Cristina Maria Mendes da Silva was born on 23 August 1966 in the parish of
São Nicolau in Portugal's second city of
Porto. Her family came from the parish of Meinedo in the municipality of
Lousada, where she still lives. She was trained as a kindergarten teacher in
Penafiel and
Fafe, specializing in Special Education and Educational Support. Later, she was a PhD student in Human Geography at the Faculty of Arts of the
University of Porto. Silva has worked in
Funchal,
Madeira, in Lousada, and in
Amarante. She has been president of the national
Comissões de Proteção de Crianças e Jovens (Committees for the Protection of Children and Young People - CPCJ) and vice-president of the
Associação de Desenvolvimento Rural das Terras do Sousa (Sousa Development Association – ADER-SOUSA), an area in northern Portugal. ==Political career==