José Manuel Caballero
Encyclopedia
José Manuel Caballero Bonald (born 11 November 1926) is a Spanish
novelist, lecturer and poet
.
. His father was Plácido Caballero, a Cuba
n whose mother was of European
descent and whose father was from Cantabria
. His mother was Julia Bonald, a descendant of Viscount Louis Gabriel Ambroise de Bonald
, a traditional French
philosopher who settled in Andalucia in the middle of the 19th century.
, Emilio Salgari
, Robert Louis Stevenson
, and José de Espronceda.
Between 1944 and 1948 he undertook nautical studies in Cádiz
, and he wrote his first poems. He made friends with members of the Cádiz magazine Platero, namely Fernando Quiñones, Pilar Paz Pasamar, Felipe Sordo Lamadrid, Serafín Pro Hesles, Julio Mariscal, José Luis Tejada, Francisco Pleguezuelo and Pedro Ardoy.
Caballero spent his military service in the Milicia Naval Universitaria and spent two summers sailing in the waters of the Canary Islands
, Morocco
and Galicia. His military career was curtailed when he contracted a lung illness and travelled to Jerez to recuperate.
Between 1949 and 1952 he studied philosophy
and literature in Seville
.
He continued his studies of literature in Madrid
and worked on the First Biennial Hispano-American Art Festival.
In 1959 he began to make friends with and collaborate with poets who would later make up the 50s Group. In February 1959 in Collioure (France), he attended the 20th anniversary of the death of Antonio Machado
, along with Blas de Otero, José Agustín Goytisolo, Ángel González, José Ángel Valente, Jaime Gil de Biedma
, Alfonso Costafreda and Carlos Barral
.
He moved to Bogotá
, where he taught Spanish literature
and humanities
at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. There he started his friendship with the Colombian group of the Mito magazine (composed of Jorge Gaitán Durán, Gabriel García Márquez
, Eduardo Cote Lamus
, Hernando Valencia Goelkel, Pedro Gómez Valderrama and Fernando Charry Lara, among others).
In 1963 he returned to Spain and took up several publishing posts.
Between 1965 and 1968 he spent time in Cuba
and became part of an organization aimed at paying homage to Antonio Machado
in Baeza
in 1966, which was finally prohibited by government order. He published the Narrativa Cubana de la Revolución (Cuban Narrative of the Revolution) in 1968, and was again arrested for political reasons, and imprisoned for one month in Carabanchel
jail.
In 1971 he began working for the Lexicography Seminar of the Royal Spanish Academy, where he stayed until 1975. In 1973 he also started working as literary editor for Júcar Publications, a position which he also occupied until 1975. He gave courses on narrative in several European universities and attended literary symposia.
He worked as a Contemporary Spanish Literature Professor at the Centre for Hispanic Studies at Bryn Mawr College
in Pennsylvania
from 1974 to 1978. That year he was appointed President of the PEN Club Español (from which he resigned in 1980). In Madrid
, the National Drama Center performed his version of Abre el Ojo (Open Your Eye), by Rojas Zorrilla.
Between 1985 and 1988 he once again spent some time in the United States
. In 1989 a high school bearing his name was inaugurated in Jerez. A public library bearing his name was inaugurated in Marbella in 1992.
In 1993 he was appointed corresponding member of the North American Spanish Language Academy. The National Classic Theatre Company performed his version of Don Gil de las Calzas Verdes (Sir Gil of the Green Stockings) by Tirso de Molina
. The Sanlúcar de Barrameda Town Council named a street after him.
In 1997 the Antonio Gades Company performed his ballet adaptation of Fuenteovejuna. The Jerez City Council created the Caballero Bonald Foundation. He was awarded the title of Favourite Son of Andalucía.
In 1999 he was awarded the title of Favourite Son of the Province of Cadiz. He received the Golden Medal of the Fine Arts Circle and the Julián Besteiro Award for Arts and Literature.
In 2004 he was awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Cádiz. He also won the Queen Sofía de Iber-American Poetry Award.
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
novelist, lecturer and poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
.
Early life
He was born in calle Caballeros, Jerez SpainSpain
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...
. His father was Plácido Caballero, a Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n whose mother was of European
European ethnic groups
The ethnic groups in Europe are the various ethnic groups that reside in the nations of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....
descent and whose father was from Cantabria
Cantabria
Cantabria is a Spanish historical region and autonomous community with Santander as its capital city. It is bordered on the east by the Basque Autonomous Community , on the south by Castile and León , on the west by the Principality of Asturias, and on the north by the Cantabrian Sea.Cantabria...
. His mother was Julia Bonald, a descendant of Viscount Louis Gabriel Ambroise de Bonald
Louis Gabriel Ambroise de Bonald
Louis Gabriel Ambroise, Vicomte de Bonald , was a French counter-revolutionary philosopher and politician.-Life:...
, a traditional French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
philosopher who settled in Andalucia in the middle of the 19th century.
Education
Between 1936 and 1943 he studied at the Marianistas de Jerez School. He some time in the Sierra de Cádiz and in Sanlúcar de Barrameda. He read the first books that were to influence him: Jack LondonJack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
, Emilio Salgari
Emilio Salgari
Emilio Salgari was an Italian writer of action adventure swashbucklers and a pioneer of science fiction.For over a century, his novels were mandatory reading for generations of youth eager for exotic adventures. In Italy, his extensive body of work was more widely read than that of Dante. Today...
, Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
, and José de Espronceda.
Between 1944 and 1948 he undertook nautical studies in Cádiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
, and he wrote his first poems. He made friends with members of the Cádiz magazine Platero, namely Fernando Quiñones, Pilar Paz Pasamar, Felipe Sordo Lamadrid, Serafín Pro Hesles, Julio Mariscal, José Luis Tejada, Francisco Pleguezuelo and Pedro Ardoy.
Caballero spent his military service in the Milicia Naval Universitaria and spent two summers sailing in the waters of the Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...
, Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
and Galicia. His military career was curtailed when he contracted a lung illness and travelled to Jerez to recuperate.
Between 1949 and 1952 he studied philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
and literature in Seville
Seville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
.
He continued his studies of literature 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 worked on the First Biennial Hispano-American Art Festival.
Career
Around 1954 he served as Secretary and later as Deputy Editor of the Papeles de Son Armadans magazine.In 1959 he began to make friends with and collaborate with poets who would later make up the 50s Group. In February 1959 in Collioure (France), he attended the 20th anniversary of the death 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....
, along with Blas de Otero, José Agustín Goytisolo, Ángel González, José Ángel Valente, Jaime Gil de Biedma
Jaime Gil de Biedma
Jaime Gil de Biedma y Alba was a Spanish post-Civil War poet.He was born in Nava de la Asunción on November 13, 1929. He stopped writing poetry some ten years before his death...
, Alfonso Costafreda and Carlos Barral
Carlos Barral
Carlos Barral i Agesta was a Spanish poet, considered to be one of the greatest poets of the so-called generation of the 1950s. He helped to establish the Formentor Group and their literary awards the Prix Formentor and the Prix International...
.
He moved to Bogotá
Bogotá
Bogotá, Distrito Capital , from 1991 to 2000 called Santa Fé de Bogotá, is the capital, and largest city, of Colombia. It is also designated by the national constitution as the capital of the department of Cundinamarca, even though the city of Bogotá now comprises an independent Capital district...
, where he taught Spanish literature
Spanish literature
Spanish literature generally refers to literature written in the Spanish language within the territory that presently constitutes the state of Spain...
and humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. There he started his friendship with the Colombian group of the Mito magazine (composed of Jorge Gaitán Durán, Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel García Márquez
Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...
, Eduardo Cote Lamus
Eduardo Cote Lamus
Eduardo Francisco Cote Lamus was a Colombian lawyer, poet and politician.-Personal life:Born on 18 August 1928 in Cúcuta, North Santander; the youngest of three, his parents were Pablo Antonio Cote Bautista and Emma Lamus Hernández, his other two older siblings were Elena and José Guillermo...
, Hernando Valencia Goelkel, Pedro Gómez Valderrama and Fernando Charry Lara, among others).
In 1963 he returned to Spain and took up several publishing posts.
Between 1965 and 1968 he spent time in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
and became part of an organization aimed at paying homage to 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....
in Baeza
Baeza
Baeza is a town of approximately 16,200 inhabitants in Andalusia, Spain, in the province of Jaén, perched on a cliff in the Loma de Baeza, a mountain range between the river Guadalquivir on the south and its tributary the Guadalimar on the north. It is chiefly known today as having many of the...
in 1966, which was finally prohibited by government order. He published the Narrativa Cubana de la Revolución (Cuban Narrative of the Revolution) in 1968, and was again arrested for political reasons, and imprisoned for one month in Carabanchel
Carabanchel
Carabanchel is a district in the south western suburbs of Madrid, Spain.-Overview:The area was the scene of fierce fighting during the Spanish Civil War -especially in November 1936, during the Battle of Madrid, when Nationalist troops tried to fight their way into the area. Unacustomed to street...
jail.
In 1971 he began working for the Lexicography Seminar of the Royal Spanish Academy, where he stayed until 1975. In 1973 he also started working as literary editor for Júcar Publications, a position which he also occupied until 1975. He gave courses on narrative in several European universities and attended literary symposia.
He worked as a Contemporary Spanish Literature Professor at the Centre for Hispanic Studies at Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College is a women's liberal arts college located in Bryn Mawr, a community in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, ten miles west of Philadelphia. The name "Bryn Mawr" means "big hill" in Welsh....
in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
from 1974 to 1978. That year he was appointed President of the PEN Club Español (from which he resigned in 1980). 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...
, the National Drama Center performed his version of Abre el Ojo (Open Your Eye), by Rojas Zorrilla.
Between 1985 and 1988 he once again spent some time in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. In 1989 a high school bearing his name was inaugurated in Jerez. A public library bearing his name was inaugurated in Marbella in 1992.
In 1993 he was appointed corresponding member of the North American Spanish Language Academy. The National Classic Theatre Company performed his version of Don Gil de las Calzas Verdes (Sir Gil of the Green Stockings) by Tirso de Molina
Tirso de Molina
Tirso de Molina was a Spanish Baroque dramatist, poet and a Roman Catholic monk.Originally Gabriel Téllez, he was born in Madrid. He studied at Alcalá de Henares, joined the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy on November 4, 1600, and entered the Monastery of San Antolín at Guadalajara,...
. The Sanlúcar de Barrameda Town Council named a street after him.
In 1997 the Antonio Gades Company performed his ballet adaptation of Fuenteovejuna. The Jerez City Council created the Caballero Bonald Foundation. He was awarded the title of Favourite Son of Andalucía.
In 1999 he was awarded the title of Favourite Son of the Province of Cadiz. He received the Golden Medal of the Fine Arts Circle and the Julián Besteiro Award for Arts and Literature.
In 2004 he was awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Cádiz. He also won the Queen Sofía de Iber-American Poetry Award.
Trivia
- His birthplace in calle Caballeros in Jerez is now the site of his Foundation.
- In 1963 he was arrested and fined for political reasons.