Giving back is a life’s work
From entertainer to philanthropist
In 2001, when he was in his mid30s, Paco Arango decided to find a cause for which he could volunteer his time. As a man of deep faith, he had always been aware that he had been born “extremely lucky,” he says, “while others are born in wars with no water.” A friend suggested that he volunteer for one hour a week at the Niño Jesús Children’s Hospital in Madrid, supporting children with cancer. “I walked in and literally never walked out,” he says. That first visit, he ended up speaking with a 13-year-old girl undergoing cancer treatment, and before long they were laughing and chatting. “Three months later, I was going every day, and that has not changed for 25 years. It took over my life, it was my calling.”
Supporting children with cancer might now be Paco’s dominant vocation, but it wasn’t his first. He was just seven years old when he realised that he wanted to be an entertainer, to grow up and become a singer, performer, actor or filmmaker. “The way some children want to be policemen, I wanted to be a director,” he says.
Whenever there is a war and children with cancer are at risk, we’re also there.
This calling didn’t always sit easily with his family, however. His father, Plácido Arango, was a successful entrepreneur in retail and F&B, both in Spain and his native Mexico, and was arguably best known as the founder of Grupo Vips, one of Spain’s most popular restaurant chains. While both of Paco’s siblings, his older brother Plácido Jr. and older sister Maite, worked for the family business (Plácido Jr. went on to lead the company), Paco moved to the US to study Dramatic Arts. “I was kind of the odd one out from the very start,” he says. “Sometimes I felt a little guilty, because there was a lot of work to be done in the company and I was elsewhere.” But on reflection, he says, in the end “it was best for everybody."
He is quick to stress that he never felt any pressure to join his father’s business. “My father was very generous,” he says. “I think he was more concerned about my failure as an artist than he was worried about me joining the family business.” Fortunately, for everyone involved, Paco enjoyed speedy success in the world of entertainment, first as a singer (he recorded five albums with Sony Records in the 1990s) and then as a creator of television shows. One early hit on the small screen was ¡Ala... Dina!, a prime-time sitcom on Spanish television that ran for three seasons from 2000–2002.
The Aladina Foundation
Despite the show’s popularity, that title is arguably better known today as the name of Paco’s foundation, The Aladina Foundation, which he established in 2005 to formalise his charitable work with children with cancer. Now in 2025, the year the foundation turns 20, it is a major player in Spain, present in 22 hospitals, and has 33,000 members who regularly support it financially. Its overarching mission, says Paco, is “to make sure that cancer doesn’t take away children’s smiles – and that’s an ongoing daily challenge.”
Aladina’s activities are wide ranging, but they’re all focused on supporting children with cancer. “First of all, we inject money into public hospitals,” Paco explains. “We try to make them better places or children with cancer.” This involves tending to children and teenagers at their bedsides every day throughout their hospital stay. The foundation also builds what it calls “teen rooms,” private areas for teenage patients within hospitals, “where no parent, sibling, nurse or doctor can go,” says Paco, so that these young patients can have a moment of privacy and distraction away from their treatment and the emotions associated with it. Aladina also funds the construction of new cancer wards. In 2013, for instance, it helped to fund the creation of a state-of-the-art bone-marrow transplant centre within Niño Jesús Hospital.
The head office of Paco's production company in central Madrid. The Aladina Foundation is based in the same building.
The Foundation’s work doesn’t stop at the hospital doors, either. “Childhood cancer is a very isolating experience, so we work with the children outside of the hospital, too,” says Paco. Supporting parents is another important segment of the Foundation’s work, particularly working with those who have lost a child. “Unfortunately, 20% of the children we work with pass away,” he says. “We work in palliative care and then, when a parent loses a child, we’re there for them for a whole year with therapy.” It also supports nursing staff, in recognition of the fact that, as Paco puts it, “nobody takes care of nurses, and they really deal with the pain of losing children, and have to keep working five minutes later.”
We inject money into public hospitals. We try to make them better places for children with cancer.
Aladina’s activities don’t even stop at the borders of Spain. In countries and regions around the world where children with cancer are affected by wars and catastrophes, the Foundation steps in with donations to improve their lives. Over the past two decades, it has donated money to Ukraine, the Middle East, Armenia, the Philippines, and a number of countries across South and Central America, among others. “Whenever there is a war and children with cancer are at risk,” says Paco, “we’re also there.”
Building Casa Aladina
The Foundation’s next big project is a daycare centre called Casa Aladina that Paco is planning to build on a 15,000m² plot of land in Madrid’s Hortaleza district. Slated to open in 2028, it will be Spain’s first comprehensive support centre exclusively for children with cancer, their families and survivors (60% of whom face lifelong side effects from their treatment). Paco and his team are currently in the process of raising EUR 15 million for the three phases of construction.“ In the Casa Aladina,” he says, “we’ll really be able to do our best work.”
We were very fortunate to have the father we had. He taught us generosity.
Clearly, Paco has no sense that his work here is done. But he is able to reflect on how this part of his life has affected him. For one, it has given him a keen sense of perspective. “Children with cancer are very special people,” he says. “They don’t think about Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday; they just think about today. It really gives you perspective in life.” He has also seen, and felt, the full gamut of human emotions. “The only good thing about cancer is that you have the best seat in the house for seeing love,” he says. “And love, unfortunately, sometimes comes with a lot of pain.” Indeed, he says, he has been most marked by those children and teenagers who have not made it through their battle with cancer.
Outside of his work for the Aladina Foundation, Paco is now best known as a filmmaker, and you can see the influence of his charitable work in his films. “I think we adults have lost the capacity to be like children. We’ve hardened our hearts,” he says. “In my films, I take you to tears, because that’s when we really become children, but then I try to uplift, which is what any good film does.” Today, 100% of the proceeds from each of Paco’s films goes towards supporting children with cancer. “I can afford it,” he says. “But also, I’ve been gifted many things, and this is my way of giving back. Even if I impact just a few people, it’s enough.”
When he steps back and considers his family’s legacy, more than the family business, it is this spirit of altruism that Paco feels has been passed down to his generation. “We were very fortunate to have the father we had,” he says. “Apart from being a brave, intelligent businessman, he taught us generosity.” He notes that both his siblings are heavily involved in charitable giving – his sister through Ashoka, the network for social entrepreneurs; and his brother through actively supporting Médecins Sans Frontières. “We all have the same goal of giving back,” says Paco. “We’re aware that we got extremely lucky, and we act that way.”
