3. WRITE A DETAILED BIOGRAPHY OF YOUR GRANDPARENTS (B1)

My grandfather is called Fidel. He is 85 years old.

He was born in Obregón, a small village near Sarón, and he had five brothers and one sister. His sister was the eldest one, and was called Quinita; sadly, she died four years ago. The other brothers were called Sarín, Paco, Juan, Eustaquio and Ramiro. They were younger than him. His mother’s name was Ana and his father´s name, Luis.

Since he was a child, he had to work on the farm with his brothers because his father had died very young. My grandfather got up at six o’clock, since he had to feed the animals and at eight o’clock he went to school. He and his brothers wanted to learn lots of things, so they had to walk 2.5 kilometres to go to school. He used to get good marks.

At the age of 18, he went to the military service, though he was against weapons. There, he learnt lots of things like songs and nowadays he remembers most of them, and he sings to me. He has told me that one day they were very hungry, so they started to sing a song that said that they only wanted a dish of rice.

When he came back form the military service, his family needed money to survive so he couldn’t carry on studying, therefore, he gave up his studies and started working at the Nestlé factory. He worked there for about 50 years.

In 1952, he got married to Mª Celina, my grandmother, and they lived together 47 wonderful years, until 25 days after my birth. My grandmother passed away due to a breast cancer. It was very painful to my family to face this situation.

They had two children, a son called Francisco Javier, my uncle, and a daughter called Mª Celina, my mother.

When I grow up, I would like to be like him, since now at the age of 85 years old, he is still working alone on his farm.

                                                            
                                                     

My grandfather José María was born in a little village in Cantabria called Bárcena Mayor in 1943. He has three brothers and one sister. He is the oldest and now he is seventy-one years old.

When he was six, he started school in Bárcena Mayor but when he grew up his parents wanted to send him to study to the Corbán Seminary because it was the only option to study. There he learnt Latin, Philosophy and other subjects related to religion. When he was going to finish his studies, he didn’t continue. Meanwhile, he was living in the Palacio de la Magdalena because there were a lot of people studying to be priests.

After that, he went to live to Bilbao and later to Huelva, being a foreman. When he finished there, he came back to Santander and he married my grandmother Begoña.

Finally he settled in Maliaño and he opened a bar called “Orly”. He worked there for more than twenty-five years and finally he retired after he had a son and a daughter, my mother.

Now he is living in Maliaño with my grandmother and they go once a year to Germany.

                     

My grandfather’s name is Mario. He was born on the 12th of December of 1924, so he will be ninety years old next month. He was born in a small village called Santa Cuz del Norte, which is in the province of La Habana, on the island of Cuba. He was the youngest son in his family because he had fourteen elder brothers and sisters. His parents’ names were Ignacio and Victoria.

By the time he was sixteen, he loved going fishing and meeting his friends. In the year 1932 he decided to move to La Habana City as he wanted to find a job. His first job was at the airport and he had to repair and check the airplanes’ engines before the plane had taken off. Around 1950 he met my grandmother, whose name was Ana, and by the year 1954 they got married.

After a few years my uncle Mario was born and three years later they had another child, who was my uncle Ignacio Jesús. In 1962, my grandparents decided to move to Spain, where my grandmother had some relatives. In June, my mother, whose name is Rocío, was born. Here, in Spain, my grandfather worked as a mechanic.

When my grandfather was about forty-seven years old he was diagnosed diabetic, so then he had to give up eating sugar, except when his levels of glucose are low and in those situations he eats biscuits.

My grandfather has five grandchildren, who are Sergio, who is my brother, Ignacio, Jesús, Jaime and me, the youngest of all of them.

Now, my grandfather Mario lives in a retirement home which is in the center of Santander and I visit him on Saturdays or on Sundays.

                                                                                              

My grandfather’s name is Francisco but everyone calls him ‘Paco’. He is my mother’s father. He is 66 years old. He was born on the 17^th of February of 1948. He was born in Puebla de Guzmán, Huelva. He has three sisters and a brother. Nowadays, he’s single. 

My grandfather has three children. One of them is my mom, another is my uncle Pedro and the last one is a guy that I don’t know.

My grandfather is living in Andalucía but I don’t know exactly where as he is constantly moving. He has been living in Cantabria, in the Canary Islands, in Andalucía and he has also lived in Madrid.

He is a quiet person who likes living on his own but he doesn’t like being alone at all. When he’s away, he always calls me to talk to me and to know how my life is going on. I really appreciate that since my grandfather is very important to me. He’s an active person and he loves lively areas with shopping centers and cafés. He feels young as he dyes his hair with lively colours and he also goes to solariums.

                                                    

My grandfather is called Sabino, and he is the best person that I have ever met in my entire life. The question is: What kind of life has he had for being such a great man?

Sabino was born in a little country house in the Basque Country, near a small town called Deba, on the 24th April 1947. As he lived pretty far from that town, he could not go to school everyday, and when he could, he had to walk a one kilometer long train tunnel with his nine brothers and sisters. He always explains me, mainly when I am eating chocolate, that he had to walk three kilometers in order to get one small piece of chocolate from his mother.

As he grew up, he became a bricklayer, and in fact, things turned out pretty nicely for him, as he met my grandmother while working in La Rioja and he also earned a lot of money. Then they moved to Vitoria, where they bought a quite lovely flat. They had two children, and one of them is in fact the reason why I am here, writing this composition.

Now, Sabino is a youngster trapped in an old body, as he really enjoys playing with me and my brother and learning about computers. He is even going to buy one of the new iPods!

                                         

                                                

My grandmother’s name is Consuelo but everyone calls her Chelo. She is eighty-three years old and she has lived in San Salvador since her childhood. Her husband died five years ago and now she lives with a housekeeper because she is not an independent person.

She left school at the age of 14 and she started working as a seamstress-in an academy. She married young, at the age of nineteen, and she had two children: one was my mother and the other my uncle, who lives in Mexico.

During her lifetime she became a famous seamstress in Santander, earning a lot of money. Although she is already retired, she still sews sometimes.

                                                             

   My grandmother Rosario was born on the 2nd of April of 1935 in Santander. Her father was a chauffeur and her mother was a dressmaker. She had a younger sister who died when she was only five years old. It was a hard experience for her. 

   Her parents were sent to jail for a year after the Spanish Civil War. 

   After school, she studied to become a secretary. When she finished her studies at the age of eighteen, she started to work as a shop assistant. Working on that, she found out that she liked fashion very much. Two years later, she continued working for a shipping company as a telephonist. There, she met many interesting foreigners as ship captains or officers. Thanks to those contacts, she and other secretaries in the company could get some clothes which were unusual at that moment in Spain.

   At the age of eighteen, she met her future husband. They used to have a ride on his motorbike with other couples.   My grandmother was the only woman who wore trousers instead of skirts for riding on the motorbike, since women never used trousers in Spain at that time.

She got married when she was twenty-seven, and because of that she had to quit her job, as in the early 60s women weren’t allowed to keep working for private companies if they got married.

She had three children, two daughters and a son, and lived as a housewife until she returned to work in a newsagent’s.

Nowadays, she is a modern granny who likes knowing about the new tendencies and being in family with her children and grandchildren.

                                     

My grandmother’s name is Anne. She was born in Dajabon, which is a little village in the Dominican Republic, and she is 59 years old.

My grandmother was born in 1955 in Dajabon. She comes from a very poor family of farmers that made a great effort giving her an education until she was ten years old. As education in the Dominican Republic is very expensive, they couldn’t pay her the books or the uniform of the school, so she was required to work and have her own money.

At the age of eighteen years old, she got married to a guy who lived in another province of the country whose name is Danilo. After she got married she moved to Santiago and got pregnant of my mother, who was born in 1975. Then, when my mother was three years old, my uncle came to the world.

Years later, she divorced Danilo  and she started to work as a cleaner in shopping centres and offices. She quit her job when she fell in love with Roberto Florencio, who is the father of my two other uncles, Aneuri and Abel.  

 Nowadays, she is very happy with her grandchildren and she has a peaceful life in the capital of the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo, with the man of her life, Roberto.