Adolescence and Youth (1951-59)

She takes the courses of what was called Cultura General [General Knowledge], an alternative to the higher secondary school courses, at the Reunión del Sagrado Corazón school (located in Calle Narváez). The education she receives from nuns, as well as the rather oppressive ideological and religious atmosphere, will leave a deep mark on her. Later on, she will rebel against this mark, also through her artistic production.

Her family occasionally travels to Úbeda, her father’s home town. There, she develops a close bond with her aunt and godmother, Catalina Lara, a bond that will never be broken, as her later works reflect.

She also studied and almost finished piano, but quits her studies in the last course to focus on entering the School of Fine Arts.

Pilar meets, in her teens (around 1955, at the age of 15), her future boyfriend and husband: Fernando Sáez Vacas, son of Agustina, from Segovia, and Ladislao, a livestock trader from Ávila settled in Madrid.