lit a candle 3h agoMy neighbour called to tell me, we both live on the island and she knew I'd want to hear it straight away rather than find it on the news. Thirty five. I never followed Canarian politics closely before I moved here but you couldn't miss her, she was the one who kept raising the water supply and the cost of getting off this island for a hospital appointment. That stays with me more than any title.
Their story
Cristina Calero García was a Spanish politician from Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands, who sat in the Parliament of the Canary Islands for the nationalist party Coalición Canaria. She died on 27 October 2026 at the age of 35, a little over three years after taking her seat, and her…
Cristina Calero García was a Spanish politician from Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands, who sat in the Parliament of the Canary Islands for the nationalist party Coalición Canaria. She died on 27 October 2026 at the age of 35, a little over three years after taking her seat, and her sudden death drew tributes from across Canarian public life.
Calero trained as a biologist. She held a degree in Biology and two university master's degrees, one in secondary school teacher training and one in regional development, and she had further training in political leadership and governance. Before and alongside her political career she taught in vocational training and in secondary education, and she worked on projects in education, employment and sustainability.
Her politics began in the youth wing of Coalición Canaria, the Jóvenes Nacionalistas de Canarias, where she remained executive secretary for youth policy and studies until her death. Between November 2022 and June 2023 she served as councillor for Activities and Patrimonial Responsibility on Arrecife city council. On 31 July 2023 she became a member of the regional Parliament for the island of Lanzarote, sitting with the Grupo Nacionalista Canario in the 11th legislature.
In Parliament she concentrated on the needs of Lanzarote and La Graciosa. She spoke on water infrastructure, on aid for self employed workers and small businesses after the pandemic, and on the difficulties of patients who had to travel off the island for hospital treatment. Only days before her death she had asked the Canary Islands government for information on how pandemic aid to small firms was being processed.
Calero fell ill on Monday 26 October 2026 and was admitted overnight to the Hospital Doctor José Molina Orosa in Arrecife, where she died the next morning. Early reports citing people close to her party said she had probably suffered a stroke, but no official cause of death was published. Coalición Canaria announced her death, saying she had left an indelible mark of enthusiasm, unconditional work and love for her land.
The President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, said she conveyed light, joy and enthusiasm for her people, for Lanzarote and for the Canaries, and represented the best of committed youth in politics. The president of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, Oswaldo Betancort, left a public event to go to the hospital when he heard the news. Condolences also came from Spain's Minister of Territorial Policy, Ángel Víctor Torres, from Vice President Manuel Domínguez and from opposition parties on the island.
Biography adapted from Parliament of the Canary Islands, Canarias7, La Provincia, Cadena SER, Libertad Digital and Diario de Avisos.
Photos
1by People Forever
From social media
2Posts by Cristina, and posts about them, kept here so they are not lost.