​”I was born into a humble family of farmers, in contact with nature, which gave me a wonderful childhood, with very beautiful moments and of course, other difficult ones, but it was a time with strong ethical values, where things hardly changed in decades, where honesty and a person’s word were stronger than a contract. I was never very good at school, just scraping by; I was more interested in fishing or finding birds’ nests, looking for experiences and contact with life.

Even so, I went to study in Cantabria, where I learned about the countryside and cattle; I had the honour of taking care of Sultan, the famous bull that covered more than a million cows, and during the holidays I helped with the farm chores and served wine in the summer. In this way, I contributed towards the five thousand pesetas that my family worked hard to send me every month and helped pay the health insurance, which was my mother’s greatest concern. She was an exemplary woman, to whom I owe my values of hard work and honesty”