Born on 3 June 1955 in Seville,[1] he has however been based most of his life in Granada, earning a licentiate degree in Theology in 1978, a licentiate degree in Philosophy and Arts in 1981 and a PhD in Philosophy at the University of Granada (UGR),[2] reading a dissertation titled El pensamiento humanista de Erich Fromm.

[5] He was not elected then, but he became a member of the 8th term of the Lower House in 2006, covering the vacant seat left by Rafael Estrella Pedrola [es].

[3] He was one of the members (along Manuel de la Rocha Rubí and Juan Antonio Barrio de Penagos) of the Socialist Parliamentary Group in the Congress who decided not to take part in the September 2011 voting for the reform of the Spanish Constitution struck by the PSOE and the People's Party that sought to include (and successfully did so) the principle of "budgetary stability" in the Article 135 of the text.

[3] A prominent member of Izquierda Socialista ("Socialist Left"), a left-wing faction within the PSOE, he contested the July 2014 PSOE primary election, drawing the support of a 15% of the voting affiliates, ending up last after winner Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón (49%) and runner-up Eduardo Madina (36%).

[4] A prolific writer for press and specialized journals, he is also the author of several books dealing with political concepts such as "democratic education", "intercultural citizenship" and social democracy.