Elisa Sheriff
As Jackie and I began to look into material for ‘The winds of change’. In a black and white Pathe Newsreel from the period. I stumbled across a beautiful woman getting off a B.E.A. plane in Gibraltar. The narration gave us her name as ‘Elisa Sheriff’ and that she was running against the British Foreign minister in his borough of Fulham. In order to bring attention to the everyday British citizen of the bullying of our tiny nation by the Spanish Dictator, General Franco. Surprisingly, in all the books we had scoured in our research. We had not seen her name mentioned. She became an enigma to be solved. A puzzle to unravel. What we found was one of our local history’s forgotten warriors. A true ’Llanita’ heroine hiding in plain sight. We wondered if she was still alive? Where was she living? Through the magic of the Internet, we tracked her down and Jackie went to see her. She became a major character in the play. An important part of the tapestry of women who had taken up the call to fight for our human rights. She came over to watch the last night of our play and I had the distinct honor of meeting her. It was with great sadness that we heard of the news of our dear friend Elisa Sheriff’s passing. It was an honor to pen some words to tell her tale. She will not be forgotten! You can see her in an interview she gave about her efforts here.
‘She’s been haunting me since I began this journey. A beautiful woman dressed in sackcloth and smeared in ashes. Who dances like a leaf blown on the wind. Overwhelmed by tears and sadness. She’s looking for forgiveness for a crime she did not commit. For a sin that is not hers’.
“To me… dressed the way she was…‘Ripe with lost poems, stepping naked into the street.’ She was a woman from a play by Lorca. A powerful, beautiful and heroic woman. Whose purpose is smeared on her face like War Paint made of anger and tears. I think I fell in love with her then”.
