“If someone asks you about Ángela, I want to make it clear that this person is asking for help, he/she is not asking about a waitress from the other shift called Ángela”, says José Luis Benítez, manager of the association Ocio de Ibiza. Seated, listening attentively, about a hundred Ushuaïa workers. Waiters and waitresses. And security personnel. It is just after 3:30pm in the afternoon, in half an hour they will start their working day, but from this afternoon they have to be very clear about what it means when someone asks them about Ángela.
Ángela campaign in full force
“The bathrooms are already completely covered with posters”, explains Benítez, who is giving the talk today as a director of the associations Spain Nightlife and International Nightlife. These posters inform customers, especially women, that if they suffer any problem of harassment, if someone chases them, if they think they have put something in their drink or they are not left alone, they should go to the bar or to one of the security workers and ask for Ángela. That question alone will let them know something is up and help the customer. Protect her. Separating her from the possible assailant. Escorting her to a cab or her own vehicle. Calling the police in the most complicated cases. “In the United Kingdom and Italy it has been a very strong campaign for many years, but in Spain it is taking a long time”, says Benítez, who explains that they are now taking up this initiative that they started, more timidly, in the two years prior to the pandemic.
One of the posters placed in strategic places in Ushuaïa. Vicent Marí
The victim’s shame
“Normally, nothing happens in the clubs, but that’s where it all starts,” he says before explaining that this is one of the reasons why it is important that the surroundings of the clubs are illuminated. “The objective of this campaign is to avoid that the person who is suffering this situation is ashamed to say it,” he continues before directly questioning the waiters and security agents of Ushuaïa (those of Hï have another session scheduled at half past ten at night, before opening the club): “You are the ones who know the most about what happens in the room. The waiters, even more than the security people, you can be more attentive”.
Angela, the warning sign against harassment in nightclubs
Among the hundred or so workers listening attentively to the brief talk is Adam. He is a waiter, sector manager at Ushuaïa, he has been working in the hotel business for eight years and this is his first summer on the island. And he knows exactly what Benítez is talking about. He is already wary of the relationships established in the clubs and at night – “here everything leads to the fact that five minutes after meeting someone they are already inviting you for a drink, they even plant it in your hands”-, from behind the bar he has seen situations that have made him be on his guard. He especially remembers a girl who, accompanied by a man, fainted. She soon regained consciousness, but then fainted again. He was calmer when the nursing and security staff arrived to attend to her, but he was shocked by the behavior of the guy she was with: “As if nothing was wrong. He didn’t look worried.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.