I’m “going as a lady with chemo.” This was the response Teresa Rodríguez, founder of Adelante Andalucía, gave yesterday on her social media to a user who mocked her for wearing a kufiya on her head. “What are you dressed as?” he snapped. The response left no one indifferent.
Rodríguez, 44, publicly revealed on the morning of this election Sunday that she has cancer and is undergoing treatment. After many wondered why she had not participated in any party event nor publicly supported the Adelante Andalucía candidate, José Ignacio García (who took over from her in 2022), one of her comments cleared all doubts.
The former leader of the left-wing formation “with its own accent,” the mantra repeated by Adelante, revealed her illness through a photo while exercising her right to vote. Reactions were immediate.
Faced with attacks and unfortunate comments about her look (some of which were deleted shortly after), she responded without hatred but with a firmness that immediately sparked a wave of support. These positive messages outnumbered the negative ones, although some stood out for their cruelty.
Rodríguez responded: “I’m wearing a kufiya that I borrowed from the Palestinian people so I don’t burn my head because after chemo I’ve lost my hair, dear undocumented sir. Kisses,” or the ‘burn’ she gave to the profile that asked her about her “costume”: I’m “going as a lady with chemo.”
García praises Rodríguez
“I haven’t done better than Teresa, I’ve done it with Teresa”
With over 90% of the vote counted, the Adelante team came out to assess the elections. The smiles on their faces spoke for themselves. The party has managed to quadruple its seats in Parliament. They went from having two seats to eight, and this was possible because, besides in parts of Cádiz and Seville where they had more roots, they also broke into Huelva, Córdoba, and Granada.
José Ignacio García (or ‘El Gafas’, as he’s nicknamed online) was happy with the support received, although in his speech he insisted: “There is still much to do. We haven’t kicked out the right yet. We are not satisfied,” while talking about the need to “get out of the permanent depression they want to put us in.” “We come to build an Andalusia that serves the working class, a sovereign Andalusia. There is a lot of work left,” he declared, and set a future goal: to reach Congress with “a smile and without quarrels.”
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This morning, García expanded on the idea of participating in the general elections, which must be held in 2027: “We will be in the next Congress of Deputies,” he said, “with a leftist, Andalusian nationalist policy in favor of the Andalusian people.”
In yesterday’s photo, García shared the spotlight with Teresa, who stood to one side so as not to attract too much attention. But it was inevitable that journalists also questioned her. Will she return to politics? they asked. “My party does better when I take a step back. I’m happy,” she said, dismissing this possibility. “When you see the next generation doing better than you, it’s a huge satisfaction and a wonderful relief. Blessed succession, blessed good habit of replacing ourselves every so often so we don’t become what we don’t like to be, which is professional politicians. Also, it’s profitable in electoral terms.” And, to make it even clearer, she spoke of how “happy” she feels to “return to my center.” Let’s remember that Rodríguez is a teacher at a public high school in Puerto Real, Cádiz. And, to change the subject, she directly picked up García’s idea: “We’re going to send eight deputies to Congress, it’s going to be epic.”
In this exchange of admiration between the former leader of Adelante and the current one, García wanted to make it clear that “I haven’t done better than Teresa, I’ve done it with Teresa, which is different,” acknowledging her support and valuing the legacy she left him.
Rufián sends a message to Andalusian leftists
The result of Adelante Andalucía also resonated outside the community. The ERC spokesperson in Congress, Gabriel Rufián, interpreted it as a sign of a broader moment: that of the “sovereignist lefts.” In a message shared on social media, he appealed both to these forces (asking them to “know how to interpret and lead”) and to the left at the national level, urging them to “listen and help.”
Rufián also argued that PP and Vox “can be undermined and defeated” by refining the electoral offer “province by province,” before closing with an explicit recognition of Teresa Rodríguez: “You have marked a path.” A reading that, beyond election night, places the Andalusian result on a broader political board.
And there, again, politics that starts locally ends up being read in a national key.
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