Encarna Conde does not fit the profile of your average porn starlet. Conde’s first title, Breaking Barriers, is, however, already the subject of debate on internet chatboards and has even had entire pages dedicated to it in the Spanish press.
The reason for the fuss is that Encarna is a wheelchair user who has a muscle control disorder called ataxia, according to a recently published report. She is also president of the Association of Andalucian Ataxia Groups.
The Guardian reported that Conde’s decision to appear on screen with professional porn actors came after she wrote one of Spain's biggest adult producers to complain that disabled people are never featured in his releases. Antonio Marcos, whose X Canal company's productions include titles such as Vice Mansion, Give it to Me Baby and How to Make Your Own Porn Movie, agreed to hold a casting for aspiring, disabled porn stars.
Nobody, however, presented themselves so Encarna volunteered.
“It was very pleasant, though I was somewhat cowardly,” Encarna said. Unusual for an adult release, however, Breaking Barriers ends with a serious conversation between Encarna and her producer. “Disabled women have to take steps forward and one should always be happy if one breaks a barrier,” she said.
“Everybody, whether they are disabled or not, has the right to make their own sexual choices.”
“We demand the right to decide on our own lives, without depending on other people who, simply because we have functional problems, take power over our lives, desires and future,” Encarna’s website says.
Her association's site does not mention the film.
