Valencia seeks catharsis in traditional burning of sculptures months after deadly floods

VALENCIA, Spain (AP) — The enormous blue cone slowly crushes tiny piles of sand that represent houses. It symbolizes the deadly havoc wrought by floods that ravaged Spain's eastern Valencia five months ago.

The artwork is one of hundreds of wood and papier-maché sculptures that are painstakingly crafted — and then burned — when Las Fallas, the most important yearly celebration in Valencia, reaches its climax on Wednesday night.

This year’s festival has taken on special meaning. There is hope that the burning ceremony, or Crema, will provide some catharsis for the city and surrounding villages after over 220 people died in October’s flooding.

UNESCO, which added Las Fallas to its catalog of intangible cultural heritage in 2016, describes the incineration of the sculptures as “a form of purification" and "social renewal.”

The festival originated in the 18th century, according to UNESCO, and now brings together some 200,000 people for the event that runs from March 14-19, culminating in the day of St. Joseph.

Spain's King Felipe VI visited the party on Wednesday to show his continued support for flood victims. The king had been pelted by mud when he visited a hard-hit area along with politicians in the immediate aftermath of the floods.

The sculptures made by local artisans can tower over 20 meters (65 feet). This year, some were built using wreckage from peoples’ homes.

Others lampoon politicians accused of mishandling the catastrophe. And U.S. President Donald Trump was depicted unfavorably in a few sculptures — one alongside Elon Musk — after his wavering on Europe's defense.

But “Nada," or “Nothing,” the wooden cone by artist Miguel Hache, stands out for directly taking on the pain of the floods.

Passersby can use cardboard molds to make little houses of sand, then roll the cone to flatten them, evoking the brutality of the rushing waters. In its path, the cone leaves an imprint of a street map of the southern neighborhoods where the deluge was the heaviest.

“If I had to sum my work in one phrase, I would call it ’the weight of the water on the earth,” Hache told The Associated Press. “A devastated landscape is left behind.”

Hache, 40, has been crafting sculptures for Las Fallas for 25 years. He originally planned to save the idea for “Nada” for the 2027 Fallas to mark the 70th anniversary of a previous flood that hit Valencia’s city center in 1957.

But he decided this year was perfect for the design, especially after he spent days joining thousands of volunteers cleaning up the mud months ago.

Hache said he had been pleased by receiving so many messages of appreciation for the work.

On Wednesday night, “Nada” will be consumed by flames.

“I am excited to see how it will come apart and reveal itself,” Hache said. “Normally I don’t get emotional, but maybe tonight I will.”

Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain.

Firefighters put out the remains of the fires in which cardboard sculptures known as "Ninots" burned during the Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain, on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. Five months after deadly floods ravaged Valencia, the Spanish city is hosting its biggest celebration of the year: Las Fallas. Sculptures were built using wreckage from peoples' homes and lampoon politicians accused of mishandling the catastrophe. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

A cardboard sculpture known as a "Ninot" depicting Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is engulfed in flames during the Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain, on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. Five months after deadly floods ravaged Valencia, the Spanish city is hosting its biggest celebration of the year: Las Fallas. Sculptures were built using wreckage from peoples' homes and lampoon politicians accused of mishandling the catastrophe. Sign in the Valenciano language reads 'Here we have a recreation of Sanchez falling down on his knees in front of a character who is completely scared.' (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Cardboard sculptures known as "Ninots" depicting U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian president Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un burn during the Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain, on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. Five months after deadly floods ravaged Valencia, the Spanish city is hosting its biggest celebration of the year: Las Fallas. Sculptures were built using wreckage from peoples' homes and lampoon politicians accused of mishandling the catastrophe. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Cardboard sculptures known as "Ninots" depicting U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian president Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un begin to burn during the Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain, on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. Five months after deadly floods ravaged Valencia, the Spanish city is hosting its biggest celebration of the year: Las Fallas. Sculptures were built using wreckage from peoples' homes and lampoon politicians accused of mishandling the catastrophe. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

A firefights grabs a cardboard sculpture known as a "Ninot" depicting Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez which didn't burn during the Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain, on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. Five months after deadly floods ravaged Valencia, the Spanish city is hosting its biggest celebration of the year: Las Fallas. Sculptures were built using wreckage from peoples' homes and lampoon politicians accused of mishandling the catastrophe. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Cardboard sculptures known as "Ninots" burn during the Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain, on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. Five months after deadly floods ravaged Valencia, the Spanish city is hosting its biggest celebration of the year: Las Fallas. Sculptures were built using wreckage from peoples' homes and lampoon politicians accused of mishandling the catastrophe. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Firefighters put out the remains of the fires in which cardboard sculptures known as "Ninots" burned during the Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain, on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. Five months after deadly floods ravaged Valencia, the Spanish city is hosting its biggest celebration of the year: Las Fallas. Sculptures were built using wreckage from peoples' homes and lampoon politicians accused of mishandling the catastrophe. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Cardboard sculptures known as "Ninots" burn during the Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain, on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. Five months after deadly floods ravaged Valencia, the Spanish city is hosting its biggest celebration of the year: Las Fallas. Sculptures were built using wreckage from peoples' homes and lampoon politicians accused of mishandling the catastrophe. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Cardboard sculptures known as "Ninots" depicting U.S. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, right, are displayed during the Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain, Wednesday, March 19, 2025. Five months after deadly floods ravaged Valencia, the Spanish city will host its biggest celebration of the year: Las Fallas. Sculptures were built using wreckage from peoples' homes and lampoon politicians accused of mishandling the catastrophe. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

A cardboard sculpture known as "Ninot" depicting U.S. President Donald Trump is displayed during the Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain, on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. Five months after deadly floods ravaged Valencia, the Spanish city will host its biggest celebration of the year: Las Fallas. Sculptures were built using wreckage from peoples' homes and lampoon politicians accused of mishandling the catastrophe. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

An assistant places sand moulds next to a funnel-shaped sculpture that, as it turns on itself, draws on the ground a map of the towns affected by floods, during the Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain, on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. Five months after deadly floods ravaged Valencia, the Spanish city will host its biggest celebration of the year: Las Fallas. Sculptures were built using wreckage from peoples' homes and lampoon politicians accused of mishandling the catastrophe. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Women dressed in 18th- and 19th-century clothing, known as falleras, are seen reflected in a puddle of rainwater, during the Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain, on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. Five months after deadly floods ravaged Valencia, the Spanish city will host its biggest celebration of the year: Las Fallas. Sculptures were built using wreckage from peoples' homes and lampoon politicians accused of mishandling the catastrophe. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Cardboard sculptures known as "Ninots" depicting U.S. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, right, are displayed during the Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain, on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. Five months after deadly floods ravaged Valencia, the Spanish city will host its biggest celebration of the year: Las Fallas. Sculptures were built using wreckage from peoples' homes and lampoon politicians accused of mishandling the catastrophe. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Assistants take photos at a figure of the Virgin decorated with a floral mantle, in honor of those who died during the past floods, during the Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain, on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

A cardboard sculpture known as "Ninot" depicting U.S. President Donald Trump is displayed during the Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain, on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. Five months after deadly floods ravaged Valencia, the Spanish city will host its biggest celebration of the year: Las Fallas. Sculptures were built using wreckage from peoples' homes and lampoon politicians accused of mishandling the catastrophe. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

An assistant places sand moulds next to a funnel-shaped sculpture that, as it turns on itself, draws on the ground a map of the towns affected by floods, during the Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain, on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. Five months after deadly floods ravaged Valencia, the Spanish city will host its biggest celebration of the year: Las Fallas. Sculptures were built using wreckage from peoples' homes and lampoon politicians accused of mishandling the catastrophe. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

Tourists look at a figure of the Virgin decorated with a floral mantle, in honor of those who died during the past floods, during the Fallas festival in Valencia, Spain, on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Becky Pepper-Jackson finished third in the discus throw in West Virginia last year though she was in just her first year of high school. Now a 15-year-old sophomore, Pepper-Jackson is aware that her upcoming season could be her last.

West Virginia has banned transgender girls like Pepper-Jackson from competing in girls and women's sports, and is among the more than two dozen states with similar laws. Though the West Virginia law has been blocked by lower courts, the outcome could be different at the conservative-dominated Supreme Court, which has allowed multiple restrictions on transgender people to be enforced in the past year.

The justices are hearing arguments Tuesday in two cases over whether the sports bans violate the Constitution or the landmark federal law known as Title IX that prohibits sex discrimination in education. The second case comes from Idaho, where college student Lindsay Hecox challenged that state's law.

Decisions are expected by early summer.

President Donald Trump's Republican administration has targeted transgender Americans from the first day of his second term, including ousting transgender people from the military and declaring that gender is immutable and determined at birth.

Pepper-Jackson has become the face of the nationwide battle over the participation of transgender girls in athletics that has played out at both the state and federal levels as Republicans have leveraged the issue as a fight for athletic fairness for women and girls.

“I think it’s something that needs to be done,” Pepper-Jackson said in an interview with The Associated Press that was conducted over Zoom. “It’s something I’m here to do because ... this is important to me. I know it’s important to other people. So, like, I’m here for it.”

She sat alongside her mother, Heather Jackson, on a sofa in their home just outside Bridgeport, a rural West Virginia community about 40 miles southwest of Morgantown, to talk about a legal fight that began when she was a middle schooler who finished near the back of the pack in cross-country races.

Pepper-Jackson has grown into a competitive discus and shot put thrower. In addition to the bronze medal in the discus, she finished eighth among shot putters.

She attributes her success to hard work, practicing at school and in her backyard, and lifting weights. Pepper-Jackson has been taking puberty-blocking medication and has publicly identified as a girl since she was in the third grade, though the Supreme Court's decision in June upholding state bans on gender-affirming medical treatment for minors has forced her to go out of state for care.

Her very improvement as an athlete has been cited as a reason she should not be allowed to compete against girls.

“There are immutable physical and biological characteristic differences between men and women that make men bigger, stronger, and faster than women. And if we allow biological males to play sports against biological females, those differences will erode the ability and the places for women in these sports which we have fought so hard for over the last 50 years,” West Virginia's attorney general, JB McCuskey, said in an AP interview. McCuskey said he is not aware of any other transgender athlete in the state who has competed or is trying to compete in girls or women’s sports.

Despite the small numbers of transgender athletes, the issue has taken on outsize importance. The NCAA and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committees banned transgender women from women's sports after Trump signed an executive order aimed at barring their participation.

The public generally is supportive of the limits. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in October 2025 found that about 6 in 10 U.S. adults “strongly” or “somewhat” favored requiring transgender children and teenagers to only compete on sports teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth, not the gender they identify with, while about 2 in 10 were “strongly” or “somewhat” opposed and about one-quarter did not have an opinion.

About 2.1 million adults, or 0.8%, and 724,000 people age 13 to 17, or 3.3%, identify as transgender in the U.S., according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

Those allied with the administration on the issue paint it in broader terms than just sports, pointing to state laws, Trump administration policies and court rulings against transgender people.

"I think there are cultural, political, legal headwinds all supporting this notion that it’s just a lie that a man can be a woman," said John Bursch, a lawyer with the conservative Christian law firm Alliance Defending Freedom that has led the legal campaign against transgender people. “And if we want a society that respects women and girls, then we need to come to terms with that truth. And the sooner that we do that, the better it will be for women everywhere, whether that be in high school sports teams, high school locker rooms and showers, abused women’s shelters, women’s prisons.”

But Heather Jackson offered different terms to describe the effort to keep her daughter off West Virginia's playing fields.

“Hatred. It’s nothing but hatred,” she said. "This community is the community du jour. We have a long history of isolating marginalized parts of the community.”

Pepper-Jackson has seen some of the uglier side of the debate on display, including when a competitor wore a T-shirt at the championship meet that said, “Men Don't Belong in Women's Sports.”

“I wish these people would educate themselves. Just so they would know that I’m just there to have a good time. That’s it. But it just, it hurts sometimes, like, it gets to me sometimes, but I try to brush it off,” she said.

One schoolmate, identified as A.C. in court papers, said Pepper-Jackson has herself used graphic language in sexually bullying her teammates.

Asked whether she said any of what is alleged, Pepper-Jackson said, “I did not. And the school ruled that there was no evidence to prove that it was true.”

The legal fight will turn on whether the Constitution's equal protection clause or the Title IX anti-discrimination law protects transgender people.

The court ruled in 2020 that workplace discrimination against transgender people is sex discrimination, but refused to extend the logic of that decision to the case over health care for transgender minors.

The court has been deluged by dueling legal briefs from Republican- and Democratic-led states, members of Congress, athletes, doctors, scientists and scholars.

The outcome also could influence separate legal efforts seeking to bar transgender athletes in states that have continued to allow them to compete.

If Pepper-Jackson is forced to stop competing, she said she will still be able to lift weights and continue playing trumpet in the school concert and jazz bands.

“It will hurt a lot, and I know it will, but that’s what I’ll have to do,” she said.

Heather Jackson, left, and Becky Pepper-Jackson pose for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Heather Jackson, left, and Becky Pepper-Jackson pose for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Becky Pepper-Jackson poses for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The Supreme Court stands is Washington, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

FILE - Protestors hold signs during a rally at the state capitol in Charleston, W.Va., on March 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Chris Jackson, file)