Background

Antonio Gala was born on October 2, 1930, in Brazatortas, Spain. However, his place and date of birth are indicated differently in different sources. Antonio is the son of Luis Gala Calvo and Adoración Velasco. He spent his childhood in Cordoba.

Education

Antonio Gala studied at the Universidad de Seville, where he earned a law degree. Also, he advanced degrees in both political science and economics from Universidad de Madrid.

Career

A noted Spanish writer, who focuses on the history and landscape of his native Andalusia within his works, Antonio Gala is the author of several popular productions for stage and screen, as well as novels, poems, and essays. The future writer spent his childhood in Cordoba, where he began to write for the first time, around the age of 14.

In the late 1950s, Antonio Gala was a bricklayer's assistant. After graduating, he first began to work as a state attorney, but quickly left this position, quarreling with his parents, and entered the monastic order of the Cartesians. However, a strict monastic charter was not for him, and soon he was expelled. After that, Antonio Gala moves to Portugal. It was in Portugal that he began his successful theatrical career, which already in 1963 allowed him to live solely on the work that he wrote. As a creator, Antonio will be successful in all areas: theater, fiction, and poetry. He had become a famous playwright, capturing the interest and enthusiasm of his audience.

Since beginning his career in the Madrid theater in the early 1960s, Antonio Gala has produced both musicals and dramas and has incorporated folkloric, historical, and allegorical elements into his plots. He has produced three lavish musicals, Carmen Carmen, Cristóbal Colón, and La truhana, all period pieces employing extensive sets and costumes, choreography, and a lush musical score. He also incorporates humor within his stage works.

In addition to musicals, Antonio Gala has also produced dramatic plays, such as the highly lauded Los Buenos días perdidos and 1973's Anillos para una dama. First recorded in the twelfth-century Poema de Mio Cid, the legend of Cid focuses on a Christian knight, loyal to Spain, who risks all for king and country. In his play, Antonio focuses, not on Cid himself, but the wife, Jimen, that he leaves behind at his death. Antonio attained the popularity early in his career as a result of his television series Paisaje configures, which ceased broadcasting in 1976 upon orders of Spanish President Arias Navarro. Antonio Gala's first full-length novel, El manuscrito carmesí, is a work of historical fiction that focuses on the recapture of Spain from the Ottoman Turks in the late fifteenth century by presenting the fictional journal of Boabdil, the last sultan of Granada.

Besides, Antonio Gala is an educator. Since 1959 he has been teaching philosophy and history of art. Antonio Gala is currently a president of the International Theatre Institute, works in the newspaper El Mundo since 1992, and rarely writes books. He has also founded a fund, Antonio Gala Foundation, for young talents. This fund provides scholarships and strongly supports aspiring artists.

Achievements

• 

  Antonio Gala is a noted award-winning Spanish writer. He is the author of several popular productions for stage and screen, as well as novels, poems, and essays. Antonio attained popularity early in his career as a result of his television series Paisaje configures. Also, he became famous for his popular and, sometimes equally controversial, columns that have appeared in major Spanish newspapers since the early 1970s. He is also known for creating a fund for young talents, Antonio Gala Foundation.
  
  By the early 1960s, Antonio Gala had earned several notable literary awards, most importantly for his first play, Los Verdes Campos del Edén. He got a Premio Adonáis de Poesía for Enemigo íntimo in 1959. In 1963 he recieved a Premio Las Albinas for Solsticio de verano and Premio Nacional de Teatro Calderón de la Barca for Los verdes campos del edén. Also, he got a Premio Ciudad de Barcelona de teatro for Los verdes campos del edén in 1965, Premio Mayte de teatro for Los buenos días perdidos in 1973 and Premio César González Ruano de periodismo for Los ojos de Troylo in 1975. Other his awards included Doctor Honoris Causa for la Universidad de Córdoba in 1982, Libro de Oro de los Libreros Españoles in 1984, Hijo Predilecto de Andalucía in 1985, Premio Andalucía de las Letras in 1989, Premio León Felipe a los valores cívicos in 1989 and Premio Planeta de novela for El manuscrito carmesí in 1990. In 2005 Antonio also got a Premio de la Fundación Ibn al-Jatib de Estudios y Cooperación Cultural, and in 2015 he got a Hijo Adoptivo de Málaga and Premio Turismo de Granada. In 2012, Antonio Gala became a honorary fellow of the Claustro de las Artes de la Universidad de Alcalá de Henares.

Works

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  • Los verdes campos del Edén 1963
  • El Caracol en el Espejo 1964
  • El sol en el hormiguero 1966
  • Los Buenos Dias Perdidos 1972
  • Anillos para una dama 1973
  • Las cítaras colgadas de los árboles 1974
  • Por qué corres, Ulises? 1975
  • Petra regalada 1980
  • La vieja señorita del Paraíso 1980
  • El Cementerio de Los Pajaros 1980
  • Trilogia de La Libertad 1983
  • Samarkanda 1985
  • El hotelito 1985
  • Séneca o el beneficio de la duda 1987
  • Carmen, Carmen 1988
  • Cristobal Colón 1989
  • La Truhana 1992
  • Los bellos durmientes 1994
  • Cafe cantante 1997
  • Las Manzanas del Viernes 1999
  • Inés desabrochada 2003
  • Enemigo íntimo 1959
  • Poemas cordobeses 1994
  • Testamento andaluz 1994
  • Poemas de amor 1997
  • El poema de Tobías desangelado
  • Charlas con Troylo 1981
  • En propia mano 1985
  • Cuaderno de la Dama de Otoño 1985
  • Dedicado a Tobias 1988
  • La soledad sonora 1989
  • Proas y troneras 1993
  • El aguila bicefala 1993
  • Córdoba de Gala 1993
  • A Quien Conmigo Va 1994
  • Andaluz 1994
  • Carta a los herederos 1995
  • Troneras 1996
  • La casa sosegada 1998
  • Quintaesencia 2012
  • El manuscrito carmesí 1990
  • La pasión turca 1993
  • Siete cuentos 1993
  • Granada de los Nazaríes 1994
  • Mas alla del jardin 1995
  • La regla de tres 1996
  • El Corazon Tardio 1998
  • Las afueras de Dios 1999
  • Ahora hablaré de mí 2000
  • El imposible olvido 2001
  • Los invitados al jardín 2002
  • El dueño de la herida 2003
  • El pedestal de las estatuas 2007
  • Los papeles de agua 2008
  • Y al final, esperanza 1967
  • Cantar del Santiago paratodos 1971
  • Si las piedras hablaran 1972
  • Paisaje Con Figuras 1976
  • Trece Noches 1999

Politics

In 1976 to the early 1980s, when it was the period of the Spanish transition to democracy, Antonio Gala supported the leftist political view. In 1978 he urged for a statute of autonomy for Andalusia. However, Antonio wasn't a supporter of a specific political party.

Views

Quotations: "Making someone happy is perhaps the humblest way of approaching happiness."

"Love is the poetry of our feelings. But there are some horrible poems."

"I am not a pessimist. Just a well informed optimist."

Membership

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  Antonio Gala was a president of the Associación de Amistad Hispano-Árebe in 1981.

  Associación de Amistad Hispano-Árebe , Spain

• Sociedad de Amistad España-URSS , Spain

Personality

Physical Characteristics: In the 1960s, Antonio Gala became seriously ill and almost died. Later, recovering, he will begin to use a cane, which will soon become his characteristic sign.

Interests

• Writers

  Rainer Maria Rilke, Juan de la Cruz

Connections

Father:

Luis Gala Calvo

Mother:

Adoración Velasco

colleague:

Miguel Rafael Martos Sánchez

Miguel Rafael Martos Sánchez, known as Raphael, is a Spanish singer and actor.

colleague:

Pedro María Olea Retolaza

Pedro María Olea Retolaza is a Spanish screenwriter.

References

• Antonio Gala - Official website