Ignacio Garriga was born in Sant Cugat del Vallès (Barcelona), he is 37 years old. He graduated in Dentistry. He has been a dentist and a member of Congress. He has been in Parliament since 2021. He is married and has four children and is expecting his fifth.
Dentistry is not a typical career for a politician.
When I was young I wanted to study medicine, to be a cardiac surgeon, but I recognized my shortcomings and I began to get excited about dentistry.
Did you work as a dentist?
Many years. I miss that tranquility, in the box, with your music, the patient with his mouth open… Now everyone talks to you, everything is noise.
What did your family do?
My mother had a stationery store and my father dedicated himself to the world of photography. My family were among the pioneers who brought photography to Spain. My grandfather was a member of the Institut Químic de Sarrià and the Ateneu of Barcelona.
Did you know your grandparents?
Only Grandma Mercedes was called Grandma Pants. She had a strong character and she was one of the first women to wear pants in Equatorial Guinea.
What school did you go to?
In La Farga, in Sant Cugat.
Were you happy at that stage?
A lot. I had magnificent teachers, playgrounds with a lot of football and full of mud, and next to it a stream that gave us great moments and great injuries.
Have you already thought about politics?
When I was little I wanted to be retired, like my father, my classmates and teachers laughed. Then, under the influence of my mother, I wanted to change things. My mother was an activist and since she was black, everyone in Sant Cugat knew her. They called her Cloti.
Did you go to rallies with your mother?
Yes, handing out leaflets. I have campaigned since I was very little, with the PP, then I became disenchanted.
How are you, how do you feel?
Happy. With a family that supports me, with small children growing up, waiting for the fifth child.
What do you have for breakfast?
I used to have a copious breakfast, but for three years now I’ve been eating a banana, nuts, water and coffee.
Do you know how to cook? Preparing?
I would like to, but the only thing I can bring to the stove is a dish that my cousin taught me, prawns with chicken.
What do you do when you get home?
The first thing is to separate the dog, which comes to say hello and we do not end up having a relationship of esteem.
Is the dog new at home?
It’s been a year. His name is Pongo. The first thing I do is kiss my wife and hug my children.
Tell us something about your relationship.
She is the first girlfriend. We met when we were 15 at a San Juan party. She is the pillar of my life.
How do you organize yourself to be a father? Are you arriving for dinner?
I travel a lot, but I always tell my team that I have to try to sleep at home. Have dinner or breakfast with my wife and children. Let them know that dad is there.
Are you a retailer?
Not everything that should be and it is a topic that often comes up: ‘You should be more detailed.’ Evidently. And talk more. They are those points of personal struggle that one has to correspond, in this case, to my wife.
His last gift for her?
Always a kiss goodnight or when I leave in the morning.
And her last for you?
A humidifier for cigars.
Any madness for love?
Greater madness for love than getting married at 24 years old and having five children at 37, I think nothing surpasses it.
What hobbies do you have?
Reading is one of my great passions. Watch a football game and play the guitar from time to time. And I have incorporated smoking a cigar under a tree, with a book.
What read?
I have discovered Stefan Zweig, who has some wonderful books, the last one I read, I recommend it, is Letter from a Stranger.
Do you still have those bonsais?
Yes, yes and they both live, which is a great challenge. I have special affection for the one from the Parliament. The president of the party told me: ‘It’s curious that a bonsai lives in that environment.’
Does Santiago Abascal have bonsais? Who is better at it?
To him, without a doubt. He has trees that are many years old, they are wonderful.
You have to be methodical, right?
Yes, and sometimes maybe I’m too obsessive about order.
And do you have patience?
Not as much as it should and it is a personal challenge to improve it.
Bad mood?
When I have, yes. Yes Yes Yes.
The last time you took it out?
Surely with some child who caught me at a bad time, the poor thing will have said something to me and I will have answered him in a way he doesn’t deserve.
What music you like?
Relaxed. Tracy Chapman, Phil Collins. And I hate reggaeton. But it reaches all levels. In the car sometimes we turn on the radio and reggaeton comes on and my wife and I look at each other, but our children sing. And that is to say: but where do these children listen to these songs?
How many hours do you sleep?
Few. Now, more than six I doubt it.
Do you do any sports?
The best is to go to the gym and muscle up a little, work on your back. He used to play soccer and tennis.
Yoga, meditation?
The meditation I do is prayer. I have that transcendental vision of life. Every day I have time to pray in the morning, at night, to see what I have done well, what I have done wrong, what I could do better.
Are you practicing to the point of blessing the table at home…?
Yes, always bless one of the children. I try to go to daily mass if my schedule allows it and on Sundays with my family. And as long as I have a rosary on hand to go to the Virgin, I am grateful.
Any virgin in particular?
At home we have been very fond of the Virgin of Montserrat. And since my mother passed away, also the Virgin of Bisila, patron saint of Guinea, reminds me of her and those origins that I do not know, but that I aspire to go and discover.
Did you act as an altar boy?
Yes, in Mira-sol, I helped the priest, with my red sash, all serious.
Are you a member of Opus Dei?
Yes, I am a supernumerary of Opus Dei. It is a way of understanding life and that doing your job as best as possible and serving others is a way of sanctifying yourself.
Something about you that I would change.
Every night I realize so many things that I would have to change! Having been more patient, having dedicated more time to preparing an intervention or being more detailed with my wife or my children.
With more time, what would you do?
Well, being with my wife more, reading, and above all I miss spending more time with my friends with a beer or a gin and tonic and laughing.
A motto or phrase that inspires you?
One in Latin: omnia in bonum, which means that everything is for the best.
