At soccer games with his brothers, Marilo Montero It was his turn to get under the sticks. She was the youngest of four children and the only girl in a family that lived in the house of the municipal slaughterhouse of Estella, in Navarra. A few years passed there that the presenter remembers fondly, despite the constraints and lack of space in the home.
“I was a big boy. I was surrounded by dolls, but they made me the goalkeeper”he remembered when talking about that stage. Montero reviewed his family history in “All Basque surnames”, by ETB2in an installment broadcast in April 2016 in which he returned to the places and people of his childhood.
His three brothers occupy a good part of those memories. Outdoor games, soccer and afternoons by the river were part of a daily life that he shared with them. The presenter described herself as a restless girl, with energy and a character that her mother already pointed out to her then.
A house with two bedrooms for six people
His father’s work as slaughterhouse manager It was tied to where they lived. The family had a house with two bedrooms, which were divided between the parents and the three oldest children. For Mariló, the solution was to sleep in the kitchen.
“I slept in the kitchen, because I didn’t have a bedroom. At home there were two bedrooms. The three brothers slept together,” he explained, remembering how they organized themselves. Until he was 13, he slept in a folding bed.in the same room where the family met during the day.
Outside the house there was more room to play. Among his memories are the banks of the river, fishing for crabs and bathing in the pool. She also has images of her mother tending the gardens or sewing in the living room while her children went from one place to another.
His parents’ financial difficulties
The ETB2 program also reconstructed the history of the family business. His parents had opened a shoe storebut the floods that Estella suffered in 1960 They ruined the establishment. That happened before the presenter was born and forced the family to find another way to make a living.
His father emigrated to Germany and his mother remained in Estella taking care of the children they had at the time. Later, work in the slaughterhouse provided the family with the place where Mariló would grow up.
When talking about those years, Montero remembers both the material difficulties and the good times with his brothers. The kitchen that served as a bedroom, the games by the river and the games in which she had just been goalkeeper are part of a childhood that she has described as “immensely happy”.