It began with two women who grew up in different worlds.
Cinthya was born in Cuba. Alicia, in the Canary Islands. Two different lives, two different paths — and a story that, years later, would end up crossing them in the same place.
Out of that friendship — the conversations, the ideas, the wish to build something of their own — Un Lugar was born. Not as a simple café or a couple of guest houses, but as spaces designed for people to feel comfortable, inspired, calm and connected.
Cinthya was born in a fishing village.
I was born in Cojímar, a small fishing village east of Havana. I grew up in a Cuba where there wasn't much — we went without, like so many others.
And even so, if you ask me whether I'd live my childhood again, I say yes. We had no toys — but we played with whatever we found: a stick, a stone, a ball we made up ourselves. I had so much fun with the kids from the neighbourhood, right by the sea.
I grew up in a family that was humble and deeply human. Almost everything I am today comes from there — but I tell that part in full further down.
Alicia grew up between the sand and the sea.
I grew up in Guanarteme. My parents moved there right when I was born, and my childhood was tied to Las Canteras beach from then on.
I felt like the sea and sport were just part of me. That was my childhood: beach, friends, sand between my toes, getting home late almost every day — and being very happy.
Cinthya crossed the Atlantic to Las Palmas.
I started out training as a travel agent, then worked at an agency. Later I saw an opening at a finance company that trained people from scratch, and decided to give it a try.
Without knowing it, I was about to cross paths with the other half of this story.
And then, we met.
It was at that finance company that Cinthya and Alicia met. They shared a desk, mid-morning coffees, and something more important: the wish to build something of their own, and to feel free.
Two women from two different islands — one from the Caribbean, one from the Atlantic. Even though we were working for other people, the idea of creating something of our own was already there inside us. All that was missing was the moment.
It all began in a garage.
Without much experience, but with plenty of will, we decided to open a bar. In 2013 we rented the only thing we could afford: an empty garage in Guanarteme — four walls, a metal shutter, and an idea that was growing slowly.
It's hard to believe that everything that came after grew out of that. But that's where it started: in that garage, with more hope than resources.
We opened Un Lugar Cocktail Bar.
Cinthya trained as a bartender, and we learned as we went — trying things, getting them wrong, and starting again.
We made the cocktails ourselves, looked after every guest, and took care of every detail. For six years, that's what it was.
And then COVID arrived.
Exactly six years later, on 14 March 2020, nightlife stopped completely. It was one of the hardest-hit sectors, and we understood we had to reinvent ourselves or disappear.
It was hard — and at the same time, one of the most important chapters. One line stayed with us: "Your business will never grow beyond how much you grow as a person." We watched Las Palmas fill up with digital nomads, creatives, students, and the island still had no space built for them. A lot of people told us we were crazy. We decided to bet on it.
From a cocktail bar to a café workspace.
In just one month we completely transformed the space. We went from night to day.
We created the kind of place we would have loved to find ourselves: comfortable tables, good energy, coffee, natural light, and an atmosphere where you could focus without feeling rushed. That's how Un Lugar Café Workspace was born.
And then, House Canteras.
In early 2022, more and more guests started asking us where they could stay near the café. And right above the space, the chance came up to create our first place to stay. That's how Un Lugar House Canteras was born — comfortable, human, quiet spaces for living the island.
A second house, two ways to live it.
In 2023 a second house arrived, in Arenales — right by the university and the Obelisco. We renovated it completely, following the same idea: bright, quiet, with the life of the neighbourhood around it.
In 2025 we realised that house could be lived in two ways: House San Telmo, for short stays, and Long Stay, for longer stays.
House San Telmoshort staysLong Staylonger staysA brand with many forms.
Today, Un Lugar is the Café Workspace, the two houses, the long stays — and it will keep on being whatever it needs to be.
The idea is still the same: to create human spaces, slowly. We'll keep coming up with new ideas, learning, growing, always looking for a better way to do it. Whatever comes next, we'll see when it gets here.
We're not trying to build a perfect, impersonal brand.
We want to create spaces where people can work, live, connect, rest, find inspiration and feel comfortable. Un Lugar is community, design, calm, creativity and people.
Beyond the timeline.
Cinthya
We should never forget where we come from.
Where I come from.
I grew up in a family that was humble, simple and deeply human. My family always taught me something I still consider fundamental: to help others. They've always been generous people — the kind who, even with little, still try to give.
My grandmother would save her share of the bread so I'd have something for school. Sometimes my mother made a kind of crêpe with just flour and water, because there wasn't even oil — and what we drank was often just water with sugar. We had one pair of shoes between us, for everything.
My older sister was the first in the family to leave alone to work in another country — from far away, she was the one who helped us keep going. My mother worked without stopping, always in the fight, as we say in Cuba. All of that effort taught me to value opportunity, to fight for things, and to never forget where I come from.
We owe it to the world to give back, somehow, what someone once did for us.
Always learning.
COVID, hard as it was, woke something up in me. I started reading, studying, listening to podcasts, learning about business and personal growth. I felt an enormous need to grow as a person, to understand life better and open my mind.
I haven't stopped since. I love to create, learn and evolve — talking about projects, ideas, possibilities. I'm the kind of person who, the moment someone tells me an idea, is already imagining how to improve it or how to help.
I believe one of the most important things in life is to be grateful. To God, to life, to the people who were there, and to every experience I had to live through. All of it, in one way or another, helped me become who I am today.
Beyond work — sport.
If there's one thing that's a very important part of my life, it's sport. I played tennis as a kid in Cuba, and years later discovered beach tennis. It feels like it gave me a second chance — it gave me back the thrill of competing, of pushing myself, of feeling alive doing something I love.
To me, sport isn't just physical exercise. It's mental health, discipline, balance, energy. I deeply believe sport can change lives and help us connect with our best selves.
Today I understand that everything I do has one purpose: to create spaces, projects and experiences where people can feel better, grow, find inspiration, and believe in themselves a little more.
Alicia
Sea and friends.
I was born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in the Guanarteme neighbourhood, and grew up with the sea very close by. Since I was little, the sea has been my ally, my place and an inseparable part of my life. It still is today.
I went to a convent school and grew up in a modest family, where I learned the value of hard work from a very young age. I watched my father work very hard, and I understood what it means to put in the hours, to keep at it and to fight for what you want. I think all of that left a very deep mark on me.
But above all, my childhood was the sea and my friends.
As soon as I got out of school, I wanted to be on the beach. Las Canteras was our world. La Cícer was one of my favourite places: that's where I learned to surf, met many of my friends and spent hours with them, playing and doing sport.
I also did rhythmic gymnastics, and I remember the bars that used to be on the beach, where I'd carry on with my exercises. And, of course, there was the black tyre I was never without, which I loved playing with and which had a habit of staining the new swimsuits my mother bought me… or tearing them altogether.
Forming bonds.
I was restless and curious, always wanting to know, to learn and to discover. I liked being around people, sharing things and forming bonds. And I think that, without realising it, all through my childhood I kept forming bonds with people, with places and with everything that made me feel something.
Over the years I've come to see that perhaps a very important part of me was right there.
Because for me, things need to have meaning, and people need to feel good.
And I think that's also where my way of seeing Un Lugar comes from: caring about the small details, greeting people with a smile, exchanging a few words, helping when I can, and making sure whoever walks in feels comfortable, in good company and welcome.
Small gestures may seem insignificant, but to me they're huge.
In the end, the places we remember forever aren't only the places we've been, but how they made us feel.
She brings the neighbourhood with her, the calm of someone who builds slowly, and an obsession with details — the kind you notice in how a table is set, how a place smells when you walk in, how a lamp hangs.