Musician, writer, educator and producer, Cristina Pato, has been hailed as “a virtuosic burst of energy” by The New York Times. After 25 years of experience as a professional musician, touring around the world with the Galician bagpipes and piano, Cristina now channels her creativity into writing, producing, and teaching, focusing on the role of the arts in society. Full bio
Cristina gifts us every week with a world vision from the Galicia of the new modern age. Enthusiasm, loyalty, talent and hope, that we so badly need.
—Víctor Fernández Freixanes, President of the Royal Academy of Galician Language
In 2015 Cristina began her press collaborations writing a biweekly column for El Correo Gallego, and since 2017 Cristina writes a popular weekly column for Spanish newspaper La Voz de Galicia titled “The Art of Restlessness” for which she was awarded the XVII Afundación Journalism Prize: Fernández del Riego.
In 2022 she published her first novel “No día do seu enterro” (“On his burial day”) with Editorial Galaxia (Colección Literaria, 2022), now in its third edition.
No día do seu enterro (On His Burial Day) is a novel about the power of words, about the nobility of those who are invisible, and about truths not told. A poignant story about what it means to reconstruct life in order to provide for one’s family.
“A literary piece in the form of a sonata, with an intimate tone and sweet musicality.”
–María Doallo, La Voz de Galicia
“A novel that speaks of the struggle to survive, human values, and active women, written in an agile, well-articulated discourse, with touches of lyricism.”
–Camiño Noia, Revista Tempos Novos, Tempos Dixital
“An original novel that has a certain languid tone of the “nouveau roman,” and that recalls things from the early works of Méndez Ferrín.”
–Vicente Araguas, La Revista, La Región
“In the background are emigration or life in the neighborhoods. Humble people with values and a way of life that is not idealized and tends to contrast with those of the more affluent social classes.”
–Montse González, Sermos Galiza, Nós Diario
In 2025, her second novel, “Fóra de foco” (Out of Focus) , was published by Editorial Galaxia.
Set between New York’s West Village, Galicia, and Madrid, “Fóra de foco” offers a sharp and contemporary reflection on modern life and its tensions: the relationship between public and private, between professional ambition and personal solitude, between creation and erasure.
“With a restrained pulse and guided by a purpose marked by conciseness and brevity, this is also a review of the Galician presence in certain areas of New York and a claim to the right to be whatever a person deems necessary at any given moment—even to be different things throughout life (…) A proposal to be read and, indeed, to be reflected upon.“
–Ramón Nicolás. Caderno da crítica. La Voz de Galicia
“When Cristina Pato speaks about her new novel, Fóra de foco, she does not present it as a closed literary artifact, but rather as a life process. Written after her withdrawal from professional music — and from everything that public exposure entails — the book is, in her words, an attempt to understand.“
–Lucila González. Faro de Vigo
“Pato’s way of writing is both profound and simple, filled with sensitivity. This is surely related to her profession as a musician, and I imagine it is also influenced by her engagement with photography and writing, two artistic disciplines. The work is deeply contemporary, since the right to be forgotten or to disappear seems more and more like a utopia.“
–Tensi Xesteira. Lecturafilia. Nós Diario
“The novel explores in depth the not-always-peaceful relationship between the individual and their way of making a living; the right to disappear; mental health; the responsibility of carrying the guilt of what one’s ancestors did; caregiving; the routines of volunteering; and how the female role often involves swallowing wounds with pride in order to suffer in silence.“
–Carmela González. Biblos: Revista Galega de Información Literaria