Gal Pals Watch Elisa y Marcela

Gal Pals Watch

Episode 80: Elisa & Marcela

Happy new year, lovely queers! To kick off the 2023 movie-watching season, this month Alicia and Sarah go back in time to turn-of-the-20th-century Spain, where these two teenage schoolgirls get really into towel play (i.e. they fall in love at school), and spend the rest of their lives either together or trying to be together. Elisa and Marcela's story is based on a true one which is pretty fascinating; they are known as the first same-sex marriage in Spain, 100 years before it became legal there. They achieved this by cross-dressing and lying to a priest, which is pretty punk rock for 1900s Catholic Europe, and very queer. This movie is kind of a downer, but we think it's worth watching anyway. Enjoy! Further reading: Making Queer History page on the real Elisa and Marcela Elisa y Marcela Wikipedia page Variety review by Jay Weissberg