Alfonso Daniel Rodríguez Castelao

Alfonso Daniel Rodríguez Castelao (born 30 January 1886 in Rianxo, Galicia, Spain, † January 7, 1950 in Buenos Aires, Argentina; pseudonym: Castelao ) was a Galician writer, cartoonist, illustrator, and politicians as well as one of the founders of the Galician nationalism.

Life

Alfonso Daniel Rodríguez Castelao was the son of the fisherman Manuel Rodríguez Dios and Joaquina Castelao Genme. When he was three months old, his father emigrated to Argentina. The end of 1885 followed him Alfonso Daniel and his mother to live together in Bernasconi, in the province of La Pampa. There Castelao remained until 1900 and discovered his own statements after, while reading the weekly newspaper Caras y caretas his preference for cartoons.

In 1900 he returned to his native town Rianxo and studied from 1903 to 1908 at the University of Santiago de Compostela medicine. During his years of study strengthened his interest in painting and drawing, especially cartoons. In 1908 he exhibited his drawings in Madrid and began with the magazine Vida Gallega work. From 1909 to 1910 he earned his doctorate in Madrid, took part in the 3rd national Humoristenausstellung and worked as an illustrator for El Cuento Semanal. In 1910 he specialized in obstetrics and then returned to his hometown. In this episode of his life, he published the weekly newspaper El Barbero Municipal (1910-1914), in which he criticized the Galician Kazikenherrschaft.

In 1911 he was in Vigo its first conference on cartoons, 1912, he joined the movement Acción Gallega ( Galician action ) and married in October of the same year Virxinia Pereira. In those years he published his cartoons in various newspapers and won such popularity.

In 1916 he was appointed at the geographical statistical institute in Pontevedra and participated in those years to the founding of the local branch of the Galician Nationalist Movement Irmandades because Fala ( Brotherhood of the language).

Together with Vicente Risco, Otero Pedrayo and others, he founded the magazine Nós ( We ), in their environment 1920-1936 prospered the cultural and political life in Galicia.

In January 1921, he traveled through France, Belgium and Germany to learn about the art of these countries closer. The diary of this journey he published to share in the magazine Nós. In book form it was published posthumously in 1977 with the name Diario 1921 ( Diary 1921). In 1926 he was appointed a member of the Royal Galician Academy.

In January 1928, died at the age of eleven, his son Alfonso. In the same year he went with his wife on a study trip to Brittany, to explore the Breton stone crosses. The result of this journey he published in May 1930 in the book As Cruces de Pedra na Bretaña ( The stone crosses in Brittany ). In 1931 he was elected as an independent Galicist in the Parliament of the Second Spanish Republic and founded the Partido galicistische Galeguista with.

Because of its membership in the Galician Academy, he was exiled in November 1934 to Badajoz. During his stay there he wrote a series of articles for A Nosa Terra (Our Land), the mouthpiece of the galicistischen party he (Always in Galicia) einbaute later in his work Sempre en Galiza. In September 1935, his expulsion was canceled and in 1936 he became a candidate of the Frente Popular ( ' People's Front ') re-elected to the Parliament. In the advertising campaign for the Galician Statute of Autonomy of 1936 he took a prominent position.

The military coup of 1936, which culminated in the Spanish Civil War, surprised him in Madrid, after which he moved to Valencia end 1936 and later to Barcelona. In 1938 he emigrated to New York and finally in 1940 to Buenos Aires. Subsequently he participated, among others, the Galician government in exile in Paris.

On January 7, 1950, he died in Buenos Aires. His remains were transferred to Galicia in 1984.

Artistic and literary creation

In addition to his political career Castelao was versatile, as a novelist, illustrator, caricaturist, painter, and art theorist active. In his work always reflected his philosophy and his commitment to the Galician movement. In exile during the Franco regime he wrote the essay Sempre en Galiza policy, which became the central text of the Galician nationalism.

Its accompanied by brief texts drawings describe the Rurale Galicia, the Kazikentum, the suffering people of Galicia, poor, blind and homeless from a realistic and critical at the same time humorous point of view. In the album Nós he collected drawings from the period 1916-1918, the later albums are about the horrors of civil war.

His first narrative work was the short story collection Un ollo de vidro ( a glass pot) of 1922. With Cousas ( things ), Retrincos ( cullet) and Os dous de semper ( the same old two ) and as the culmination of Sempre en Galiza he created one for Galician literature unique piece of art, where he associated literature, politics, and the theoretical basis of the Galician movement. In his literary view of things he used to reveal with a sarcastic, sometimes grotesque humor, the stereotypes of the local customs.

Politics

Castelao was Galician nationalist, federalist, pacifist, supporters of progressivism and internationalist. The Galicia granted by the Second Spanish Republic autonomy he saw as a means of establishing a Galician state in conjunction with other Iberian nations. He was also a staunch supporter of a united Europe.

Concept of Spain

Castelao always used the name Hespaña derived from Hispania, the Latin name for the Iberian Peninsula, instead of España ( Spain ), which, however, he was referring not only to the country but to the entire Iberian Peninsula. His idea of Hespaña was a federation of Iberian nations, namely Castile, Catalonia, the Basque Country, Galicia and Portugal. This he urged both political and cultural side.

The classical model of the Iberian Federalism he refused, as this included the unification of the two Iberian countries of Spain and Portugal as such, and not his concept of five Iberian nations. He pointed out that it was necessary that the Spanish government had to break, so that individual nations could come together in the form of free states. According to him, Spain was under a disproportionate influence of Castile, which was about to take over the other nations and regions.

In the last years of his life Castelao represented, however, the idea of ​​a complete independence of Galicia, as is apparent from Sempre en Galiza and other of his writings.

Views on the Galician language

Although Castelao ( Spanish and Galician ) was bilingual, he wrote and published almost exclusively in Galician language. As an advocate of the Galician language and culture, he looked at the language as a link of the Galician people. He criticized the imposition of the Spanish language in Galicia and demanded Galician should be the official language and thus the preferred language in administration and education.

Castelao stressed that the Galician and Portuguese language not only have a common origin, but would also have a common future. Thus he took a similar perspective as the later Reintegrationisten. In his travels through Portugal and Brazil, he appeared surprised at how easily he was able to communicate with speakers of Portuguese with his Galician language. Nevertheless, he never used the Portuguese orthography.

Selected Works

• Cego because romería (1913 )
• Diario ( 1921)
• Un ollo de vidro (1922 )
• Memorias dun esquelete (1922 )
• Cousas (1926, 1929)
• Cincoenta homes por dec reas (1930 )
• As cruces de pedra na Bretaña (1930 )
• Nós (1931 )
• Retrincos (1934 )
• Galicia Mártir (1937 )
• Atila en Galicia (1937 )
• Milicianos (1938 )
• Sempre en Galiza (1944 )
• Os Vellos non deben de namorarse (1941 listed piece, published posthumously in 1953 )
• As cruces de pedra na Galiza (1950 posthumously published)