José María González Santos (born 22 September 1975), mononymously known as Kichi, is a Spanish politician and teacher, Mayor of Cádiz since 2015.

Biography

Born on 22 September 1975 in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

, where his parents had immigrated fleeing the dire economic conditions in the

Bay of Cádiz The Bay of Cádiz is a body of water in the province of Cádiz, Spain, adjacent to the southwestern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The Bay of Cádiz adjoins the Gulf of Cádiz, a larger body of water which is in the same area but further offsho ...

. His family returned to

Cádiz Cádiz (, , ) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Province of Cádiz, one of eight that make up the autonomous community of Andalusia. Cádiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, ...

with Kichi when he was 4 years old. Since age 13, Kichi has been involved in the

Carnival of Cádiz The Carnival of Cádiz () is one of the best-known carnivals in Spain. Its main characteristic is humor. Through sarcasm, mockery and irony, the main groups and the people of the street "purge" the most pressing problems of today. The whole city p ...

, first as '' chirigotero'' and later as vocalist in the comparsa of Jesús Bienvenido. After obtaining a

licentiate degree A licentiate (abbreviated Lic.) is an academic degree present in many countries, representing different educational levels. It may be similar to a master's degree when issued by pontifical universities and other universities in Europe, Latin Am ...

in Geography in History from the

University of Cádiz The University of Cádiz (in Spanish: Universidad de Cádiz), commonly referred to as UCA, is a public university located in the province of Cádiz, Andalusia, Spain, noted for its medicine and marine sciences curricula. It was founded in 1979, a ...

(UCA), he became a highschool teacher, working across the Andalusian region as interim until he earned a permanent post. He later became a trade union representative in the 2010s. He has been a relationship for years with

Teresa Rodríguez María Teresa Rodríguez-Rubio Vázquez (; born 18 September 1981) is a Spanish politician. Active in the United Left in her youth, she then set up her own platform, Anticapitalistas. She was a Member of the European Parliament representing Po ...

, with whom he had a daughter in common in 2019 (Kichi has two children from a previous relationship). A member of

Izquierda Anticapitalista Anticapitalistas (Catalan: ''Anticapitalistes'', Euskera: ''Antikapitalistak'', English language: Anticapitalists), known as Izquierda Anticapitalista (Anti-Capitalist Left, IA) until January 2015 and as Espacio Alternativo (Alternative Space, ...

(IZAN), he ran 1st in the list of Cádiz Sí Se Puede (a

grouping of electors According to the Spanish electoral law, a grouping of electors (Spanish: ''agrupación de electores'') is a group of citizens temporarily associated with the goal of presenting a candidature to a particular election. It is a format that a candidatur ...

linked to Podemos) vis-à-vis the May 2015 municipal election in Cádiz. Following the results of the election, in which Por Cádiz Sí Se Puede earned 9 seats, Kichi was invested Mayor on 13 June 2015, with the support from the Por Cádiz Sí Se Puede (9),

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gov ...

(5) and Ganar Cádiz en Común (2) municipal councillors. He renovated the post of Mayor for a second term, after the 2019 municipal election, in which the list he led neared an absolute majority, with 13 councillors out of 27.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzalez Santos, Jose Maria Living people 1975 births 21st-century Spanish politicians Spanish schoolteachers Mayors of places in Andalusia University of Cádiz alumni