, 16 December 1901 - 28 October 1999) was a Spanish

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....

 poet, a member 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...

.
Alberti published his first books of poetry towards the end of the 1920s: Marinero en tierra ('Sailor on Dry Land', 1925), La Amante ('The Mistress', 1926) and El alba del alhelí ('The Dawn of the Wallflower', 1927). This early work fell broadly into the Cancionero tradition, though from a markedly avant-garde perspective.

After falling in with the next members 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...

, Alberti began to show the profound influence of Luis de Góngora

Luis de Góngora

Luis de Góngora y Argote was a Spanish Baroque lyric poet. Góngora and his lifelong rival, Francisco de Quevedo, are widely considered to be the most prominent Spanish poets of their age. His style is characterized by what was called culteranismo, also known as Gongorism...

 on his work, most obviously in Cal y canto ('Quicklime and Plainsong', 1929). It was, however, the introspective surrealism of Sobre los ángeles ('Concerning the Angels', 1929), whose tone was perhaps anticipated by some of the more sombre moments of Cal y canto, that established Alberti as a mature poet. Sobre los ángeles is widely considered to be Alberti's best work.

During the 1930s Alberti's work became overtly political, beginning with Con los zapatos puestos tengo que morir ('I Have to Die Wearing my Own Shoes', 1930). The establishment of the Second Spanish 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....

 in 1931 pushed Alberti towards Marxism and he joined the Communist Party of Spain. His poetry from this militant period is collected in Consignas ('Orders', 1933), Un fantasma recorre Europa ('A Ghost Stalks Europe', 1933), 13 bandas y 48 estrellas ('13 Stripes and 48 Stars', 1936) and El poeta en la calle ('Poet in the Street', 1938).

A Loyalist in 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...

, Alberti fled to Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 following the victory of Franco

Francisco 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...

 in 1939. In Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

 he worked for the Losada publishing house and continued writing and painting. His work in exile is full of nostalgia for Spain, notably the poetry collection Entre el clavel y la espada ('Between Carnation and Sword', 1941). He also published collections inspired by various themes, including painting (A la pintura ('On Painting', 1945))--Alberti had briefly been a painter before turning to writing--and the sea (Pleamar ('High Tide', 1944), Oda marítima ('Maritime Ode', 1953)). His autobiography, La arboleda perdida ('The Lost Grove') was published in 1942.

After living in various European cities, including Paris

Paris

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...

 and Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

, he returned to Spain in 1977. Shortly after his return Alberti was elected deputy for Cadiz

Cádiz (Spanish Congress Electoral District)

Cádiz is one of the 52 electoral districts used for the Spanish Congress of Deputies - the lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales. It was first contested in modern times in the 1977 General Election...

 in the constituent Congress of the Spanish parliament on the Communist Party Ticket.

Alberti's plays include El hombre deshabitado ('The Empty Man', 1930), Fermín Galán (1931), De un momento a otro ('From One Moment to Another', 1938-39), El trébol florido ('Clover', 1940), El adefesio ('The Disaster', 1944) and Noche de guerra en el Museo del Prado ('A Night of War in the Prado Museum', 1956), as well as adaptions and other short pieces.

Alberti was also interested about football, especially FC Barcelona

FC Barcelona

Futbol Club Barcelona , also known as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça, is a professional football club, based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain....

. His well-known poem titled “Oda a Platko

Franz Platko

Ferenc Plattkó also known Franz Platko Kopiletz, Francisco Platko , also known as Ferenc Platko or Francisco Platko, was a Hungarian footballer and manager...

”, was inspired by a heroic performance of the Barça

Barca

Barce was an ancient Greek colony and later Roman, Byzantine, city in North Africa. It occupied the coastal area of what is modern day Libya...

 goalkeeper.

In 1983, he was awarded the Premio Cervantes, the Spanish literary world's highest honour. He was also awarded Lenin Peace Prize

Lenin Peace Prize

The International Lenin Peace Prize was the Soviet Union's equivalent to the Nobel Peace Prize, named in honor of Vladimir Lenin. It was awarded by a panel appointed by the Soviet government, to notable individuals whom the panel indicated had "strengthened peace among peoples"...

 for the year 1964 and Laureate Of The International Botev Prize in 1981. He died at the age of 96 from a lung ailment. He was married to the writer María Teresa León

María Teresa León

María Teresa León was a Spanish writer, activist and cultural ambassador. Born in Logroño, she was the niece of the Spanish feminist and writer María Goyri . She herself was married to the Spanish poet Rafael Alberti...

.

External links

• Rafael Alberti Foundation, Spanish and English
• Poesía - Poetry
• Rafael Alberti, Centro Virtual Cervantes
• Portal de Rafael Alberti Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes
  Miguel de Cervantes
  Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His magnum opus, Don Quixote, considered the first modern novel, is a classic of Western literature, and is regarded amongst the best works of fiction ever written...
  
  
• Poemas en torno a la creación poética de Rafael Alberti
• Poemas de Rafael Alberti
• Poema de Rafael Alberti
• La poesía de Rafael Alberti. Parte de su Obra.
• Colección de Poemas
• Rafael Alberti - Colección de poemas