Carmen Martín Gaite was born in Salamanca, 8 December 1925. She was the second daughter in the marriage of José Martín López (Valladolid, 1885) and María Gaite Veloso (Orense, 1894), who got married in 1923. Her parents had met in Salamanca, where her father worked as a notary. Her maternal grandparents were from Orense and her mother was also born in this province of Spain. Her grandfather was a professor of geography and her great uncle founded the Ateneo of Orense and was a director and a publisher of the newspaper called "El Orensano". The family used to spend summers on the farm of her grandparents in San Lorenzo de Piñor (Barbadás), five kilometers away from Orense. These trips were the base of her connection with Galicia and its culture. It encouraged her to write some of her works, such as "Las ataduras" and "Retahílas".