The sad story of Elisa and Marcela, the only lesbian couple who deceived the church and got married in 1901

At first glance, it was an ordinary wedding; even the priest of the Church of San Jorge did not notice anything strange. But in fact, the groom was a woman. The ceremony took place in 1901, and the union between Elisa and Marcela remains the only known same-sex marriage in the history of the Spanish Catholic Church. But the couple's triumph over the conservative mores of 20th-century Spain was short-lived.

Elisa Sánchez Loriga and Marcela Gracia Ibeas first met while studying in A Coruña and fell in love. The family was concerned about Marcela's relationship and she was sent to Madrid. However, according to historian Narciso de Gabriel, who wrote a book about the couple, the girls ended up in rural schools a few kilometers apart. Therefore, Elisa was able to visit Marcela every day after school.

At this point, the couple hatched a clever plan. First, they let everyone know they had had a falling out. And Marcela, who de Gabriel said was pregnant by an unknown man at the time, announced that she was going to marry Elisa's cousin. This is how Mario entered the story - a young man from La Coruña who allegedly grew up in London in a family of atheists.

With her hair cut short and dressed as a man, Elisa, under the name Mario, went to church to be baptized and married to Marcela. Narciso de Gabriel claims that the marriage was registered and is still valid.

Unfortunately for the couple, their wedding portrait made the front page of a local newspaper under the revealing headline, “A Wedding Without a Groom.” The unwanted publicity forced the couple to flee to Portugal, where Marcela gave birth to a daughter. Facing extradition to Spain, trial, and imprisonment, the couple boarded a ship in 1902 and sailed to Buenos Aires. There, Elisa tried to marry a wealthy older Dane, but he suspected her of cheating. De Gabriel says that after that, the couple was lost, except for a story in a Mexican newspaper that Elisa had committed suicide in Veracruz.

The story of Elisa and Marcela is the basis for the film "Bookshop" by Spanish director Isabel Coixet, starring Emily Mortimer and Bill Nighy.

Inmaculada Mujica Flores, a sociologist and psychologist, director of the LGBT association Aldarte, believes that the film is a rare opportunity to draw attention to the problems of lesbians.

Mujica Flores says a law guaranteeing LGBT rights in Spain is important to ensure Marcela and Elisa's story never happens again.

The film's director, Isabel Coixet, says the subject of her film is not entirely conventional.