Benidorm Grants Úrsula Llinares Martínez the Outstanding Resident Award in recognition of her dedication and commitment to others.

Benidorm resident Úrsula Llinares Martínez received the city’s Outstanding Resident Award this Thursday, a distinction presented by Benidorm City Council and the Neighbourhood Council in recognition of her “kindness, dedication and love, generosity and commitment to others”. The award also acknowledges her selfless work with the Buen Pastor parish and social organisations such as Cáritas, Manos Unidas and the Spanish Association Against Cancer.

The presentation took place at Benidorm City Hall, during a ceremony attended by a large number of representatives from the municipal corporation and civil society.

Among those present were regional parliamentarians José Ramón González de Zárate, Manuel Pérez Fenoll and Mario Villar; Angélica Such, Director General for Family, Children and Adolescence and Demographic Challenges; representatives of the security forces; recipients of the Outstanding Resident Award in previous years; those honoured with the ‘Ciutat de Benidorm Cultural Distinction’; representatives of social, cultural, festive and civic organisations; and members of the award recipient’s family.

The Outstanding Resident Award is presented each year to individuals who demonstrate “outstanding personal, civic and ethical values” and can serve as role models and sources of inspiration for other members of the community. Candidates are proposed, assessed and selected by local residents themselves, through procedures agreed upon by Benidorm City Council and the Neighbourhood Council.

It was precisely this aspect of the award that Mayor Toni Pérez highlighted in his congratulatory speech. He explained that the process is “organised from beginning to end by local residents, with the City Council playing no part beyond receiving the name of the person selected by the Neighbourhood Council and formally endorsing that choice”. For this reason, he noted, the award “is all the more valuable”.

Speaking about this year’s award recipient, Toni Pérez highlighted her decades of “dedication” to helping those in need, particularly through the Buen Pastor parish and Cáritas, whose establishment in Benidorm she helped support in the mid-1970s, as well as through the other organisations she has been involved with.

“That means visiting people in their homes, helping the sick, delivering food, preparing meals, cleaning and carrying out repairs. What dedication!” the Mayor remarked.

He also highlighted her involvement with the Comissió de Festes Majors Patronals, where she has served as a mayorala (member of the organising committee) on several occasions. In 1996, her husband, Francisco Almiñana, who served for decades as director of the Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo branch on Alameda, was president of the organisation.

“Women in Benidorm have always been practising what people now call women’s empowerment and what is now known as the third sector. Sola is one of them. They have always done this work without expecting any reward and, what is more, they have done it exceptionally well,” the Mayor added.

He concluded by addressing the award recipient directly: “Even if you never expected this, even if you say you don’t deserve it, your town, your fellow residents, the Neighbourhood Council, the voluntary organisations and everyone here today recognise and thank you for all you have done.”

Clearly moved by the distinction, Úrsula Llinares also referred to this in her speech, explaining that she had always carried out her social work “without expecting anything in return”.

She therefore wished to share the award publicly with “all the residents of my beloved city of Benidorm, with civil society, our neighbourhood associations, the cultural and sporting communities, our parishes and religious communities, and especially Cáritas”. She also paid tribute to Father Tomás García Sempere, with whom she began her work helping those most in need.

“I am just a small part of this welcoming, hardworking and caring community that has given me so much,” she continued in her acceptance speech. She also made a point of acknowledging her husband, Paco Almiñana, and the rest of her family.

“Without them, their patience, support and affection, I would not be here today, so this award belongs to them too,” she said.

Úrsula Llinares, known as Sola, concluded by saying: “This award does not make me better than anyone else. On the contrary, it commits me to continuing to be there for others, just like any other member of the community.”

The ceremony also featured contributions from Teresa Garrido, who represented the Neighbourhood Council in presenting the award, and Jesús Rosillo, the 2019 recipient and spokesperson for the judging panel, as well as Councillor for Citizen Participation Ana Pellicer.

The event was accompanied by musical performances from Aroa Blanco, a teacher at the José Pérez Barceló Professional Conservatory of Music, who performed three pieces at different points during the ceremony, accompanied by singers Margo Climent and Luís Alvado.

Since the award was established, the Outstanding Resident Award has recognised the achievements and values of Benidorm residents including Francisco Fenoll Rostoll (2011), Antonio Gonzaga Picó (2012), Francisco Alvado Barber (2013), Carmen Cerdá Garrido (2014), María Rosa González Mata-Rubio and Juan José García Albarrán (posthumously, in 2015), Casimiro Vila Esteban (2016), Eusebi Chiner Vives (2017), María Zaragoza Lloret (2018), Jesús Rosillo Jiménez (2019), Bárbara Pérez Llinares, known as María del Sufragio (2023), Ángel Olmo Quesada (2024) and José Luis Sarrió García, who was honoured in 2025.

About Úrsula Llinares Martínez
Known to everyone in Benidorm as ‘Sola’, Úrsula Llinares Martínez was born in the city on 22 August 1938. She was the daughter of Vicente Llinares Llinares, a carpenter, and Francisca Martínez Ivars, affectionately known as ‘la Besona’. She spent her childhood and part of her teenage years in Larache, Morocco, where her family moved in 1941 and where her four siblings — Pepe, Vicente, Manoli and Paqui — were born. The family remained there until returning to Benidorm in 1957.

The nomination for the 2026 Outstanding Resident Award, supported, in accordance with the award rules, by three local organisations — the Buen Pastor Parish, Cáritas Parish and the Adult Education School — states that “from a very young age, Sola stood out as an exceptional person: warm, sociable and friendly, with an extraordinary ability to build genuine relationships. The friendships she formed during those years remain with her today, reflecting the kindness and humanity she has always shown”.

She began working as a dressmaker to help support her parents, demonstrating a strong sense of responsibility and a desire to contribute to her family’s wellbeing from an early age.

In 1962, at the age of 24, she married the love of her life, Francisco Almiñana, at the Church of Sant Jaume and Santa Anna, in the chapel of the Virgin of Sufragio, Benidorm’s patron saint. Together, they built a family with their son, Francisco Javier Almiñana, who later gave them a grandson, her greatest treasure. Sola has always looked after her family, devoting herself wholeheartedly to her home, her siblings, brothers- and sisters-in-law, and nieces and nephews, all of whom hold her in deep affection.

Shortly after their marriage, Father Tomás García Sampere arrived in Benidorm to establish the new Buen Pastor Parish. Sola and her husband, both deeply religious, formed a close friendship with him. This relationship led to the establishment of Cáritas in Benidorm in 1975, where Sola, together with other volunteers, worked tirelessly to help those most in need. She continues this work today with the same dedication and compassion.

For many years, she also served as a mayorala (member of the organising committee) of Benidorm’s Comissió de Festes Majors Patronals, alongside her late husband. She remains an active member and supporter of Manos Unidas and the Spanish Association Against Cancer, and is also a member of the Brotherhood of Our Lady of Sorrows.

The jury appointed by the Neighbourhood Council to select the 2026 Outstanding Resident Award recipient recognised that Sola Llinares Martínez’s life “is an example of kindness, dedication and love. Her generosity, faith and commitment to others have left a profound mark on her family, her friends and the entire Benidorm community, making her a woman who is admired, loved and respected by all”.