"My childhood was that of a very simple and serene child, in a village in northern Spain, a small village on the sea, a fishing village: a context that has deeply marked me, starting from nature, the sea, the sun. I was a child and then a teenager who grew up in a very healthy, very humble family of fishermen, where everything was simple, where the affection of my parents was sincere, with a grandmother, an uncle, with other grandparents and uncles and emotional ties that allowed me to grow with great emotional confidence and which I believe made me a boy, then a young man and then an adult who was particularly serene, quiet, affectionate, expansive, full of feelings. Q: How did your Salesian vocation come about? A: For two reasons. First of all, I grew up in a happy family. A simple and genuine Christian environment where God was present, where devotion to Mary was alive, where I saw how my father, my uncle, when they left for the sea, trusted in God because the sea can be very treacherous and they did not know what they would encounter. And then because I was able to study with the Salesians. An elderly person who was a friend of the Salesians in Leon and who spent his summer holidays in my village was a good friend of my parents and thought that the best thing he could do for this child, who was me, was for him to study with the Salesians. I left my village like this, met the Salesians and was very impressed by how the Salesians treated me and my companions, by their friendship, spontaneity, affability, simplicity. All this meant that I was somewhat anxious,because although I had already conmpleted the documentation to enter the University to study medicine or chemistry, the desire welled up in me to try a choice of life that promised happiness, with the Salesians."