Álvaro Iniesta Pérez is from Madrid, Spain. With his wife Marina, he joined ATD’s Volunteer Corps in 2000. The couple share a passion for music and singing and have three children. Álvaro first encountered ATD Fourth World in 1998 and was “impressed to discover a people-centred community involved in building a more just society.”

After a year with ATD in Madrid, Álvaro worked in Caen in the north of France where he learned more about the organization’s work from Martine Le Corre and other long-time ATD activists. For five years, Álvaro, Marina and their children lived in a low-income housing complex called the “City of Birds”. Álvaro took a low-paying job as a way of better understanding the difficulties many of his neighbours faced. He discovered an economy that was totally neglectful of people’s wellbeing and saw first hand the urgent need for economic reforms that would provide greater prosperity for more people.

In 2008, Álvaro and Marina moved to Guatemala, where Álvaro’s responsibilities included the “Working and Learning Together” project. Returning to Spain in 2013, Álvaro joined ATD’s national coordinating team there. What sustains him in his work, Álvaro says, is the solidarity he sees among families in poverty, and their efforts to build peace.

Álvaro was a member of ATD Fourth World’s International Leadership Team from 2017 to 2021.