Our “Alawa Women” section is inspired by Dostoyevsky's famous phrase where he states that “beauty will save the world”. In Lucía, the beauty of her life enveloped us from afar and the closer we got to her, the more she lifted us up and healed us inside her. Nothing makes us happier in Alawa than working to show you these real lives with a flavor of eternity, lives that take us off the ground and show us the destiny for which we have been made.
Lucía is the mother of Teresa, wife of Nacho, an entrepreneurial woman, businesswoman, founder of Bosco Films among many faces of this diamond, which we are all attracted to, but how would you define Lucía, how would you introduce yourself?
L- Like a restless woman, although apparently very calm and very shy. My mind always goes very fast, it is always thinking of new things, searching... I have a problem, and that is that when I fall in love with an idea I need it to go ahead and I look for a way, because otherwise it doesn't disappear. I am quite passionate if I fall in love with a concept I want to make it known, I want to tell the world about it, I want it to go far.
When does this infatuation begin, what brings us to this special place?
L- Well, look, I've always been in love with little things, I think that the school or the type of education you receive from your parents, mark a lot where you can go.
My parents lived in Bilbao, but shortly after I was born, they had to rush to Valencia, where I grew up. It was a very difficult time, because the newspaper my father ran was about to close.
The 70s and 80s were a very difficult time in northern Spain, especially for those who did not believe in independence. When I was growing up my father said: "I have failed", but for me he was always a winner, because trying to carry something you believe in until the end without deviating, I know of very few cases. They can think like me or not, but I love people who are consistent with their way of thinking.
I'm the little one and I became a bit like my parents' toy. I remember a lot the conversations my parents had about problems such as "we don't have money to pay for the school we want for the girl", and as a child I used to say: "well, what's the problem if I'm delighted at the school I'm at?" but they knew that what they wanted was my human formation and I thank them enormously, because it was a great effort on their part.
With the illusion of communicating that my father was a journalist, my grandfather was a journalist, I entered Audiovisual Communication, with the hope of really dedicating myself to journalism and not to cinema.
I had it very clear. That first day in class was a lot of fun, because I looked completely different from everyone else. I always had things very clear about where I wanted to go. The university stage made me learn a lot because I lived in my bubble, I lived with a way of thinking, I would not say very extreme, but at least very closed, "this is good, this is bad." By meeting people much more different from me, they made me question things, it was no longer just right or wrong but "I want to know your story, I want to know why you think this", because yes, who is a good communicator or a good journalist what you have to do is arouse that curiosity and be as honest as possible with the consequences you encounter.
I finished my degree and got a scholarship to go to work in Rome, which without knowing why had always been my great dream, I wanted to be a communicator in Rome. Perhaps a woman influenced me, Paloma Gómez-Borrero, she was the first Spanish correspondent in Rome, a funny, open, very humble woman... I admired her very much. She might be an Alawa woman but she is already in heaven.
And there I went, I spent a few months, right after finishing my degree, in the Vatican media, also covering society, culture, that is, everything I liked; and then I was in a news agency that I loved because it was all young people and they covered news of everything in general in Rome, they were correspondents for almost all the television stations in the world.
You would have fulfilled your first dream, you were already a press and from Rome, that is, there is already a first milestone there.
L- Yes, exactly, I was fulfilling dreams, but I was also meeting people who helped me, once again, to get out of my bubble in terms of faith, to get out of my line of thought and discover the realities and difficulties of life. faith in countries like France, Slovakia, Mexico or the United States. He enriched me a lot and made me realize how lucky I was to be born in a country and a family where faith is substantial.
I had to leave that job in Rome because my father got very sick from one moment to the next, they called me saying that I would no longer see him directly, that they had admitted him and that they had said goodbye for me. So I took a flight and returned to Valencia to be with my father, a very important figure for me. I returned to Valencia and he survived, very badly, he was very badly, he was in the hospital for 6 months. It was a stage of a lot of hospital, but of many very nice conversations with my father. I started a new job, I had never dreamed of it, but I felt like I was fulfilling a dream. I think that God has much better plans than ours, in fact, I love it, I once heard a phrase that says "embrace plan B" and that is that plan A is usually yours, you are stubborn like donkeys like that , go for your plan A, but many times things go wrong and go wrong again, and go wrong again and it is because it is by another way and that plan B turns out to be much better than plan A.
So I feel like this has been the story of my life, that I am a stubborn person who insists on certain things but in the end what comes out is plan B and it is what makes me very happy, plan B.
“Sometimes plan B turns out to be much better than plan A”
And what happened there? Because of course, that was not in plan A at all, suddenly there is something so disruptive. How did you end up in Madrid and founding Bosco Films in Madrid?
L- Well look, everything settled, my father got a little better and then one of those friends from my group in Rome had gone to live in the United States and wrote to me and told me that if I continued with the intention of learning English that There was room in his house in Los Angeles and that he could try to go for three months, he says: "I'm sure it will also be very good for you mentally", that is, taking a break.
You are getting closer to the world capital of cinema.
L- Yes, it said: "Los Angeles, how fun, I will be able to see the Walk of Fame." "Yes, yes, of course Lucia." "Will I be able to go to the Oscars?" "No Lucía, you will not be able to go to the Oscars."
I went there and it turned out that she worked for a production company founded by Catholic people and the rest of my flatmates also worked for that production company, which was called Metanoia Films, which no longer exists, and was founded by three people, a producer, a director and an actor, the actor was Eduardo Verastegui and so what I did was go to my English classes in the mornings and then in the afternoons I would pick up my friends at the production company and it really struck me that every time I saw more different people within the production company. I used to say: “why are there days when you are five? The five or four of you work here and suddenly one day I come in and I see people I don't know who they are, of different ethnic groups, of different ages, what are they all doing. And then when I started to speak a little English, because I didn't dare to ask them, they told me: “no, we've seen Bella”, which was the movie they had produced, “and we want it to go far”. Yes, "but do you dedicate yourself to the cinema?" "No, I am a physical therapist." "Oh, very good, and what are you doing here?" "Well, I don't know, I came here to see what I can help with and they told me to see if I can do it, as my mother is from Japan to see if I can translate the scripts into Japanese", and so on.
So with that series of conversations I said: "wow, didn't you want to communicate good causes?" Well, it turns out that cinema beyond whether you like it or whether it entertains you is changing lives, to the point that after seeing a movie people look for where the production company is and want to go help in person. So I clicked, the greatest means of communication that exists is cinema, the one that can transform the most is cinema, I'm going to try to start here.
And I asked for a scholarship from Spain, it was granted to me to spend two years in Los Angeles, at the production company, and there was the germ of that little seed that God planted in a movie-loving girl, who watched movies at 6 in the morning and bought herself all the magazines, as before, "I'm going to build your desires" and I started in the world of cinema without even realizing it.
I returned to Spain after a while and started working in distribution. And there Nacho appeared in my life, who is my husband today.
For me there were key things to distinguish what that person would be for me, for example, it was something very important, to see how the person behaved with people who suffer and Nacho did it at moment one. He didn't know that he was on my mind, but I was looking for someone who knew how to treat fragile or suffering people, and who had God as the center of course. And I saw this in him. He was the first to tell me: “well, we go to Mass every day”, it was a very nice courtship. And we had a conversation that will give rise to the next thing that I am going to tell you, and that will be very important later in my life.
In my heart also since I was little, just as I said that there was the desire to communicate good causes (I believe that God always puts desires for something and that he always fulfills them), there was the concern for adoption, it was something that I loved, that I did not I wanted to say whether I was going to make that decision or not, but I loved families that had children for adoption or the stories behind them.
When we were dating I had to have emergency surgery in a matter of two days for a totally unexpected gynecological issue. Then I remember a conversation in the car in which I said to Nacho: "it seems that they are going to have to operate on me in two days, we don't know what it is, I am super calm but here we are" and Nacho told me: "Lucía You know what? Of course everything will be fine, I'll be with you and don't worry because we'll adopt”. That made me think a lot of things: one, you are very clear that I am going to be your family, right? I am talking about an operation, the consequences that this operation could have had not even crossed my mind, but you have thought about them, and three, the important thing in my family is you and if they have to be like this, then we will adopt. And I said: “that's it, it's him, it's definitely him”.
So a few months later we got married, now focused here in Madrid, I continued with my life, with my work that I am passionate about, with a cinema with a background, with virtues that make you grow. Well, and starting to enjoy and learn more and more about that part of the distribution that I was unaware of.
The years go by, the children do not arrive. There was a point at which, after eight years, we were almost parallel, he had many things for his part, I had many things for mine. Some friends we saw at that time who did not have children told us that an adoption process had been opened in Spain, which normally lasted very little, that they opened every 7, 7 or 8 years, and we made the decision to sign up.
This is a reality that I think is rarely talked about, but it is very frequent how there are couples who really feel that they want to be parents and they do not succeed, and it is later when you are more involved in that circle that you say: I think that It would be good to deal more with these things or for people to speak to you more normally, to take into account what things you can say or what you can't, that is, because they are deep heartaches because, as I said before, there is a longing.
So here we were with that wish, and if it has to be by adoption it will be by adoption, if it has to be biological it will be biological and if it doesn't have to be it won't be, that was an important step, the "if it doesn't have to be it will not be” and living it with true peace, not sought, but truly, that was, I would say, one of the great victories. But yes, discovering that your plans are sometimes not, is fighting for something that you believe in and that perhaps there is another better plan.
And then Teresita arrived. Two years ago they told us, we received a call saying that there was a girl who was one year old and that she was waiting for us to meet her. It was a morning between beautiful and horrible. During the adoption process they prepare you psychologically, they prepare you for this moment, they prepare you for what may come later and there are a series of conditions that are required of you: obviously you continue together, because from the moment you start a process until you finish you can Having separated, you may have been ruined, perhaps his mother may be living in the room they saw for the potential child because she is ill, that is, many things may happen during this process.
Well, the day after receiving that call, Nacho was fired, it was his last day of work and I knew it. When I received the call I said: “is this the call?” and they told me: “yes, this is the call”. I say: “oh, that's great”, and inside me: “don't ask me, don't ask me” and they asked me. "Is there something in you during this time that has changed?" And I say: “what do you mean?”, as if to say: “let's see, if you don't ask me the direct question I'm not going to answer”. "And well, nothing, if any of you has lost your job, if so...". Me: “well, not yet, but tomorrow Nacho does lose his job, but don't worry because the good news is that I have a company and I'm going to be able to hire him”. And he told me: "Lucía, you don't know how sorry I am, but there are so many people waiting." Well, I hung up, I got in the shower to cry saying. "How can you be so stupid? You don't have to always tell the truth, you don't have to, you're stupid."
With Bosco, apart from distributing films, we also carry out communication campaigns for other companies and that morning I had to send a press release for a client and that client called me and I picked up the phone and said: "Look, I don't feel like it today. to answer any calls, I will simply tell you in a headline what has happened, tomorrow I will send your note, please give me today”. And this was a client who has a beautiful idea of investment funds with criteria and he said to me: "Lucía, what are you telling me?" He says: "your company and my company have been created to do good things, call the Community of Madrid right now and tell them that your husband has a job, I'll hire him". And that was within a few minutes, that is, very few minutes. I called, obviously they told me: “yes, of course, your husband already has a job”. So I say: "I promise you that yes, that he already has a job, that they have told me that he starts on Monday, that if you want I will present it to you, that if you need the contract I will show it to you". He told me: "Look, Lucía now, stop, let's think about it, we'll call you in a while."
And nothing, so I went to church, I went to a church and I realized that it was the day of Santa Catalina Labouré who is the saint who spread the invocation for the Miraculous Medal. So I said: "if the Miraculous Medal is really so miraculous today it can happen and it will happen", and there it was a certainty and indeed despite the fact that we did not meet the requirements that they asked of us at that time.
And so it was, the miracle happened. It was a chain of decisions made by people who trusted it and which ended with a yes to adoption. I thought again: "it doesn't matter if you screwed up but telling the truth is always going to be good", because I considered it. And now Teresita, well, she is part of this team, she gives us life and she has completely revolutionized us, she has taken us out of our comfort, which we had already been doing, eight years each with their lives and little in common, and she has returned to us. re-place together and above all how to relive everything with an illusion, with an illusion that it no longer depends only on you or on you but on both of you.
"I believe that God always puts desires for something and that he always fulfills them"
When you return to Spain, you have brought the experience of Rome, the experience of Los Angeles, of getting to know a film distributor from the inside like Metanoia, apart from a different film distributor. Is all that what you pour into Bosco Films? What makes Bosco Films different?
L- At a time when I was changing jobs, I received a small amount of money from my father's inheritance, and I decided to buy two documentaries, and thus Bosco Films was born. Bosco is a film distributor that also functions as a communication agency for cultural and social issues... although they call us for more and more things, we don't look for them, but projects are coming our way. The word Bosco itself comes from Italian, that language that I love and that cemented me. It means forest, so the logo is actually a forest, it is a movie wheel in the shape of a tree and other trees around it. The forest challenges me to something that is alive, something that is green, something that plants roots, something that will be far beyond you, something that brings air. And that is the reason for the name of Bosco and at the same time as Bosco, Saint John Bosco is the patron saint of cinema. So for me they were the two pieces that made this perfect, we look for cinema that lasts, cinema that effectively plants roots, cinema that entertains you, that educates you and that elevates you, the three "Es", that entertains you, that educate and elevate you.
And well, what do we have to do? Trying to find those jewels that don't just entertain you, because cinema is entertainment, that's obviously the main thing, I sit down to watch a movie to pass the time, but what we're looking for is that the type of movie we bring can be a comedy It can be a drama, it can be a documentary, it can be a children's movie, but in the end you come out with a residue, with a planted seed that can germinate.
Now I am going to tell you an anecdote that has just happened, we recently released a film called Lourdes, it has only been on the billboards for a few days and normally I don't have to find out about the things that happen to the viewer, it is not normal. But we have received two messages on Instagram, we have received a lot, but two especially striking ones from two young girls, I sense that they are around 20, 23 at the most, who wanted to commit suicide. The magic of social networks is that people tell you more than they would tell you face to face, that is, maybe their friends don't know, I have no idea what the story of each of them is, but the point is that they wrote to us. I especially remember one that said: "I fight suicide every day, I have seen that in addition to the film there are some bracelets that you are giving out called "I choose to live", I would love to see that bracelet on my wrist every day, it would help me much". This girl for me... I say: "the mission is accomplished". But what is striking is that it has not been one, but two people who have told me, obviously I am not asking them why, but I believe that the world is in need of transcendence and that they are looking for it, they need meaning, they need answers, they need affection .
And well, partly when you are very lonely you search the networks, you search on screens, well hopefully you find a screen or a film that is the one that contributes to you and hopefully they are from Bosco or any other, but that they fulfill a deeper function.
We look for cinema that lasts, cinema that plants roots, cinema that entertains you, that educates you and that elevates you, the three "E"
You just said that the world is in need of transcendence, do you think the pandemic has affected it?
L- Hugely, coming out of the pandemic has been enormously noted. The cinema is still an industry that needs to be profitable, they are exploding themes by times. But, curiously, since 2020 there is a resurgence of a more transcendent cinema, I am not saying religious but transcendent, that touches on deep issues, perhaps more necessary issues, that are no longer just entertainment and that are what people are consuming. The pandemic has left its mark, although it is returning to normality, for example, the issue of suicide. It comes to me from all sides, it makes me think about how we need to help, be more present, look for tools... there are things that you don't have to keep quiet about, but seek help, normalize it, "hey, you're having a bad time because of this, because of this and for this, how can I help you?
But I was reading precisely as a result of preparing a film that at least in Spain there are more deaths annually, in 2021 figures, due to suicide than due to COVID and that is a true pandemic that nobody is talking about. What is it that leads a person to completely lose consciousness? Well, we have to try to make them find a meaning, and among all of us, I believe that we can achieve it, now we are more united than before.
"A more transcendent cinema, I'm not saying religious but transcendent, that touches on deep issues, perhaps more necessary issues, that are no longer just entertainment"
You said before, in the end what the public consumes is produced. But can it be said that to the extent that the public knows a different menu and tries a different food, it begins to consume it, do you see it?
L- 2021 and the global pandemic that we have experienced has marked, I believe, a before and after, not only in Spain. Seeing which have been the most viewed movies during the pandemic on Netflix or Amazon, you can know what people need and what they are looking for. In the United States, for example, there has been a real revolution, a series has appeared that has completely broken the mold and is making the entire film industry say: “oh, what happened here? Why does this have so many millions of views? Why does this approach work better than this one?
It is still an industry and we are in a good moment, curiously, although the cinema is in a very difficult moment right now and for those of us who are small companies it is difficult to shoot because you depend on a chain, if it does not go well in theaters you will not be able to sell it to a platform, it's hard to break that chain. If when people don't go to the movies, now in general, they suddenly do go to see movies with a background, be careful, the message that is being given is not just anything, I really say it seeing it from the inside.
This year, for example, at major world festivals such as the Venice International Festival there have been three films that spoke of spirituality, in a more serious and profound way, in competition. That is not a coincidence, it has not been one, there have been three and that has been due to a lot of audiences that have consumed certain types of content in the cinema or on platforms and we are providing very valuable information.
Bosco is not going to change the trends, the trends are going to be changed by the consumer. If you really want to see a change, go buy a ticket, it's much more what you're doing. And I think this is everyone's job and it is possible, it is being done.
Can that be said to be Bosco's mission? propose films that find a correspondence with that desire that resonates in the heart of every man.
L- Yes, generate a culture of beauty, "beauty will save the world." What we're trying to do is find those movies that make you grow, each one with its own little message, but when you see a Bosco movie, maybe you don't like it, but I'd love to think that one day he'll say: “well, I'm going to see her, because maybe I'll take something good with me ”, I hope so. That has happened with these girls, with Lourdes, that it is only an intention to want to live, live with capital letters. The phrase "I choose to live" had many connotations, but curiously in the document, although they did not know it before seeing it, it is said by a person who is attempting suicide, which is why I am more shocked, they do not know who said it, but it is for me as if this very film had called the people who are going to need it the most, through testimonials that have already experienced it. It's curious, so if he has that vocation, I hope he fulfills it.
And then sometimes the thoughts of saying: “oh, it's just that if you don't do it, nobody else is going to do it”. No, that's not true. God doesn't need us to do any of this, he could do it himself, he can put that desire in you or even in a film director and it ends up coming, that is, he doesn't need us, but it's nice to think that he does want us to let's be part
We have touched on many topics, but at the end I would like to at least leave a review that we are in front of an entrepreneur. What would you say to an entrepreneurial woman, who in another format, she faces every day trying to carry out a venture in which she believes and combine it with the rest of her life?
L- Well, the first thing is the same, are there desires? There is one thing that is desire and another thing is longing, longing I think is something much deeper that lasts and if it does not disappear then it is probably something you have to do. A piece of advice, do not start if you are not prepared, there is no rush, try first to train, learn and settle. If at least you start from a base that you do know or people who can help you, trying to achieve it is a very important step. And then wait, because there won't be results the first time, it's going to mean a lot of resignation, you're going to have problems, but try to persevere as long as you can, and if it doesn't work out, nothing happens, you start over.
Don't lose hope, it's difficult to reconcile, at least for me it's difficult, to reconcile my life at home with my work, especially in the last year and a half in which we've been working both for European time and American time, and It's like I go to pick up my daughter at school and at the same time I'm answering emails, and I'm at a stage that isn't easy, but it's beautiful. Because I believe that every challenge, as you complete it, you say "check", she's done, she can go well or she can go wrong, you have to try, but she waits until she's ready to do it.
You have just premiered the film Lourdes with great success. What are Bosco's next projects, what's next?
L- Well, even I have to put it in order in my head, but hey, we will release this film in seven more countries in the next two weeks, then we will release it in the United States and in between before the end of the year we will finish the filming of our first production. We are going to open a content rental platform, but not only for Bosco films, because we are doing a search for all kinds of films to recover the rights and if you are at home and have a little while, you say: “well, well I am going to enter and I am going to look for, by category, what may be more interesting and I can rent it ”.
If all goes well, it will be up and running in December, and if all goes well in a month we are going to start a foundation called Bosco Arts, it is already registered, but we still need someone to come to work. The vocation of Bosco Arts will be to be able to help artists to train, to grow, to have a place where they can meet and it will be here, in the "Bosco-space". It is going to be the headquarters and thus be able to organize exhibitions that are already beginning to be here, but of course, being a film distributor it seemed a bit strange to me to touch the rest of the arts, so for that reason it has started with Bosco Arts, to also help foundations with communication issues, that is, expand a little more everything that has to do with the 7 arts, from a deeper point of view. And an objective, to consolidate what we already have and enter the Philippines, which we are beginning to negotiate, so that is what I hope for 2023, let's see if we can achieve it.
We will be very attentive!
Lucía, thank you, thank you for the hospitality, for receiving us at Bosco Films, we have felt at home. And thank you for your generosity, for having revealed to us with such sincerity and simplicity the faces of this diamond that is your life.