Writer Abel Hernández examined the historical role of the veil and headscarf, noting how women wore dark veils to church until late in the 20th century. In rural villages, older women who never had the opportunity to visit a hairdresser wore black headscarves as a permanent garment. Hernández recalled that as a child he never saw his grandmother Bibiana without a headscarf on her head, even inside their house.
During church services, women occupied the central pews with dark veils covering their heads. On the street, the headscarf served as an everyday substitute for the veil, becoming as characteristic of the era as the berets and leather abarcas sandals worn by rural men. Hernández described the garment as a sign of modesty and submission, a mark of mourning for deceased family members who were always present, a remnant of a time when women occupied a secondary social role, and evidence of the omnipresent influence of the Church.
Social uses and religious traditions
Younger women wore what he called secular headscarves featuring floral patterns or light colors during holidays, market days, or harvest time. Rural women avoided getting tanned and covered their face and head with a light scarf, similar to Muslim traditions. In Muslim customs, a woman leaving home had to cover her head and part of her face, a rule that became stricter over time to leave only the eyes exposed, which remains a subject of strong controversy in Europe. Single women wore the veil as a sign of modesty, while married women wore it as a show of submission to their husbands.
In Eastern customs, marriages were arranged by the families of the bride and groom, and the bride covered her face with a veil until the groom lifted it at the end of the ceremony. In Christian tradition, the white veil persists in nuptial blessings known as velaciones during weddings. Nuns also wear the veil upon professing their vows as a guardian of the vow of chastity and as a retreat from the outside world.
Ancient origins and modern decline
Originating from the Latin word velum, meaning a cloth or curtain that covers something, the veil is a fine, light garment of silk or cotton that noble women in Mesopotamia began wearing three thousand years ago. Hernández characterized the everyday headscarf as a common version of the traditional veil. He concluded that both garments lost their relevance following the feminist revolution, which effectively drew a thick veil over the past.
