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3 LETTERS & EDITORIAL maltatoday | SUNDAY • 3 JANUARY 2021 Mikiel Galea Letters & Clarifications An anti-misogny vaccine, perhaps? I refer to Joseph Azzopardi's statement (6 December) that "the dilemma of unwanted pregnancy should not be met by abortion…". I disagree, as bodily autonomy should allow access to abortion. In an ideal world, unintended pregnancies would not occur, but for that to happen Malta would need much better sexual educa- tion as well as free access to contracep- tion, including the morning-after pill. It would be better for Azzopardi to help Doctors for Choice advocate for this, rather than harping on about inhumane crushing of human life. An abortion is not an easy choice to make so it is highly irresponsible to make that choice harder by equating it to murder. Being pro choice is not necessarily pro-abortion. It is about not interfering with others' lives because the woman is the only one who knows her full phys- ical, mental, emotional and financial capabilities. If you expect women to take full re- sponsibility for their pregnancy, then you should call out on their male part- ners in the same way. Where's the an- ti-misogyny vaccine when you need it? Prof. Isabel Stabile St Julian's Cervantes in Malta MIGUEL de Cervantes, 'El Manco de Lepanto' and his brother Rodrigo, soldiers from the company of Captain Manuel Ponce de León (1539-1549), spent the winter on the island 'Μελίτη', 'sweet as honey', between 1573-1574, seat of the Sovereign Military and Hos- pitable Order of Saint John of Jerusa- lem, of Rodas and of Malta. Thanks to the letter of November 8, 1573, written in Palermo by the general accountant of His Majesty, Sancho Cor- roza's, Navy, and discovered by Profes- sor Belloso Martín, it is unquestionably documented that the two companies of the Tercio de la Sacra Liga of Maestre de campo, Lope de Figueroa y Barradas were in Malta and had 317 soldiers ac- cording to the military review that was taken from them when they embarked to go to Sicily; in that of Juan de Anaya de Solís 159 soldiers, and in that of Don Manuel Ponce de León 158. According to 1st Sergeant Miguel Ángel Domínguez Rubio, Infantry Reg- iment, these companies were appointed to "the island of Malta in support of the order of the knights of San Juan or of Malta, solid allies of the Spanish Crown, apparently as a provisional measure". The letter of February 20, 1574, drafted in Palermo, and found by the researcher Belloso Martín, from the Duke of Terranova, Carlos de Aragón y Tagliavia (1530-1599), President of the Kingdom of Sicily (1566-1568), addressed to Friedensfürst, made refer- ence to the lodging of the company of Captain Ponce de León in "the famous island of Malta" in November of 1573, and insisted that Don Juan de Austria (1547-1578) left him at least 3,000 sol- diers to reinforce the Regiment of Sicily. As a result, Don Juan decided that two more companies, those of Captains Juan de Anaya de Solís and Manuel Ponce de León, with approximately 500 soldiers, were transported from Malta to Sicily, stayed in the Kingdom of Sicily. I estimate that during his garrison in Malta, Miguel de Cervantes met Antonio de Toledo, Prior of the Military Order of St. John in the Kingdom of León, Francisco de Valencia and Fernando de Ormaza, knights of the insignia of the Sovereign Military and Hospitable Order, very good friends of the Algerian captivity, whose galley San Pablo, of the Order of Malta, was seized on April 1, 1577, by 12 Algerian vessels and taken to Algiers. Krzysztof Sliwa Universidad del Atlántico Colombia San Ġwann Local Council