Miguel Hernández

Miguel Hernández
Miguel Hernández in 1939
Born	Miguel Hernández Gilabert (1910-10-10)10 October 1910 Orihuela, Spain
Died	28 March 1942(1942-03-28) (aged 31) Alicante, Spain
Occupation	Poet, playwright
Language	Spanish
Nationality	Spain
Genre	Poetry
Literary movement	Generation of '27 Generation of '36
Notable works	El rayo que no cesa Viento del pueblo El hombre acecha Cancionero y romancero de ausencias
Spouse	Josefina Manresa (1916-1987)
Children	Manuel Ramón (1937-1938) Manuel Miguel (1939-1984)
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Miguel Hernández Gilabert (10 October 1910 – 28 March 1942) was a 20th-century Spanish language poet and playwright associated with the Generation of '27 movement and the Generation of '36 movement.

Hernández was born in Orihuela, in the Valencian Community, to a poor family and received little formal education; he published his first book of poetry at 23, and gained considerable fame before his death. He spent his childhood as a goatherd and farmhand, and was, for the most part, self-taught, although he did receive basic education from state schools and the Jesuits. He was introduced to literature by friend Ramon Sijé. As a youth, Hernández greatly admired the Spanish Baroque lyric poet Luis de Góngora, who was an influence in his early works. Shaped by both Golden Age writers such as Francisco de Quevedo and, like many Spanish poets of his era, by European vanguard movements, notably by surrealism, he joined a generation of socially conscious Spanish authors concerned with workers rights. Though Hernández employed novel images and concepts in his verses, he never abandoned classical, popular rhythms and rhymes. Member of the Communist Party of Spain, Hernández campaigned for the Republic during the Spanish Civil War, writing poetry and addressing troops deployed to the front.

During the Civil War, on the ninth of March in 1937, he married Josefina Manresa Marhuenda, whom he had met in 1933 in Orihuela. His wife inspired him to write most of his romantic work. Their first son, Manuel Ramón, was born on 19 December 1937 but died in infancy on 19 October 1938. Months later came their second son, Manuel Miguel (4 January 1939 – 1984).

Unlike others, he could not escape Spain after the Republican surrender and was arrested multiple times after the war for his anti-fascist sympathies, and was eventually sentenced to death. His death sentence, however, was commuted to a prison term of 30 years, leading to incarceration in multiple jails under extraordinarily harsh conditions until he eventually succumbed to tuberculosis in 1942. Just before his death, Hernández scrawled his last verse on the wall of the hospital: Goodbye, brothers, comrades, friends: let me take my leave of the sun and the fields. Some of his verses were kept by his jailers.