Manuel Curros Enríquez

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Manuel Curros Enriquez

Manuel Curros Enríquez (September 15, 1851 - February 7, 1908) was a Galician writer and journalist in Galician language, being currently considered one of the leading figures of Galician culture and identity.

[edit] Early life

Manuel Curros Enríquez was born in Celanova, Galicia, Spain. He was the son of a severe carlist scriban who used to hit his son. Manuel went to school until he had to help his father as a scriban.

When he was sixteen years old, he ran away from home. He ended up in Madrid, living with his brother Ricardo. There, he had a chance to continue his studies and he even went to University. He want to became a lawyer, but he did not get a degree.

After the revolution in September, 1868, Curros adopted democratic ideals. He then began a literary career. He also shared home with Modesta Luisa Polonia Vázquez Rodríguez since 1871, having a son with her in 1873 and then marrying with her in 1877.

In this same year, Curros wins a price at Orense with his poem A Virxe do Cristal, and he is widely recognized as the Galician poet. He then moved to Orense where he continued his writings, sharing the time with another work.

In 1880 he published Aires da miña terra. The bishop of Orense, Cesáreo Rodríguez, pressed charges against the author, saying that the book included heresies and blasfemies. The judges ordered the destruction of the issues that had not been sold yet, plus the originals, and Curros was found guilty of attacking the free exercise of cults in Orense, thou he was absolved in A Coruña. Having lost his job, he returns to Madrid in 1883 and begins working in the Republican journal El Porvenir (The Future).

In 1894, he emigrated to Havana, where he was warmly received. He had a chance to publish his own newspaper, La Tierra Gallega (The Galician Land). However, this paper was not longlived, and it was eventually suspended.

Curros then joined the staff of another paper, El Diario de las Familias (Journal of the Families). In this new role, he supported the autonomists. This did not earned him the sympathies of the local authorities, or even of other Galicians.

He returned to A Coruña in 1904. He was cheered by regionalists. However, he would go back to Havana to work at another journal, Diario de la Marina.

In 1908 he was admitted at the Asturian Medical Center at Havana, because he refused to go to the Galician Medican Center. He was very ill. He died on February 7 1908, and his remains were shipped back to Galicia.