40 years of madness

Cernuda is crazy!

I heard this phrase in the hallways of my school in Terrassa exactly 40 years ago. I was a girl in E.G.B. I have that memory, that image, and that phrase etched in my hard drive. The madness of my father, of my parents, was to open a store exclusively for frozen foods for the first time in Spain exactly 40 years ago.

Having been born into an entrepreneurial and business family has marked me, and my two siblings. I remember as children in the fish markets, bothering, rather than helping, my parents. Understanding where everything came from and seeing how much sacrifice it took to make ends meet and be able to give us a good education. My parents always prioritized good education and health. They didn't buy us expensive clothes or take us on vacations, but going to a good school and having good health coverage was paramount. The culture of effort was a life lesson for us to see that money doesn't grow on trees. That everything costs and everything is worth something. At that moment, we didn't see it, obviously. I remember having my rebellious streak, not to say idiotic, and questioning my father why my friends went skiing and to the Costa Brava and we didn't… My father, Josep, told me, you tell them you have a palace in Asturias. The serious thing is that I said it and, at 14, when we went to Muñas de Arriba (Luarca), I saw that it had nothing of a palace.

That same year, 1983, the Argentine dictatorship ended and Raúl Alfonsín consolidated democracy; at the Vostok base in Antarctica the lowest temperature in history was recorded; -89.2ºC; filmmaker Luis Buñuel died; the Compact Disc was invented, which would unseat vinyl; Microsoft released the Windows system; the movie Scarface premiered and the band Red Hot Chili Peppers was born, among other anniversaries.

Facts, some, considered madness in each of their environments and contexts. Is that what entrepreneurship is about? Is it about seeing things from another place? Is it about questioning the statu quo and daring to create a different proposal? Is it about turning a deaf ear to what others say?

If I look in the rearview mirror of those 40 years, I see a brand that has surfed many waves and trends, and remains the same. A brand that stopped being a family business. My father died too young. Laryngeal, esophageal, and lung cancer destroyed him in 18 months. A year and a half that life gave me to get to know him better from the fragile silence of a hospital room with a large window from which I would tell him about life. Handwritten letters were our voice. I never communicated so intimately with anyone as in those months of long, serene, deep gazes and silences full of life. I keep some of those pages. I will never forget his handwriting. Today, May 16, he would have turned 84.

My siblings and the partners we had in La Sirena looked for travel companions, a decision that ultimately led us to sell the company when it was 17 years old. Someday I will write the story of La Sirena. My version of the story, of course! Writing is a way of understanding and explaining oneself.

I am only the founder's daughter, of the founders. My mother has always been in the shadows, she has never identified with the brand. In fact, many circumstantial effects that family businesses have are ruptures, divorces, neglected children, complicated adolescences, family inequalities. In our case, the company, we could say, destroyed the family. The conventional family. My parents were pioneers even in this. They divorced in 1988. It was not easy to grow up in full adolescence with separated parents, an emerging company, discovering yourself with uncontrolled hormones and working and studying at the same time. At that time I had my first boyfriend in Terrassa --- Jordi, heavy metal, very handsome --- it took me a year to tell him that my parents had separated… it is clear that the separation affected me.

I was born between the demand and the adventure of creating something from scratch that didn't exist and that required desire, madness, and determination. This is how I have grown and lived. It has its good and bad. Our case was not that of a family spoiled by business successes. In fact, when they could have enjoyed them; my father fell ill and died. It was the company's 15th anniversary. Afterwards, my siblings and I, along with my father's partner, held on for a few more years and, finally, sold. Long story, complex decisions, life lessons in negotiation and empathy. At 28, life gave me a doctorate, in emotion management, in looking people in the eyes without fear, and in having principles. I learned that business can be very dirty and that, when the king is dead, long live the king. I learned that life is serious.

I was born between the demand and the adventure of creating something from scratch that didn't exist and that required desire, madness, and determination. This is how I have grown and lived. It has its good and bad. Our case was not that of a family spoiled by business successes.

Claudia, Marina, Gala and Max are that third generation that feels the company with a certain admiration, pride and nostalgia. I have had intimate, tender and memorable conversations with each of them, and I see how in some way, that adventurous, brave, entrepreneurial spirit, of sacrifice and hard work, of believing in your crazy ideas and doing things well, has made an impact. They highlight the bravery Josep (Pepín in Asturias) had to come alone, at only 14 years old ---the age of one of them---, from Asturias to Catalonia on a train without speaking Catalan and start a new life. They see with a certain romanticism the strength of being part of a family business, which they have not experienced. La Sirena is part of our family, that's clear, that's why I wanted to invite the third generation to talk about something they haven't shared, but it's in their genes. It's like the invisible guest; a female guest, in this case. They don't boast about being the founder's granddaughters, but they are proud of what their grandfather created and, they confess to me, that if it were still ours, they would like to work in it.

La Sirena is part of our family, that's clear, that's why I wanted to invite the third generation to talk about something they haven't shared, but it's in their genes

I suppose that having lived it from its embryo and having created the brand in its first years of life makes me feel it a bit mine. I created and directed the communication department for 7 years. Exciting. I have the feeling that the business has not changed that much; that quality, which was the most important thing in its early years, still is now. That good treatment of staff and customers continues to be the values that govern the company. Of course, that's what I would like, and my father, for sure. 40 years have passed since that madness. Now that mermaid is a mature, powerful woman, in the prime of her life. Facing the world and treading strong. That's what it's about, treading strong by doing things well.

40 years have passed since that madness. Now that mermaid is a mature, powerful woman, in the prime of her life. Facing the world and treading strong. That's what it's about, treading strong by doing things well

This 2023 also marks 40 years for companies and brands such as Televisió de Catalunya, Ediciones Urano, and Catalunya Ràdio. In that same year, 1983, great hits came out such as, Let's dance, La dolce vita, Every breath you take, You can't hurry love and, of course, Cada loco con su tema by maestro Serrat.

Happy birthday to that madness that turns 40 today! Blessed madness.