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DÁCIL CÁRDENES

The person

I was born on the island of Gran Canaria in January 1982 together with my twin sister, Fayna. Together, we came to revolutionise the house.

My life

My family

Fayna and I came last in a family that had an immense desire to grow and form a large herd. When we arrived, our parents and our two older siblings, Maribel (7 years old) and Ancor (2 years old), were waiting for us with great enthusiasm and love.

My mother

My mother comes from a humble, migrant family. My great-grandparents emigrated to Cuba where my grandfather Gaspar was born and returned to the island to work as a carpenter. My grandmother, a simple, hard-working woman, was a housewife, and she died when my mother was only 9 years old. My mother devoted much of her life to teaching primary education, although her true vocation was teaching and caring for her four children. She is now retired and lives with her dog very close to my two elder brothers on the island of Gran Canaria. And she continues, now as a grandmother, with her vocation of caring for her 5 grandchildren.

My father

My father was a blind man. He was born into a country family in a village in the centre of the island called Valleseco. He met my mother at the university where they were both studying. Thanks to my father’s perseverance and my mother’s help, he was able to graduate in philosophy and become a secondary school teacher until his retirement. Because of his blindness and his need for independence, we have always lived with guide dogs. The first was Prince, a dog full of strength and nobility, then Candy, all love and affection. Then Grechen, a dog who was pure vitality and irreverence, with no other dog my father had ever had so many blows. Finally, Lito, a gentle dog, full of peace and serenity, who accompanied my father for most of the end of his life. My father passes away in August 2020.

My childhood

I spent most of my childhood on the beach, on the seashore playing with my brothers and sisters, living with the sand, the saltpetre and the smell of the sea. Learning about the tides, the marine flora and fauna and the influence of the moon. As well as discovering the peculiarities of the volcanic land to which I belong, full of fire and life. Still, to this day, when I feel a breeze in the air, I am transported back to my homeland and the memory of the trade winds, always present there.

Broadening horizons

One of my passions has always been freedom and the search for new frontiers. When I was 20 I came to Madrid on holiday to visit my twin sister who was studying contemporary dance and teaching. The city and its possibilities fascinated me, and I decided to stay and live here that summer.

Before finishing my studies I took some time to travel and get to know different countries and cultures. I travelled for months with a backpack through India and Nepal, where I climbed mountains of almost 5000 metres in the Himalayas, another of my great passions. I was also in Syria and Turkey, where they were 20 years ago. On my return I finished my degree in clinical psychology while working part-time as a secretary. I began my university studies at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia and finished them at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

Fifteen years ago, in the check-in queue at Madrid Barajas airport, on my way to the UK to study English, I met the man who is now my husband. We live with our dog Leco, a beautiful German Shepherd, in the Sierra Oeste de Madrid, where working with our hands, reading and walks in the mountains are our favourite activities.