Córdoba (EFE).- The poet and playwright Antonio Gala died this Sunday at the age of 92 in Córdoba, sources close to the family have informed EFE.
Gala, one of the most widely read -and most recognized- authors in Spanish, both inside and outside Spain, was a writer, playwright, poet and essayist with a complex personality, great elegance and vast culture.
Born in Brazatortas (Ciudad Real) on October 2, 1936, Ángel Custodio Gala y Velasco always considered himself a Cordovan by adoption, having lived a large part of his life in this Andalusian city, which also had great weight in his work.
Precisely the foundation that bears his name has its headquarters in the ancient capital of the Umayyads.
a precocious child
The son of a doctor, Luis Gala Calvo, and Adoración Velasco, he was a precocious child. He said that when he was only four years old he wrote his first story; with five, his first theatrical piece and at the age of 14 he gave his first lecture at the Círculo de la Amistad in Córdoba.
He graduated in Law in Seville and in Philosophy and Letters first and, later, he studied Political and Economic Sciences in Madrid, where he also received a PhD in Law.
His first poems, which he published in magazines, belong to that university stage. And together with friends like Gloria Fuertes and Julio Mariscal, he founded the magazines “Aljibe” and “Arquero de Poesía”.
To please his father, he opposed the State Attorney’s Office, but after the effort and parental pressure, he left and entered the Cartujos de Jerez in 1958 where he spent almost a year, until he was expelled.
Then begins a bohemian stage and works in different trades to earn a living. Upon returning to Madrid he works as a professor of Art History and Philosophy in various schools.
Awarded numerous prizes
His poetic work, started with “Intimate Enemy” (1959), recognized with the Adonais Poetry Prize, continues with “Sonetos de la Zubia” (1981) “Poemas cordobeses” (1994), “Poemas de amor” (1997), “Andalusian Testament” (1998) and “El poema de Tobías desangelado” (2005), which the author himself considered his “literary testament”.
He lived for a year in Florence, where he directed the La Borghese gallery and, back in Spain, he began his fruitful theater career with “Los verdes campos del edén” (1963), which was awarded the “Calderón de la Barca” National Theater Award, which was followed by “Los buenos días perdidos”, which won the 1972 National Literature Award, “Rings for a lady” (1973), “Why are you running Ulises?” (1975), “Petra Regalada” (1980), “Samarkanda” (1985), “Carmen, Carmen” (1988) and “La truhana” (1992).
In 1990 he published his first novel, “The crimson manuscript”, with which he won the Planet. After her, he published “The Turkish Passion” (1993) and “Más allá del jardín” (1995), both made into movies, “The rule of three” (1996); “The outskirts of God” (1999); “The pedestal of the statues” (2007) or “The water papers” (2009).
Prolific columnist, many of them, collected in books such as “My talks with Troylo” (1981) -César González Ruano Award for Journalism-, “Notebook of the autumn lady” (1985); ‘La solitude sonora’ (1991) or ‘La Tronera’, the title of his column in El Mundo since 1992.
Gala also wrote scripts for TV such as “Y al final esperanza” and for series like “Si las piedras hablaran” (1985) or “Paisaje con figuras” (1995) and even dared with an opera, “Cristóbal Colón”.
Arabic culture expert
Favorite son of Andalusia, he is a great expert in Arab culture in Al-Andalus Spain, with titles such as “Granada de los Nazaríes” (1992), “Andaluz” (1994) or the compilation “Córdoba de Gala” (1993).
During the eighties it had an intense cultural life. He was president of the Spanish Center of the International Theater Institute and founding president of the Hispanic-Arab Friendship Association. And in the nineties he was one of the promoters of the Association of Independent Writers and Journalists (AEPI).
Gala has also been significant in political affairs. In 1986 she actively participated in the Civic Platform, which advocated the “No” in the referendum against NATO; supported the 1988 general strike; In 1993 he led demonstrations against the Citizen Security Law of the then Minister of the Interior, José Luis Corcuera, and supported the 15M Movement.
In July 2011, from his column in El Mundo, he revealed that he had colon cancer that was difficult to remove. He was fighting the disease, without leaving his home, until June 2014, when very dejected, he was seen at the delivery of the poetry prizes that bear his name.
A year later, he returned to the appointment after announcing a few months earlier, in February 2015, that he was “cancer free”.
The house-museum of the Baltasara
On November 20 of this year, he delivered an emotional recorded speech that sounded like a farewell, during the 2015 Granada Tourism Awards ceremony. Gala, who did not travel to the Nasrid city due to his delicate state of health, intervened through a recording in which he confessed “feeling in the last”.
One of his last public appearances was in April 2018, when he attended the Loewe Poetry Awards ceremony, awarded to a former fellow from his foundation and a great friend, Ben Clark.
In 2017, “Córdoba de Gala” was presented, an anthology that brings together texts by the author about the Andalusian city taken from his literary work and that expands the edition published in 1993 with the same title.
In 2021, the Antonio Gala house-museum was opened on the La Baltasara estate in the Malaga town of Alhaurín el Grande, where the writer lived, as a multidisciplinary cultural center with an international vocation.
Honorary member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Córdoba and of Fine Letters and Noble Arts (2008), he has the Critics Award, the Golden Quixote 1972-73, the National Script Award 1973, the Audiovisual Media Award 1976 , the Andalusian Letters Award 1989, the Max de Honor 2001 and the Journalism Award from the Association for Human Rights, among others