José Bergamín
Encyclopedia
José Bergamín Gutiérrez was a Spanish
writer, essayist, poet, and playwright. His father served as president of the canton of Málaga
; his mother was a devout Catholic
. Bergamín would be influenced by both politics and religion and would attempt to reconcile Communism
and Catholicism throughout his life, remarking "I would die supporting the Communists, but no further than that."
, in 1921 and 1922. Bergamín's friendship with Jiménez would be as strong as the one he maintained with Miguel de Unamuno
, who served as an inspiration for Bergamín. Bergamín's writings for Índice would make him part of the Generation of '27
(he preferred the term “Generation of the Republic
”), although scholars also place him in the earlier Generation of 1914 or a member of the movement known as Novecentismo. However, his activities were very much an integral part of the Generation of '27, and he collaborated in all of the publications of this group, and served as editor of its various books. He is also considered Unamuno's principal disciple and one of the best Spanish essayists of the 20th century, with his themes covering everything from literary myths to the Golden Age of Spain, from mysticism
to politics, from Spain itself to bullfighting
.
An opponent of the regime of Miguel Primo de Rivera
, Bergamín participated in a political gathering in Salamanca
together with Unamuno in support of republican ideals. He also served briefly as General Director of Insurance in the Ministry of Labor during the administration of Prime Minister Francisco Largo Caballero
. In 1933, he founded and served as editor of the periodical Cruz y Raya, to which numerous authors of the Generation of ’27 contributed. The last issue of Cruz y Raya, number 39, appeared in June 1936, a few days before the military uprising that would lead to the Spanish Civil War
.
, where he looked for moral and financial support for the Spanish Republic. Bergamín contributed to the periodicals El Mono Azul, Hora de España and Cuadernos de Madrid. In 1937, he presided over, at Valencia, the second International Congress of Writers in Defense of Culture (Congreso Internacional de Escritores en Defensa de la Cultura), which gathered together more than a hundred intellectuals from all over the world.
over the Republican forces, Bergamín went into exile, taking with him a copy of Federico García Lorca's
Poeta en Nueva York. Bergamín would serve as editor of this work by Lorca. Bergamín went first to Mexico
and then to Venezuela
and Uruguay
, and finally to France
. In Mexico, he founded the magazine España peregrina, an organ for exiled Spanish writers, and the publishing house Editorial Séneca, which would first publish the complete works of Antonio Machado
, as well as the work of Rafael Alberti
, César Vallejo
, Lorca, and Luis Cernuda
, among others.
Buñuel's
The Exterminating Angel was based on an unfinished play Bergamín had written. From 1955 to 1957, Aurora de Albornoz
studied in Paris with Bergamín.
that denounced the regime’s use of torture and repression against the miners of Asturias
.
He returned for good in 1970, settling in Madrid
and becoming a political opponent of what he perceived were the shady deals behind the Spanish transition to democracy
(La Transición), and was expelled as a writer from various newspapers. He was a republican in the first democratic elections after the transition and published the manifesto Error monarquía. At the end of his life, he lived in the Basque Country
, where he served as a collaborator in the newspaper Egin
and the periodical Punto y Hora de Euskal Herria
, where he became a firm political supporter of the Abertzale
Left. He was buried at Fuenterrabía due to the fact that “he did not want to give his bones to Spanish earth,” since Fuenterrabía is considered part of the Basque Country.
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
writer, essayist, poet, and playwright. His father served as president of the canton of Málaga
Málaga
Málaga is a city and a municipality in the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, Spain. With a population of 568,507 in 2010, it is the second most populous city of Andalusia and the sixth largest in Spain. This is the southernmost large city in Europe...
; his mother was a devout Catholic
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
. Bergamín would be influenced by both politics and religion and would attempt to reconcile Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
and Catholicism throughout his life, remarking "I would die supporting the Communists, but no further than that."
Early life and career
He studied law at the Universidad Central and his first articles appeared in the periodical Índice, edited by Juan Ramón JiménezJuan Ramón Jiménez
Juan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón was a Spanish poet, a prolific writer who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956. One of Jiménez's most important contributions to modern poetry was his advocacy of the French concept of "pure poetry."-Biography:Jiménez was born in Moguer, near Huelva, in...
, in 1921 and 1922. Bergamín's friendship with Jiménez would be as strong as the one he maintained with Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno
Miguel de Unamuno y Jugo was a Spanish essayist, novelist, poet, playwright and philosopher.-Biography:...
, who served as an inspiration for Bergamín. Bergamín's writings for Índice would make him part of the Generation of '27
Generation of '27
The Generation of '27 was an influential group of poets that arose in Spanish literary circles between 1923 and 1927, essentially out of a shared desire to experience and work with avant-garde forms of art and poetry. Their first formal meeting took place in Seville in 1927 to mark the 300th...
(he preferred the term “Generation of the Republic
Second Spanish Republic
The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....
”), although scholars also place him in the earlier Generation of 1914 or a member of the movement known as Novecentismo. However, his activities were very much an integral part of the Generation of '27, and he collaborated in all of the publications of this group, and served as editor of its various books. He is also considered Unamuno's principal disciple and one of the best Spanish essayists of the 20th century, with his themes covering everything from literary myths to the Golden Age of Spain, from mysticism
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
to politics, from Spain itself to bullfighting
Bullfighting
Bullfighting is a traditional spectacle of Spain, Portugal, southern France and some Latin American countries , in which one or more bulls are baited in a bullring for sport and entertainment...
.
An opponent of the regime of Miguel Primo de Rivera
Miguel Primo de Rivera
Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, 2nd Marquis of Estella, 22nd Count of Sobremonte, Knight of Calatrava was a Spanish dictator, aristocrat, and a military official who was appointed Prime Minister by the King and who for seven years was a dictator, ending the turno system of alternating...
, Bergamín participated in a political gathering in Salamanca
Salamanca
Salamanca is a city in western Spain, in the community of Castile and León. Because it is known for its beautiful buildings and urban environment, the Old City was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. It is the most important university city in Spain and is known for its contributions to...
together with Unamuno in support of republican ideals. He also served briefly as General Director of Insurance in the Ministry of Labor during the administration of Prime Minister Francisco Largo Caballero
Francisco Largo Caballero
Francisco Largo Caballero was a Spanish politician and trade unionist. He was one of the historic leaders of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party and of the Workers' General Union...
. In 1933, he founded and served as editor of the periodical Cruz y Raya, to which numerous authors of the Generation of ’27 contributed. The last issue of Cruz y Raya, number 39, appeared in June 1936, a few days before the military uprising that would lead to the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
.
Career during the Spanish Civil War
During the Spanish Civil War, Bergamín presided over the Alliance of Anti-Fascist Intellectuals (Alianza de Intelectuales Antifascistas) and was named cultural attaché for the government-in-exile in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where he looked for moral and financial support for the Spanish Republic. Bergamín contributed to the periodicals El Mono Azul, Hora de España and Cuadernos de Madrid. In 1937, he presided over, at Valencia, the second International Congress of Writers in Defense of Culture (Congreso Internacional de Escritores en Defensa de la Cultura), which gathered together more than a hundred intellectuals from all over the world.
Exile
With the victory of Francisco FrancoFrancisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
over the Republican forces, Bergamín went into exile, taking with him a copy of Federico García Lorca's
Federico García Lorca
Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...
Poeta en Nueva York. Bergamín would serve as editor of this work by Lorca. Bergamín went first to Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and then to Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
and Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
, and finally to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. In Mexico, he founded the magazine España peregrina, an organ for exiled Spanish writers, and the publishing house Editorial Séneca, which would first publish the complete works of Antonio Machado
Antonio Machado
Antonio Cipriano José María y Francisco de Santa Ana Machado y Ruiz, known as Antonio Machado was a Spanish poet and one of the leading figures of the Spanish literary movement known as the Generation of '98....
, as well as the work of Rafael Alberti
Rafael Alberti
Rafael Alberti Merello was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27....
, César Vallejo
César Vallejo
César Abraham Vallejo Mendoza was a Peruvian poet. Although he published only three books of poetry during his lifetime, he is considered one of the great poetic innovators of the 20th century in any language. Thomas Merton called him "the greatest universal poet since Dante"...
, Lorca, and Luis Cernuda
Luis Cernuda
Luis Cernuda , was a Spanish poet and literary critic.-Life and career:...
, among others.
Buñuel's
Buñuel
Buñuel is a town and municipality located in the province and autonomous community of Navarre, northern Spain.-External links:*...
The Exterminating Angel was based on an unfinished play Bergamín had written. From 1955 to 1957, Aurora de Albornoz
Aurora de Albornoz
Aurora de Albornoz was born in Luarca, Asturias, Spain. As a youth, she lived in Luarca with her parents, sister, and extended family, throughout the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939— an event that inspired her later poetry.- Early life :Her family was a noted family of poets and...
studied in Paris with Bergamín.
Return to Spain
He returned to Spain in 1958, but was arrested for his previous activities as an opponent of the Nationalists during the Civil War. He was forced to go into exile again in 1963 after his apartment was burned down by his enemies, and also because he had signed a manifesto with more than 100 other intellectuals addressed to Manuel Fraga IribarneManuel Fraga Iribarne
Manuel Fraga Iribarne is a Spanish People's Party politician. Fraga's career as one of the key political figures in Spain straddles both General Francisco Franco's dictatorial regime and the subsequent transition to democracy. He served as the President of the Xunta of Galicia from 1990 to 2005...
that denounced the regime’s use of torture and repression against the miners of Asturias
Asturias
The Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community of the Kingdom of Spain, coextensive with the former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages...
.
He returned for good in 1970, settling in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
and becoming a political opponent of what he perceived were the shady deals behind the Spanish transition to democracy
Spanish transition to democracy
The Spanish transition to democracy was the era when Spain moved from the dictatorship of Francisco Franco to a liberal democratic state. The transition is usually said to have begun with Franco’s death on 20 November 1975, while its completion has been variously said to be marked by the Spanish...
(La Transición), and was expelled as a writer from various newspapers. He was a republican in the first democratic elections after the transition and published the manifesto Error monarquía. At the end of his life, he lived in the Basque Country
Basque Country (autonomous community)
The Basque Country is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa, also called Historical Territories....
, where he served as a collaborator in the newspaper Egin
Egin (newspaper)
Egin was a Basque newspaper written in Spanish language and Basque language. It was published from Hernani by Orain SA, which also ran the radio station Egin Irratia.Its first issue was published on September 29, 1977....
and the periodical Punto y Hora de Euskal Herria
Punto y Hora de Euskal Herria
Punto y Hora de Euskal Herria was a weekly Basque Country periodical.The periodical was established in Pamplona, under the direction of Mirentxu Purroy Ferrer, and the first issue was published in April 1976....
, where he became a firm political supporter of the Abertzale
Abertzale
Abertzale in the Basque language means "patriot", and it is mainly used to mean "Basque nationalist". It comes from the fusion of aberri with the suffix -zale .Although the term is synonym of "patriot", its common use...
Left. He was buried at Fuenterrabía due to the fact that “he did not want to give his bones to Spanish earth,” since Fuenterrabía is considered part of the Basque Country.
Works
- El cohete y la estrella Madrid; Índice, 1923.
- : (I-XXX), 1926
- El arte de birlibirloque; La estatua de Don Tancredo; El mundo por montera Santiago de Chile; Madrid: Cruz del Sur, 1961.
- Ilustración y defensa del toreo Torremolinos: Litoral, 1974.
- Mangas y capirotes: (España en su laberinto teatral del XVII) Madrid: Plutarco, 1933. Segunda edición Buenos Aires, Argos, 1950.
- El cohete y la estrella; La cabeza a pájaros Madrid: Cátedra, 1981.
- La más leve idea de Lope Madrid: Ediciones del Árbol, 1936.
- Presencia de espíritu Madrid: Ediciones del Árbol, 1936.
- El alma en un hilo [México, D.F.]: Séneca, 1940.
- Detrás de la cruz: terrorismo y persecución religiosa en España México: Séneca, (1941)
- El pozo de la angustia Barcelona: Anthropos, 1985.
- La voz apagada: (Dante dantesco y otros ensayos) Mexico: Editora Central, 1945.
- La corteza de la letra: (palabras desnudas) Buenos Aires: Losada, 1957.
- Lázaro, Don Juan y Segismundo Madrid: Taurus, 1959.
- Fronteras infernales de la poesía Madrid : Taurus, 1959.
- La decadencia del analfabetismo; La importancia del demonio Santiago de Chile; Madrid: Cruz del Sur, 1961.
- Al volver Barcelona: Seix Barral, 1962.
- Beltenebros y otros ensayos sobre literatura española Barcelona [etc.? : Noguer, 1973.
- De una España peregrina Madrid: Al-Borak, 1972.
- El clavo ardiendo Barcelona: Aymá, 1974.
- La importancia del demonio y otras cosas sin importancia Madrid: Júcar, 1974.
- El pensamiento perdido: páginas de guerra y del destierro Madrid: Adra, 1976.
- Calderón y cierra España y otros ensayos disparatados Barcelona: Planeta, 1979.
- La música callada del toreo Madrid : Turner, 1989.
- Aforismos de la cabeza parlante. Madrid : Turner, 1983.
- La claridad del toreo Madrid: Turner, 1987.
- Al fin y al cabo: (prosas) Madrid : Alianza, 1981.
- Cristal del tiempo Fuenterrabía: Hiru, 1995.
- El pensamiento de un esqueleto: antología periodística Torremolinos: Litoral, 1984.
- Prólogos epilogales Valencia: Pre-Textos, 1985.
- Escritos en Euskal Herria Tafalla: Txalaparta, 1995.
- Las ideas liebres: aforística y epigramática, 1935-1981 Barcelona: Destino, 1998.
- Enemigo que huye: Polifemo y Coloquio espiritual (1925-1926) Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva, 1927.
- La risa en los huesos Madrid : Nostromo, 1973. Contiene: Tres escenas en ángulo recto y Enemigo que huye
- La hija de Dios; y La niña guerrillera México: Manuel Altoaguirre, 1945.
- Los filólogos. Madrid : Turner, 1978.
- Don Lindo de Almería : (1926) Valencia : Pre-Textos, 1988. -
- Rimas y sonetos rezagados /
- Duendecitos y coplas Santiago de Chile; Madrid: Cruz del Sur, 1963.
- La claridad desierta Madrid: Turner, 1983.
- Del otoño y los mirlos: Madrid, El Retiro : otoño 1962 Barcelona: RM, 1975.
- Apartada orilla : (1971-1972) Madrid : Turner, 1976.
- Velado desvelo : (1973-1977) Madrid : Turner, 1978.
- Esperando la mano de nieve : (1978-1981) Madrid: Turner, 1985.
- Canto rodado Madrid: Turner, 1984.
- Hora última Madrid: Turner, 1984.
- Por debajo del sueño: antología poética Málaga: Litoral, 1979.
- Poesías casi completas Madrid: Alianza, 1984.
- Antología poética Madrid: Castalia, 1997.