[3] Her parents had married in 1902: her mother, born Mercedes Estrada Arnaiz (1881–1950), was originally from El Ferrol in the north-western province of Coruña.
After she had spent the first eight years of her life in Asturias the family moved to Melilla on the coast of North Africa, where in due course she was enrolled at a co-educational secondary school.
[2] Her stage debut came in 1926 when she joined the Josefina Díaz theatre company in a production of the comedy "La extraña aventura" ("The strange adventure").
In 1949 Mercedes Prendes and Carlos Martínez de Tejada (?-1972), her actor husband, teamed up together to set up their own theatre company.
For the next three years undertook several tours in Latin America, reprising some of Prendes' earlier roles and presenting the Spanish classical repertoire more generally.