Álvaro Cunqueiro
Álvaro Cunqueiro | |
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Born | Álvaro Cunqueiro Mora December 22, 1911 Mondoñedo, Galicia, Spain |
Died | February 28, 1981 Vigo, Galicia, Spain | (aged 69)
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Álvaro Cunqueiro Mora (
Life
Cunqueiro was born to Joaquín Cunqueiro Montenegro, a pharmacist, and Pepita Mora Moirón of Mondoñedo (where he was infamous for his practice of stealing coats at parties). He did his bachillerato (secondary school) studies in the Instituto Xeral e Técnico (General and Technical Institute) in the city of
He was a founding member of the Partido Galeguista (Galicianist Party).
The military uprising of July 1936 found Cunqueiro in Mondoñedo, and thanks to the influence of his conservative family, he was not subjected to reprisals, and was able to find work as a teacher in a private school in Ortigueira from October 1936 onwards. He was the regional head of press and propaganda for the Falange, and worked on the local Falangist publication Era Azul. Jesús Suevos, the head of the Falange in Galicia, and the director of the newspaper El Pueblo Gallego, asked him to write for the newspaper's literary and current events sections; Cunqueiro accepted and moved to Vigo. During his time in Vigo, he also briefly taught Portuguese in a high school.
In November 1938, Cunqueiro moved to
In 1961, the Royal Galician Academy elected him as a member. Between November 1964 and June 1970, Cunqueiro was the director of the Faro de Vigo and of the Faro Deportivo.
Literary work
He was a multifaceted writer, and his extensive literary output extends into the fields of journalism, poetry, narrative prose, and theater, not to mention his work as a translator.
The early Cunqueiro was fundamentally a poet, writing in Avant-Garde, neo-troubador and culturalist styles. He initiated neo-troubadourism with his poetry collections Mar ao norde (1932) and Poemas do si e do non (1933). He wrote Cantiga nova que se chama Riveira (1933) under the influence of the
He received the Premio de la Crítica Española in 1959 for Las crónicas del sochantre, which in reality was a translation of the Galician-language As crónicas do sochantre, which he had written first. He was also awarded the Premio Nadal in 1968 for Un hombre que se parecía a Orestes and the Premio Frol da Auga in 1979 for Herba de aquí e acolá. For his work as a journalist he received the Premio Conde de Godó.
In 1981 he was named an honorary member of the Galician Writers Association.
Cunqueiro was the source of the famous quote Mil primaveras máis para a lingua galega ("A thousand more springs for the Galician language"). This phrase now figures on his grave: Eiqui xaz alguén, que coa súa obra, fixo que Galicia durase mil primaveras máis ("Here lies someone who, with his work, made Galicia last a thousand more springs"), alongside another inscription that reads Loubado seña Deus que me permitiu facerme home neste grande Reino que chamamos Galicia ("Praised be God who allowed me to become a man in this great Kingdom we call Galicia").
List of works
Galician language
Poetry
- Mar ao Norde (1932)
- Poemas do si e non (1933)
- Cantiga nova que se chama Riveira (1933)
- Dona do corpo delgado (1950)
- Palabras de víspera |(1974)
Prose
- Merlín e familia (1955)
- Crónicas do sochantre (1956)
- O incerto señor Don Hamlet, Principe de Dinamarca (1958)
- Escola de Menciñeiros (1960)
- Si o vello Sinbad volvese ás illas (1961)
- A noite vai coma un río (1965)
- Xente de aquí e de acolá (1971)
- Os outros feirantes, (1979)
Spanish language
- Elegías y canciones (1940)
- Balada de las damas del tiempo pasado (1945)
- Crónica de la derrota de las naciones (1954)
- Las mocedades de Ulises (1960)
- Flores del año mil y pico de ave (1968)
- Un hombre que se parecía a Orestes (1969)
- Vida y fugas de Fanto Fantini della Gherardesca (1972)
- El año del cometa con la batalla de los cuatros reyes (1974)
- Tertulia de boticas prodigiosas y Escuela de curanderos (1976)
Awards
- Premio de la Crítica Española (1958)
- Valle-Inclán Prize in Galician Theatre (1960)
- Premio Nadal (1968)
- Gil Vicente Prize (1973)
- Premio Frol da Auga (1979)
- Día das Letras Galegas(1991)
References
- ^ "Trinta anos da morte de Cunqueiro, o imaxinador prodixioso". La Voz de Galicia. 28 February 2011.
External links
Media related to Álvaro Cunqueiro at Wikimedia Commons
- Mondoñedo
- (in Galician) Álvaro Cunqueiro no Portal de Mondoñedo