Rafael Alberti – Biography of Rafael Alberti

The spanish poet Rafael Alberti Merello, was born on December 16, 1902, in El Puerto de Santa María, a town near Cádiz, in Andalusia.

As the name implies, Alberti He had Italian origins, his paternal grandfather, Tommaso Alberti Sanguinetti, was a Garibaldino from Tuscany.

Alberti He spent a quiet childhood and in 1917 he moved to Madrid where he began to take an interest in painting. In 1922 his works are exhibited at the Ateneo de Madrid. Shortly after he came into contact with the artists and writers of the Residencia de Estudiantes, who would become part of the so-called “Generation of 27”.

In 1924, while living in the Guadarrama and Rute mountains, due to a respiratory disease, he published the collection of poems “Sailor ashore“who wins National Literature Prize.

In 1927, on the occasion of the tricentennial of the death of Luis de Gongora, publish “Lime and sand“as a tribute to the master of the Spanish baroque. That act marked the consolidation of the so-called Generation of 27, the protagonist of the silver age of Spanish poetry.

In 1928, following a deep personal crisis, he composed “About angels“; soon “Sermons and mansions” Y “The uninhabited man“He begins a new stage in his life, with the establishment of the Republic.

In 1931 he joined the Communist Party of Spain; cover, with her partner Maria Teresa Leon, the revolutionary magazine “October“and participates in the fight against fascism.

After the Republican defeat in 1939, and for almost 40 years, he lived outside his country, taking refuge first in France, then in Argentina and later in Rome, where he went to live in the famous Trastevere neighborhood in 1963. He did not return to Spain until 1977, after the death of General Frank.

Alberti was awarded with prestigious literary prizes, being awarded the prize “Cervantes“in 1983. Before he had been distinguished with international awards such as the Lenin of Peace (1965) and the award Rome of Literature (1991), in addition to National Theater (1980). He resigned the other great award for Spanish literature, the Prince of Asturias, due to his strong Republican convictions.

The great Spanish poet died at his home in Puerto de Santa María, in his hometown, on October 28, 1999, a few months before his 97th birthday. His ashes were scattered in the sea.