández, great-great-grandson of La Colchona and administrator of the homonymous production company. “Those became hard very quickly, so to avoid this it occurred to him to heat the flour to dry it out and remove its moisture. In this way, he managed to make them tight and always remain tender, ”says Santiago.
Their creations became so famous in the town that José Hermoso, Micaela’s friend, suggested that she give them to her husband to sell. Despite what might be thought at first, La Colchona’s husband, Manuel Fernández Tenllado, did not work at Pikolín: he was a cosario, that is, a kind of messenger who took objects to other places. “Micaela took advantage of the profession of her husband, who made the route to Córdoba, to start selling the sweets that he prepared at home. This is the beginning of the commercialization of Estepa mantecados”, declares Santiago Fernández, who is part of the fifth generation in charge of the business.
“It is very meritorious that a woman had the courage to start a business at that time. I don’t know how they didn’t put her in jail”, Santiago wonders. In addition, a woman not very old, since, according to her marriage and death certificates, Micaela was born in 1837 -despite the fact that she Junta de Andalucía celebrated the bicentenary of his birth in 2021-, and began selling shortbreads around 1870. “We imagine that due to the social conditions that existed at that time it would be a scandal,” declares José María Fernández from the IGP.
No.ació an industry local… and feminine
Although there were those who did not see well the work of this entrepreneur, such was the success of the mantecados that Micaela made, that many residents of Estepa followed in her footsteps. Thus, little by little the fame of the Christmas sweets made in this town in Seville spread throughout Spain, as demonstrated in a letter by the famous gourmet Dr. Thebussem of 1882 in which he mentions them. Over time, this sector settled, to the point that in 1968 124 workshops coexisted, according to the book semblances of steppeby local historian Antonio Rivero.
Now, an industry that from the beginning employed women: “The task, as in so many other agri-food tasks -packaging vegetables, preserves, jams…-, was female. Between 85 and 90% of the total workforce were women, as it still is now,” he says. Anastasia Tellez Infante, PhD in Cultural Anthropology and researcher in this sector. “However, the baker, the master worker who mixed the ingredients and the businessman were always men,” says Téllez Infante. A paradox that explains the inequality: some were relegated to manual labor while others exercised responsibility, despite the fact that the person who started this business was a neighbor from the town.
myou will fall and precarious
In the middle of the 20th century, the workshops began to become industrialized, and the first cutting and kneading machines were already seen in the 1960s, but the female role was the same: “Phases of the production process such as filling boxes, sealing or wrapping the sweets by hand they continue to make women”, reports Anastasia, author of a doctoral thesis on this subject.
“The feminization of work has been transmitted because it is a sector related to the kitchen, let’s not fool ourselves,” says this researcher. “It is considered that we are more trained for this type of work, when women have not been born biologically with more manual dexterity or with more patience to spend eight hours on a packaging belt.”
To this we must add that working conditions differed by gender: “In the sixties or seventies there were many workers without a contract who were paid much less,” says Téllez Infante. “When I did my thesis, at the end of the nineties, I saw that the remuneration was correct, but there was real discrimination: all the women were laborers regardless of how many years they had been there, while there were first-rate men, for example ”.
According to this anthropologist, the labor rights of this sector of the population have improved in recent decades: “Currently the conditions of female workers in factories are much better. Who has seen and who sees employment in Estepa mantecados”. “The work in the factory is carried out by women for the most part, but today they also occupy other functions, such as research, sales, commercial or management”, declares the businessman Santiago Fernández.
The mantecado itself has also evolved, whose main ingredients are wheat flour, Iberian lard and sugar. From there, the IGP recognizes different varieties under its seal -to which 18 of the 22 producing companies that currently exist are registered-: there are some with cinnamon, lemon, cocoa, vanilla, hazelnut, coconut or extra virgin olive oil instead of animal fat. “The city council has even proposed that the preparation of these Christmas sweets be declared Intangible Heritage of Humanity”, comments Anastasia.
“If it weren’t for the ice cream sector, Estepa would be an agricultural town, like all the surrounding ones,” says Santiago. Today this town is “a feminized industrial island”, as Anastasia Téllez Infante indicates. All thanks to the work of hundreds of myou will fall who make the sweet that a woman thought of selling when no one else did.
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