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Rocío Monasterio

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Spanish–Cuban politician (born 1974) In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Monasterio and the second or maternal family name is San Martín.
Rocío Monasterio
Monasterio in 2019
Member of the Assembly of Madrid
In office
11 June 2019 – 10 October 2024
Personal details
BornRocío Monasterio San Martín
(1974-02-04) 4 February 1974 (age 50)
CitizenshipCuba • Spain
Political partyVox (since 2014)
Spouse Iván Espinosa de los Monteros ​ ​(m. 2001)​
Children4
Alma materHigher Technical School of Architecture of Madrid
OccupationArchitect • Politician

Rocío Monasterio San Martín (born 4 February 1974) is a Spanish-Cuban architect, businesswoman and politician. The leader of the Madrid branch of the far-right Spanish political party Vox, she served as a member of the 11th term of the Assembly of Madrid until October 10, 2024, when she resigned from all her political posts after being removed from the leadership of the party in the region by the national leadership.

Biography

Born on 4 February 1974 her birthplace is equally reported to be either Cuba or Madrid. Monasterio has claimed that her birthplace is Madrid. Her Cuban ancestors were large landowners in Cienfuegos. They also owned the Manuelita sugar mill and the Compañía Azucarera Atlántica del Golfo, which was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The family had links with the Fulgencio Batista regime. Some of the Monasterio family's properties were nationalised in the 1960s following the Cuban revolution, leading some of the family to immigrate to Spain. Her father opened the first KFC in Spain.

Monasterio reportedly began studies in architecture at the Higher Technical School of Architecture of Madrid (ETSAM) in 1992. Monasterio and her architecture firm focused on acquiring properties and turning them into high-end lofts. She earned her degree in architecture in 2009 (the same year she joined the Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid). This circumstance has led to the questioning of several plans and building certifications she reportedly signed in the capacity of "facultative director" at least as back in time as 2003. The projects include partial demolitions for which she implicitly claimed to have the professional qualification which is condicio sine qua non to sign them off.

Career

Architecture

Monasterio studied architecture at the Technical University of Madrid, and specialized in Urban Environments. In 1997 she received a prize from Otis International for her design of 3000 homes in Hong Kong. In 2000, Monasterio founded her architecture firm called Rocío Monasterio and Associates. She is also a regular media contributor, appearing weekly on the political talk show El gato al agua on Intereconomía TV, as well as on various programmes on CNN en Español, commenting on current events in Cuba.

Politics

Monasterio at a Vox presentation in Vistalegre.

Rocío Monasterio joined Vox in 2014. Currently she is the president of Vox Madrid. She is also the vice-secretary of Social Matters of the party.

In December 2018, Monasterio stated that her life has been threatened and that she's been physically assaulted, spat on, and insulted as well as hit by rocks by "feminists". Monasterio is a speaker for HazteOir (English: Make Yourself Heard), having supported the latter group's polemical bus sporting a message that denied the existence of transexuality in children.

She ran as the Vox candidate in the 2021 Madrilenian regional election. Following a death threat of unknown origin in the form of a menacing mail with four rifle bullets issued to Podemos candidate Pablo Iglesias, a clash ensued between Iglesias and Monasterio in a Cadena SER debate over the latter's refusal to explicitly condemn the incident. This prompted Iglesias to walk out of the debate, which was followed by PSOE and Más Madrid candidates doing likewise shortly thereafter.

Political positions

Monasterio (on right) at a HazteOir demonstration

Monasterio is against abortion. In a march on 15 April 2018, she affirmed that her party, Vox, stands for the rights of the unborn. Monasterio, who considers herself a feminist in the vein of XIX century thinker Concepción Arenal, is opposed to what she considers radical feminism stating that it tends to demonize the traditional family. Monasterio wants to replace Violence Against Women laws with Violence Against Family, to protect not only women who are victims of violence but any family member who may be a victim of family violence.

Monasterio is against the practice of surrogacy and talking to children about choices in sexual orientation such as zoophilia, which regional authorities have stated do not exist as she describes. She stated she'd move the Madrid Gay Pride Parade, the largest in Europe, from the city centre to the Casa de Campo park, and that marriage is between a man and a woman; that other unions are civil unions, not marriages. She was one of the promoters of a requirement before the Spanish Ombudsman filed in November 2016 criticising the regional government of Madrid for banning conversion therapies to "cure gays", asking for a repeal initiative to be formulated before the Constitutional Court.

Monasterio is a climate change denier, would like to deport all illegal immigrants and believes criminals should receive life in prison.

Internationally, Monasterio is a member of the Madrid Forum, an international group organized by Vox that is composed of right-wing and far-right individuals. Monasterio condemns the Cuban government of the brothers Raúl and Fidel Castro, and successor, Miguel Díaz-Canel. She denounced African immigration and advocated the immediate expulsion of undocumented migrants. On the other hand, she justified immigration from Venezuela and Cuba, arguing that migrants from these countries were fleeing "dictatorships". She has participated in anti-communist rallies denouncing the regime in Cuba.

Personal life

On 15 May 2001, Monasterio married real estate developer Iván Espinosa de los Monteros. They have four children. An architect by training, she herself designed the house in which the couple moved in 2012. Built by a company owned by her husband, the value of the house is estimated at 3 million euros.

References

Informational notes
  1. According to the sources placing her birthplace in Cuba, she lived in Cuba as a child, but was relocated to Spain with her parents.
  2. Clients of the architectural firm headed by Monasterio who happen to have bought or dwelled into these irregular lofts include fellow member of the Assembly of Madrid Ignacio Aguado and actor Arturo Valls.
Citations
  1. Domínguez, Íñigo; Quesada, Juan Diego (31 October 2019). "The leader of the Madrid branch of Spain's far-right party Vox, Rocío Monasterio". El País. Archived from the original on 5 November 2019. Retrieved 24 November 2019. The leader of the Madrid branch of Spain's far-right party Vox, Rocío Monasterio,
  2. Calleja, Ignacio S. (9 October 2024). "Vox fulmina a Monasterio como líder en Madrid y coloca al frente a su portavoz nacional". elconfidencial.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 October 2024.
  3. Cedeira, Brais (16 June 2019). "El enigma Rocío Monasterio: la nieta del latifundista que manda en Vox con sonrisa impasible". El Español. Archived from the original on 17 June 2019. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  4. Madrid, J. (28 October 2018). "Madre de cuatro hijos y arquitecta: Rocío Monasterio, la voz femenina de Vox". Vanitatis. El Confidencial. Archived from the original on 1 November 2019. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  5. Solanilla, Pau (8 September 2019). "Vox, el alumno aventajado de la tecnopolítica en España". Agenda Pública. El País. Archived from the original on 1 November 2019. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  6. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Monasterio: "Me dijeron que era mejor que no fuera a Cuba". YouTube.
  7. "El enigma Rocío Monasterio: La nieta del latifundista que manda en Vox con sonrisa impasible". 16 June 2019.
  8. ^ Gasparyan, Suren (19 April 2019). "La biografía no oficial de Rocío Monasterio, musa de la extrema derecha". El Plural (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  9. "▶️ VIDEO: La cubano-española Rocío Monasterio es entrevistada por María Elvira Salazar". Ciber Cuba (in Spanish). 12 December 2016. Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  10. ^ "Rocío Monasterio – Noticias, reportajes, vídeos y fotografías". Libertad Digital (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  11. Domínguez, Íñigo; Peinado, Fernando (1 November 2019). "Rocío Monasterio falseó en su currículum la fecha en la que terminó arquitectura". El País. Archived from the original on 1 November 2019. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  12. Salido Cobo, Jorge (2 May 2008). "De taller mecánico a loft oficina" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2019. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  13. ^ "El noble Iván, portavoz de Vox". Crónica Global (in Spanish). 15 January 2019. Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  14. "Monasterio niega cometer irregularidades: "No recuerdo si en 2003 era arquitecta"". ABC. 28 October 2019. Archived from the original on 4 November 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  15. Caballero, Fátima (28 October 2019). "Rocío Monasterio, además de planos, firmó presupuestos y certificaciones de obra como arquitecta sin tener el título". eldiario.es. Archived from the original on 30 October 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  16. "Arturo Valls, nuevo afectado por el escándalo inmobiliario de Rocío Monasterio". www.madridiario.es. Madridiario. 21 November 2019.
  17. Ávila, Tribuna de (27 September 2012). "Rocío Monasterio impartirá en Ávila la charla 'Un proyecto para España. España en positivo'". Tribuna Avila (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
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  20. "Tribuna. Noticias".
  21. "VOX España: Comité Ejecutivo Nacional". Archived from the original on 30 May 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  22. "Ortega Smith será el candidato de Vox al Ayuntamiento de Madrid y Rocío Monasterio a la Comunidad". 20minutos Últimas Noticias (in Spanish). 18 April 2019. Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  23. "Vox elige a Rocío Monasterio para la Comunidad de Madrid y a Ortega Smith para el Ayuntamiento". El Mundo (in Spanish). 18 April 2019. Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
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  25. Berberana, Elena (8 December 2018). "El acoso a Rocío Monasterio (Vox): "Las feministas me han amenazado de muerte"". Libre Mercado (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  26. Bastante, Jesús (7 December 2018). "Las conexiones de Vox con HazteOir, los 'kikos' y una docena de obispos españoles". El Diario (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  27. "Tensión y gritos en la Complutense tras la llegada del autobús tránsfobo". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 10 March 2017. Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  28. "PSOE y Más Madrid dejan el debate tras la marcha de Iglesias por los ataques de Vox". El Confidencial (in Spanish). 23 April 2021. Retrieved 23 April 2021.
  29. "Pablo Iglesias walks out of Madrid debate in clash over death threat". The Guardian. 23 April 2021. Retrieved 23 April 2021.
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  31. "Los jóvenes toman el testigo en defensa de la vida". ABC (in Spanish). 13 April 2018. Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  32. Segovia Vara, Marina; Fernández Pasalodos, Arnau (18 April 2019). "Ha vuelto la Antiespaña. Vox y su violencia discursiva". El Salto (Diario) (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  33. "La musa de Vox contra las 'feminazis'". El Mundo (in Spanish). 6 January 2019. Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  34. Plaza, Ana Martín (9 January 2019). "Los bulos y desinformaciones de Vox sobre la violencia machista y su mezcla con la violencia doméstica". RTVE (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  35. "Rocío Monasterio, una asturiana de Vox contra la ley de violencia de género". La Nueva España (in Spanish). 7 January 2019. Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  36. Carreño, Belén (24 May 2019). "Far-right Vox challenges Spain's acceptance of LGBT rights". Reuters. Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  37. R. Domingo, Marta; G. Rivas, Tatiana (28 January 2019). "Rocío Monasterio: "Llevaría el Orgullo Gay y fiestas similares a la Casa de Campo"". ABC (in Spanish). Vocento. Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  38. Esteban, Esther (1 March 2019). "Rocío Monasterio: "Vox es hoy fundamental para dar un giro a la política española y lo dará"". El Economista (in Spanish). Editorial Ecoprensa. Archived from the original on 26 August 2019. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  39. Zulet, Íñigo (7 June 2019). "Rocío Monasterio pidió al Defensor del Pueblo que no se prohibieran terapias para 'curar' a los gays". El Español. Archived from the original on 8 June 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  40. Tapia, Isidoro (20 February 2019). "Vox y su 'camelo climático'". El Confidencial (in Spanish). Titania Compañía Editorial, S.L. Archived from the original on 8 October 2019. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
  41. Alvarado, Fernando (14 June 2019). "Las palabras de Rocío Monasterio sobre inmigración que no van a causar indiferencia". COPE (in Spanish). Radio Popular S.A. Archived from the original on 26 August 2019. Retrieved 26 August 2019.
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  45. "Rocío Monasterio: Así es y así piensa la candidata de Vox para Madrid".
  46. "Cuatro hijos, casoplón en Madrid y casados con bendición papal: así es la pareja en la cima de Vox". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 29 March 2019. Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  47. "¿Quién es Iván Espinosa de los Monteros de Vox?". 20minutos Últimas Noticias (in Spanish). 1 January 2019. Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2019.
  48. "Cuatro hijos, casoplón en Madrid y casados con bendición papal: así es la pareja en la cima de Vox". La Vanguardia. 29 March 2019. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  49. "El enigma Rocío Monasterio: La nieta del latifundista que manda en Vox con sonrisa impasible". 16 June 2019.
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