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The birth of Gabriel y Galán

Frades de la Sierra, Guijuelo, Salamanca

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The birth of Gabriel y Galán

Historical milestone · Frades de la Sierra, Guijuelo, Salamanca

José María Gabriel y Galán, the poet who brought the speech and life of the Salamancan and Extremaduran countryside into literature, was born on 28 June 1870 in Frades de la Sierra, into a family of agricultural landowners, the son of Bernarda Galán, who was fond of poetry. He studied teaching (Magisterio) in Salamanca and Madrid, and at nineteen travelled to Galicia, an experience that inspired his first poems. He worked as a teacher in Guijuelo and in Piedrahíta, where he signed his letters as El Solitario because of his melancholic character, until his marriage in 1898 to Desideria Vila Gascón changed his life: he gave up teaching and settled in Guijo de Granadilla, in Cáceres, where the poetry that made him famous matured. In his honour, the town changed its official name from Frades to Frades de la Sierra in 1916.

1870

Photo: Hovallef (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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