José Bergamín

José Bergamín Gutiérrez (Madrid, 1895 - Fuenterrabía, August 28 1983) 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."

Early life and career

He studied law at the Universidad Central and his first articles appeared in the periodical "Índice", edited by Juan Ramón Jiménez, 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.

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 Paris, 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 Franco 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.

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 Iribarne 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.

Works

*"El cohete y la estrella" Madrid; Índice, 1923.
*"Caracteres: (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" /
*" [http://www.radiopoesia.com/secciones/recitales/sonido/reproductor/index.php?file=../../Recital-jose-bergamin.mp3&clav=34&pre=7 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.

External links

*es icon [http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/hisp/08036195478670651866746/p0000001.htm Estudio sobre la editorial Séneca de Bergamín]
*es icon [http://josebergamin.gipuzkoakultura2.net/index-es.php Guía bibliográfica realizada con motivo del proyecto de Pedro G. Romero “El fantasma y el esqueleto: Un viaje, de Fuenteheridos a Hondarribia, por las figuras de la identidad”]