Spanish Civil War Memory Project

Summary

Calvet was born in 1951 in Sabadell, to a working class Catholic family. She left home at eighteen largely due to her militant leftist politics, which clashed with her family's Catholicism. She became a Communist, working clandestinely in the early 1970s. She also associated with the Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya (PSUC). Before the Partido Comunista (PC) was legalized she worked underground, distributing propaganda, teaching women about their rights, all while earning a living through various secretarial and journalistic jobs. She was briefly detained in 1975 as a result of her political activism. Calvet moved to Hospitalet, and also lived in Barcelona where she came to study. In the general elections of 1977 she was elected as a diputada from Barcelona with the PSUC. She describes her involvement in politics during the transition to democracy of the late 1970s, including the drafting of the new Constitution. Finally, Calvet comments on the current political situation in Catalonia, drawing some comparisons to the political climate of the 1970s. Currently professor of urbanism in the Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña, Calvet remains active in women's issues dealing with workplace equality, and other social issues