Brook and Alessandra began conversing long-distance while Alessandra was an Artist In Residence in Bilbao, in the Basque Country of Spain, back in November 2014, and they've been together ever since. Brook would first travel to Basque Country to help install, and to attend, the Opening Reception of Alessandra's 1st International Solo Art Exhibition in November 2015. Brook & Alessandra spent a long weekend with her family in San Sebastián, to celebrate the occasion at Hotel Niza, overlooking the Bay. Brook could be found every morning out on the balcony before dawn poised to take magnificent panoramas of the spectacular sunrise.
San Sebastian is a city very dear to the entire Torres Family. The Torres family originated in Southern Spain, but would move to Puerto Rico with a land grant from the King of Spain. Graciela Torres, Alessandra's Great Aunt, reconnected the family with Spain when she married Nicanor Zabaleta, a world-renowned harpist from San Sebastián, who would come to be known as the "King of the Harp". They spent half the year living in Puerto Rico and the other half in San Sebastián. Alessandra spent countless summers with Titi Graciela in her beautiful home in San Sebastián atop the hill overlooking La Concha Bay.
Alessandra Torres and Brook Tobey will celebrate their marriage in same hotel, Hotel Maria Cristina, where Graciela's daughter Estela Zabaleta celebrated her marriage back when Alessandra was a coin bearer in their wedding at the age of 8. That was Alessandra's 1st visit to San Sebastian and it would become one of her absolute favorite places in the world. It means the world to her to be able to share San Sebastián with her most favorite people in the world - all of you.
There will be 2 empty seats at the Wedding Reception in memory of Alessandra's Great Aunt Titi Graciela & Great Uncle Tío Nicanor Zabaleta. They were Alessandra's role models and some of the only family she had nearby while growing up in Puerto Rico. Tio Nicanor died in Puerto Rico in 1993 at the age of 86 and Titi Graciela died surrounded by family in Madrid in November 2017 at the age of 89. Both now are resting in peace in the cemetery up on top of the mountain overlooking all of magnificent San Sebastian.