Background
He was born into a peasant family that owned its own lands.
He was born into a peasant family that owned its own lands.
He spent his childhood in his hometown, where he attended school. In 1888, he graduated for being a school teacher and he is assigned a working position in Guijuelo, about 20 km away from his hometown.
He was a teacher in Guijuelo (Salamanca) & Piedrahíta (Ávila). At 15, he left for Salamanca in order to go on with his studies. His first verses can be traced back to that early period.
Simultaneously, he starts working in a textile warehouse.
After a brief stay in Guijuelo, he departs again for Madrid, this time for keeping on with his studies in the Escuela Normal Central ("Normal Central School"). He was to live there for a very short period, for the metropolis caused disgust in him (he actually mentioned it as "Modernópolis" in some of his letters).
After finishing his studies, he is sent to Piedrahíta (town in the Ávila province), where he puts his newly acquired pedagogic knowledge into practice. In those years the young teacher develops his characteristic sad and melancolic personality, with profound religious beliefs (which he got from his mother, Bernarda), which can be perceived in his poems.
lieutenant"s there where he can find the time and tranquility for shaping his poetic style.
He died on the 6th of January, 1905, a victim of pneumonia. The city hall of Guijo de Granadilla currently still maintains the house in which he lived, as a museum devoted to him, where his manuscripts and personal objects are displayed (all of which were donated by his heirs).
lieutenant wasn"t until he met his wife, Desideria, (who she mentions as "Mi vaquerilla" (my little cowgirl)) that he undergoes a radical change, which becomes even deeper from his wedding on, the 26th of January 1898, in Plasencia.
His poetry is quite conservative both in its thematic and its structure: he defended tradition, family, race, catholic dogma or simple rural life. Such period of his life is characterised by a gloomy frame of mind, he signed the letters to his friend as "El Solitario" ("The solitary one").