Babylon Idiomas Resources

Born in Alcalá de Henares in central Spain in 1547, Miguel de Cervantes, the Spanish novelist, playwright and poet would later cement himself a place in literary history. His celebrated work, “Don Quixote de la Mancha” is regarded as one of the greatest works in literature, and nearly 400 years later is still revered and referred to by critics, writers and readers alike. Contrary to popular conceptions, Cervantes was fairly prolific in his writing and we’ll cite some of his other major works and sketch out the life of the man who, many claim, wrote the western world’s first novel.

Little is known of Cervantes’ early life; it is thought that he spent a lot of time on the road with his father as he looked for work. The celebrated authors’ education began in 1568 in Madrid where he studied for two years, he then moved to Rome to continue his studies and here he acquainted himself with Italian literature, an influence that would emerge in Cervantes’ literary works in later years.

In 1570 Cervantes resolved to serve his country and enlisted as a soldier. He served aboard a vessel in the battle of Lepanto the following year and received a nasty musket shot to his left hand; the injury was so severe as to permanently impede the use of the hand and Cervantes was to be maimed for life. When the wound had healed Cervantes and his brother departed for another campaign in North Africa against the Moslems. Cervantes’ luck in battle was not to improve though as his ship was captured by the Turks. The ship and its crew were then taken to Algiers where they were sold off as slaves. Five years of hardship had elapsed by the time that Cervantes’ family had raised enough money to pay his ransom; he finally set foot back on Spanish soil in 1580.

During the years of 1580 to 1600 Cervantes was to lead a fairly nomadic existence, working as a tax collector amongst other things. He was declared bankrupt during the period and it’s also known that he spent at least two stints in jail on account of financial irregularities. It is claimed that the idea for “Don Quixote” came to Cervantes during one of these internments in La Mancha , the author himself testifying to this in the prologue of the great work.

Despite producing a prolific amount of work during this period Cervantes’ work was met with limited success in the early years. His first real breakthrough came with the publication of “La Galetea”, at this time some of Cervantes’ plays were also gracing the stages of Madrid . Unfortunately most of these works have been lost to history with the exception of “El Trato del Argel” (a work that draws heavily on his time spent as a slave in North Africa ) and “ El Cero de Numancia”.

Cervantes wasn’t to discover fame and fortune of any kind until 1605 when he published part one of “Don Quixote”, even then the books success didn’t earn him the massive wealth you would expect – this could have been due in part due to a number of unauthorised copies of the book that were circulating and also down to Cervantes’ own poor management of his finances. It is thought that the immense popularity of part one of “Don Quixote” led Cervantes to pen the second part which he delivered to an expectant public ten years later in 1615.

Just one year later in April of 1616, Cervantes passed away, incidentally the same day as the death of William Shakespeare. The last 400 years has seen Cervantes stock grow, nowadays he is known as one of the fathers of the modern novel and “Don Quixote” has inspired many writers, directors and composers to try and capture the essence of his great work, described by Dostoyevsky as the “ultimate and most sublime work of human thinking”.

Born in Fuente Vaqueros near Granada in 1898, Federico Garcia Lorca was the son of a prosperous farmer and a school teacher mother. It was from Lorca’s mother that he took most influence in early life – she taught him to play music and sing – skills that would lay the foundations for the poet’s sense of rhythm and timing.

In 1909 the family moved into Grenada where he would later mingle in artistic circles and wield a great influence amongst his peers. He first studied law at Grenada before moving to university in Madrid to the famous “Residencia de estudiantes” in 1919.

One year earlier, Lorca had his first collections of poems published, entitled “Impresiones y paisajes”. It enjoyed critical acclaim without much commercial success. However, now in Madrid , Lorca was to make friends with a great many influential young Spanish artists, two of the most notable being Salvadore Dalí who needs little introduction, and Luis Buñel, the groundbreaking film maker, who Lorca was to become great friends with. 1919 also saw Lorca get his first break on the stage; he wrote and staged his first play: “El Melefico de la Mariposa”. It didn’t go too well and was laughed off the stage after four shows; the incident was to sour Lorca’s feelings towards the theatre going public forever.

During the twenties, Lorca improved as a poet and playwright and became increasingly involved in the “avant garde” movement becoming a key member of “generation of 27”, a group of poets and artists keen to employ the latest techniques and theories to their medium. In this period he published another three anthologies of poetry including, probably his most well known work, “Romancero Gitano” in 1928. His second play, “Mariana Pineda” had also opened to great acclaim in 1927.

Behind his public success Lorca was struggling to keep his private life together and experienced extreme bouts of depression during this period. His friendship with Buñel and Dali was becoming strained and his attempts to hide his homosexuality from his family were becoming increasingly thin-veiled. During this period his turbulent and often one-sided relationship with sculptor Emilio Alandrén was also collapsing, adding to Lorca’s torments.

In 1930, Lorca left Spain for the USA in order to study English at Columbia University . Lorca was somewhat let down by his first experience of a modern democracy, America ’s rampant commercialism and discrimination of minority groups provided Lorca with the fuel to produce some of his most challenging work. His poetry anthology “ Poeta en Nueva York” and his play “El Publico” were both penned whilst Lorca was in the USA ; indeed, “El Publico” wasn’t to see the light of day until the 1970’s due to the repression of his work under Franco’s dictatorship.

Garcia Lorca’s return to Spain in 1931 coincided with the fall of the Prima Rivera dictatorship and the reestablishment of the Spanish republic. Lorca was asked to head-up a government sponsored theatre company, aimed at bringing classic theatre to rural Spain . During this period Lorca created his celebrated “rural trilogy” of plays: “Bodas de Sangre”, “Yerma” and “La Casa de Bernada Alba”.

The outbreak of the Civil War in 1936 was to mean an untimely end for Garcia Lorca. Ultimately an independent and free-thinking artist, the specific reasons for his murder still remain something of a mystery. We do know that he left for Granada in 1936 where he was arrested and later murdered by Falangists (who would later go on to commit some of the greatest atrocities of the war) and thrown into an unmarked grave in or around Viznar, near Granada . Andalusia was the main stronghold of the nationalist movement and some maintain that when Lorca set out to Granada , it was more than likely he knew he’d never return alive, especially as his brother in law was the Socialist mayor of Grenada at the time.

Lorca was to become one of the great martyrs of the Civil War and in many respects epitomised the free-thinking opposition to Franco’s regime. Franco himself wouldn’t want to hear mention of the author or the circumstances of his death so Lorca’s full oeuvre hasn’t really been in print for much more than 25 years.

His undoubted talents place him in the same bracket as Cervantes and he has gone on to become Spain’s most influential literary figure of the 20 th century despite his untimely and, ultimately premature, death at the age of 38.