Background
Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel was born on 6 November 1966 in Malabo, Spanish Guinea (now Equatorial Guinea), the son of Manuel Ávila Fernández and Luisa Laurel Bizantino, both teachers and Spanish settlers from Annobón island.
Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel was born on 6 November 1966 in Malabo, Spanish Guinea (now Equatorial Guinea), the son of Manuel Ávila Fernández and Luisa Laurel Bizantino, both teachers and Spanish settlers from Annobón island.
He studied primary school in Annobón (Annobonese language) and then completed his secondary studies in Malabo. Ávila Laurel graduated as a medical nurse
He migrated to Spain in protest of the current government in Equatorial Guinea. His writings as an essayist are noted for thought provoking commentary — sometimes in a markedly pessimistic vein — on a variety of subjects relating to Equatorial Guinea including descriptions of the geographical and psychological situation of Annobón and reflections on the national flag.
Juan Tomás Avila Laurel is a member of the “new” Equatorial-Guinean literature movement, a generation of young authors whose first texts began to appear in the 1990s.