[1] Zaida Cantera entered the General Military Academy in 1997, receiving her specialization in Signals at the Engineers and Signals School [es], where she graduated in 2003, receiving her commission as lieutenant.

[2] She was assigned to the Signals Unit of the Armored Brigade and participated in international missions such as the conflicts in Kosovo and Lebanon, reaching the rank of major in the Army.

After returning from the latter country she began to suffer sexual harassment from a superior, a fact that she denounced before the Central Military Court.

[3] Cantera recounted these episodes of harassment in the book No, mi general, in co-authorship with UPyD deputy Irene Lozano.

[4] On 20 December 2015, Cantera was elected a member of the Congress of Deputies as part of the PSOE list for Madrid.