Leti Gonzalez first came to Cardiff on a Six Nations Day, stepping off a Megabus at Sophia Gardens and walking to a house party in Adamsdown. She had only come to Cardiff after a friend in London suggested it. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Leticia Andrea Gonzalez Estigarribia moved to the UK at 27 for what was meant to be a three-month stay. Now, she is one of the new intake of Plaid Cymru Senedd members elected to the Welsh Parliament.
An Unexpected Political Journey
Never, when she first agreed to stand for the party, did she expect her third place position on the party's list in the Caerdydd Penarth constituency would result in her being elected. Yet, as she spoke afterwards, she said she couldn't stop saying how happy she was. Four weeks into her time as one of the six Senedd members representing the constituency in the south of Wales' capital, that sentiment hasn't gone away.
"It was going to be like a three month thing because I was studying in Italy and I have a friend living in London and she said 'I think you should just stay' and I was like 'Why not?' because I was 27 and that's what you do in your twenties," she laughs. Then, while in London she met people from Cardiff, who invited her to that house party. That isn't, I say, most tourists' first entry point to Wales. "No," she concedes, but "I loved it".
"Now, those memories are core memories for me. Stepping down from the Megabus on Sophia Gardens and walking from there, that's like my first memory of Cardiff," she says.
From Waitress to Visual Merchandiser
She had been working as a waitress in London, having studied art, but wanted to leave the capital. "London was just too much for me so the people I was with that were moving back to Cardiff and I thought I would take that opportunity and pursue my career," she says. "I became a visual merchandiser, but I wanted more. I became very interested in consumer behaviour, so I decided to do a master's in consumer behaviour. I had to move back to London because that's the only university that did my course."
After another spell there, lasting six months, she finished her Masters, and came back to Wales. In 2024, she began researching the political manifestos of parties here. "Plaid Cymru said in their manifesto Wales is the community of communities, obviously I felt welcomed and my experience since I came to Wales I thought 'Plaid Cymru it is'." She began supporting Keira Marshall - now her constituency colleague - in her bid to be elected to Westminster in 2024.
A Year of Unemployment
Her intention was to get involved to help out a party whose cause she backed, not to stand for any election. At the time, her main aim was trying to get a job. She spent a year searching in vain. "I spent a year unemployed, which was really, really hard for me," she says. The first few months or so, she aimed for a job linked to her qualifications, after that, she would have taken any job. "After six months I was trying to find just any job, but that was hard as well," she said. Her days were spent, full time, writing applications, applying looking for vacancies and uploading her CVs.
"It gets very personal because you start doubting yourself, your capabilities. I finished my Master's with a distinction and I thought 'what's wrong with me?' I have job experience, relevant experience, academic experience, what's wrong with me?' I was going to the Job Centre and going everywhere to say 'train me' but everyone was saying the same - you're not the problem, the system is a problem. That doesn't make you feel better. It doesn't get you a job, but it does make you feel better. It starts really getting to you, your sense of belonging."
"That's where Plaid was very important to me because it gave me structure and I give me a sense of belonging because I don't have any family In the UK, so my friends are my family. So being accepted almost straight away meant a lot to me and everyone was very inclusive. I was invited to everything and I felt like I might not have a job but I'm still giving back to my community," the now 36-year-old says.
Finding Purpose Through Politics
It was, she says, a tough time. "It was honestly, an horrendous time of my life. Now looking back, I feel like that's one of the things that really pushed me to work towards a better Wales because I was 34 years old when that happened to me, and I already have resilience built in me," but she says, younger people don't have resilience, even her academic contemporaries are still struggling to find work. "I absolutely understand what they're going through and I want to reassure them it's not your life," she said.
In December that year she stood in a council by-election in Cardiff, getting just 88 of the possible 2,089 votes. "That was my first experience of how people see Plaid and it's not how I did. When I was knocking on doors, people were like, 'Plaid is for people that speak Welsh and Welsh people'. I said 'hello, look at me'."
"I thought it would be nice if we could have like a little bit of diversity in the list and I put my name forward, especially because I wanted to be on a campaign with her, like I knew it was going to be fun," she says, referencing Ms Marshall. At that point, it did not seem likely that third place on Plaid's list would translate to a seat. "Absolutely not," she says.
From Dream Job to Senedd
In January, she remembers the first poll suggesting it would. She dismissed it as just a poll. "It's a poll, polls lie," she laughs, plus by then she had a job doing customer research and insights for Transport for Wales. "Literally my dream job, because all I wanted to do is give back to my community," she says. "So I thought 'this it, whatever happens, I'm already living the dream'."
A number of polls echoed the same, suggesting Plaid would take three seats in her constituency, but that didn't match her experiences knocking on doors. Routinely she knocked on doors from voters not just a little further along the spectrum to her, but at the furthest point. "I was getting a little bit anxious because I hadn't really prepared as the other people in the list had for the eventuality," she says.
While other first time Senedd members may be getting to grips with the building, the people, the etiquette, she is having to do all that but also learn the ins and outs of Welsh politics too. "I'm so excited," she says. "I love it. It was [politics] part of what I wanted to do. I didn't expect to be inside the Senedd, I thought I was going to be more on the policy side of things, but this is great. It has been an amazing surprise and and it could look from the outside super daunting considering my situation but it's such an amazing group, the vibes are incredible," she says.
Family Concerns and Future Plans
Her family are now planning a visit from Argentina, something she hopes will reassure them. "My family was worried because in Argentina politics can be very heated, so when I was looking for a job and I told them I was involved with Plaid, they started saying like 'maybe that's why you're not getting a job' because they know you're in politics and that could push away employers and they might label you as problematic. That did cross my mind because that is how politics are lived in Argentina. Luckily I followed through, and here I am, but they were they were concerned and they're still concerned about my safety and how people react to politicians in Wales, but they are coming to visit me and so hopefully I can reassure them that it's okay," she says.
"I can't believe the succession of random events that led to this moment and everything was meant to be. At the moment, I guess when I put my name for the Senedd election, I was living the worst year of my life. I remember right before one of the final hustings, I got rejected from a job where I had got to the final stage. I was like, 'this is it, this was it' and in the final moment, they said there was an internal applicant. I can't explain how much I cried and then I had to go to the hustings," she said.
She has already made her first contribution to the Senedd, something she found uncharacteristically nerve-wracking. "I felt I was going to pass out," she laughs. Why, i asked? "Because of the understanding that it's just not a job and now I'm part of something bigger than myself," she said.
Priorities for the Future
Her dissertation was on child-free people. "Even though my optic was from the side of child-free people, I realised, how people talk about child-free people being selfish, and there is a lot of backlash. But actually the whole system is set up for child- free people and not for families and that's where I became radicalised. We've been sold something from the media when it's actually not the problem. We are not the problem. Child-free people are not, we're just a symptom of a sick environment and that's how I get into politics."
It means one of her priorities, is to help young families, specifically, the parents. The others, she says, are to unify communities, and to use her experiences to help people succeed. For now, there is a lot to get used to. The reality of her role now is taking a little time to get used to. "It's not just the job, it affects your personal life as well. So it's a shock in every single aspect of your life and it's something that you can't just disconnect anymore especially for me, because I don't have a family here. I don't have anyone to like come back home and be like, 'hey, this is how my day went'. My friends are lovely but of course, this has been like a big change and now I am the person to go to talk about politics, so I don't get to disconnect much, which has been currently challenging," she says.
Her hope isn't just to live out her dream, but help others. "For me there is the possibility of being an inspiration for other people that not necessarily were born in Wales to get engaged with politics and to participate, which is something that we need more from every demographic. So that's another sort of pressure that I feel I have, you know, representation to different communities."
