La Corrobla

María Marlen


La Corrobla reclaims memory and collectivity by rescuing and reconfiguring a deeply masculine tradition: popular toasts. A kind of proverb or rhyme typically recited by men, often filled with sexism and boastfulness. From an ethnographic and participatory perspective, the work proposes a symbolic and practical reappropriation of these spaces and popular expressions.

The author gathers with her grandmother, her aunt, and a group of elderly women from the village of Las Casas del Conde (Salamanca) to rewrite, recite, and celebrate new toasts. Through this contemporary corrobla, a space of joy and reflection emerges, where women take the floor, the wine, and the spotlight. What begins as a timid exercise becomes an empowering act that questions gender roles within oral tradition and festive culture. The piece is not only a tribute to female popular wisdom, but an active cultural intervention: a poetic and political gesture that turns the act of toasting into a tool for resistance, sisterhood, and collective rewriting. It celebrates the past while transforming the present.

Technical datasheet

  • Title: La Corrobla
  • Direction: María Marlen
  • Production: 2023.
  • Duration: 00:06:00
  • Languages: Spanish
  • Subtitles: Spanish
  • Original format: H264
  • Formats: .mov - H264
  • TV systems: NTSC