WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
Fernando Aguzzoli-Peres' work was shaped during his experience as a care partner to his grandmother, Nilva Aguzzoli, who lived with Alzheimer's disease and carried an unrealized dream of walking the Camino de Santiago.
During those years of caregiving, Fernando came up against two persistent frustrations: despite his deep, embodied understanding of his grandmother's dementia, his perspective as a care partner was rarely heard or valued by health professionals. At the same time, dementia conferences felt siloed, hierarchical, overly technical, and disconnected from the lived realities of those most affected.
Walking the Talk for Dementia was first imagined as a response to these gaps.
"I often tried to explain to my grandmother's care team that while they saw just one snapshot at each appointment, months apart, I was the one holding the camera every day. Health care, however, is a highly hierarchical space - where those living with illness and vulnerability sit on one side of the table, and what we conventionally call 'expertise' sits on the other."
— Fernando Aguzzoli-Peres
Throughout his journey, Fernando met people deeply committed to transforming the dementia landscape into a space free from stigma—one grounded in knowledge, that values the lived experience of people living with dementia and their families, and that actively promotes inclusive policies.
During his fellowship as an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health at the Global Brain Health Institute, Trinity College Dublin, Fernando met Clara Domínguez, another fellow and a neurologist from Santiago de Compostela. It was during this period that Fernando shared with her these two personal stories: his late grandmother's long-held dream of walking the Camino, and his own frustrations - first, as an unseen caregiver, overlooked by professionals; and later, as a professional dissatisfied with conventional academic conferences.
From that conversation emerged a simple but powerful "What if…?" - one that gave shape to a dream carried across generations: first dreamed by his grandmother, and later reimagined by her grandson as part of her legacy.
We walked the Camino alongside people committed to the cause, in many different circumstances. Along the way, we mapped key challenges, developed strategies, and gradually expanded the vision. What emerged was what is now the first and only immersive dementia event designed for a mixed audience of people impacted by and inspired by dementia, across multiple areas of knowledge.
Following the success of the first edition in 2023, what began as an experiment evolved into a movement. We formed a committee, and from that committee. An institute was born. An institute created by and for people who share a common purpose: to transform the world into a better place for people living with dementia.