Starting a family (1965-1977)

On September 2nd she marries Fernando, at the Iglesia de los Jerónimos [San Jerónimo el Real Church], once they have already completed their university studies. He graduated in Telecommunications Engineering.

They move to Paris, where Fernando receives several scholarships covering up to three years of research and further studies. It was a time of discovery. Regarding her personal life, it means a double separation from her family: her marriage, and the distance, moving to a more open and cosmopolitan atmosphere, as the one she finds in the French capital, heir to a long tradition of artistic and ideological modernity. Visits to museums, and in general, contact with new ideas and attitudes to life will sow the seed of non-conformism. However, it will take some time to blossom. Actually, quite as a paradox, that little inner shock coincides with giving up her artistic work to focus on starting a family.

Her first son is born, on August 19th: Fernando. She spends the last six months of her pregnancy and the first six months after her son’s birth in Madrid, at her parent’s house.

The couple returns to Paris with their son, and they will spend there a year and a half before coming back to Madrid.

On their return, they settle in an apartment in Canillejas, the neighbourhood where her mother was born.

Her second baby is born on February 24th, the first daughter, and she is called Genoveva.

Her third baby is born on February 25th, another son, and he is called César.

The family moves to what will become their permanent residence, in the Ciudad de los Periodistas.

The following two years, they spend the summer holidays in Cercedilla. Pilar does a few ‘domestic’ portraits” which means a slight contact with her artistic vocation.

On October 4th, her fourth and last child is born, another daughter: she is called Elena Francisca (Panchita). Despite her heart condition Pilar overcomes her four pregnancies with no immediate health consequences.

From this year on, the family spends the summers at their own house in Villanueva de la Cañada. Pilar does some more portraits and paints the views of the countryside surrounding the residential area.