“We were not young or handsome, nor were we the actor, the model or the presenter.
One was bald, another had a small belly... We broke stereotypes and many people felt identified with us”, admits Marce Rodríguez, staring at the cover of El País Semanal in March 2004. In it, dressed in a black T-shirt in which an eloquent “I don't know” can be read, he poses determinedly on the terrace of his house.
With a half smile, he looks at the camera lens next to Pablo, his partner at the time.
The headline shoots accurately: "We want to get married."
"We thought that the gay marriage law was not going to go ahead, really not," he repeats, emphasizing his denial.
We were very skeptical about the influence of the Church, the economic power, the established… It was complicated, but it happened, ”she recalls with fogged-up glasses in the first episode of I was the cover.
This new video format of EL PAÍS recovers and updates the stories of the people whose lives one day led them to star on the front page of the newspaper.
Marce Rodríguez and Pablo Peinado met through friends, bought a house together and got married.
Like any normal couple.
Like any love story.
But they could not have taken these steps if one day in July 2005 the Congress of Deputies had not approved the equal marriage law.
“I was not an activist or militant, but this cover in El País Semanal was the grain of sand that I contributed to the cause.
It was a big hit, but getting the right to get married is not everything, today we have to fight against hate”, explains Marce in the interview.
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The day after that cover illustrating the report by Luz Sánchez-Mellado stood out in newsstands throughout Spain, several co-workers approached her table.
They wanted to thank you.
“Things were very different from how they are now.
We were afraid that our sexual condition would condition us at work and there were few gays with positions of responsibility, ”she recalls.
That is why daring to face it was a complicated decision: "It was an impact that I did not know if my family and I were willing to assume, because it meant that the neighbors, those from the town, the distant family would find out..., but today I feel very proud".
