Mujer y asistencia social en Navarra: «Urgen profesionales del “amor” y se llaman asistentes sociales» [Woman and social assistance in Navarra: «Professionals of the “love” urgently call themselves social workers»]

Abstract

There are historical studies about poverty and its general attention in Spain. Less known is the figure of the social assistant/social worker. The objective, therefore, will be the knowledge of this one in Navarra, since the opening of the Diocesan School of Social Assistants San Vicente de Paúl of Pamplona (1960). For this purpose, the documentation of Teresa Celaya’s private archive and interviews with social assistants of the first promotion were counted. It has been found that they are no longer voluntary home assistants, dependent on parishes, but professionals who will respond to the emerging social needs of a Navarre and, above all, Pamplona, which is in an industrialized and accelerated way in the 1960s.