Editing Miguel Hernández

{{short description|Spanish poet and playwright}}
{{Other people}}
{{family name hatnote|Hernández|Gilabert|lang=Spanish}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Miguel Hernández
| image            = Miguel hernandez.jpg
| alt              = Miguel Hernández
| caption          = Hernández in 1939
| language         = [[Spanish language|Spanish]]
| birth_name       = Miguel Hernández Gilabert
| birth_date       = {{birth date|df=yes|1910|10|30}}
| birth_place      = [[Orihuela]], [[Spain]]
| death_date       = {{death date and age|df=yes|1942|3|28|1910|10|30}}
| death_place      = [[Alicante]], [[Spain]]
| nationality      = Spanish
| influences       = 
| influenced       = 
| occupation       = [[Poet]], [[playwright]]
| periodo          = 
| genre            = [[Poetry]]
| movement         = [[Generation of '27]]<br />[[Generation of '36]]
| notableworks     = ''[[El rayo que no cesa]]''<br>'' [[Viento del pueblo (Poesía en la guerra)|Viento del pueblo]]''<br>''[[El hombre acecha]]''<br>''Cancionero y romancero de ausencias''
| spouse           = [[Josefina Manresa]] <small>(1916–1987)</small>
| children         = Manuel Ramón <small>(1937–1938)</small><br />Manuel Miguel <small>(1939–1984)</small>
| influencias      = 
| influyó          = 
| signature        = Miguel_Hernandez_firma.svg
}}

'''Miguel Hernández Gilabert''' (30 October 1910 – 28 March 1942<ref name=IC1>{{cite web|url=http://www.cervantes.es/bibliotecas_documentacion_espanol/biografias/manila_miguel_hernandez.htm|title=Miguel Hernández. Biografía|publisher=[[Instituto Cervantes]]|language=Spanish|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170301235714/http://www.cervantes.es/bibliotecas_documentacion_espanol/biografias/manila_miguel_hernandez.htm|date=n.d.|archive-date=1 March 2017|access-date=14 May 2017}}
</ref><ref name=IC2>{{cite web|url=http://cvc.cervantes.es/literatura/escritores/m_hernandez/cronologia.htm|title=1910 - 1942. Cronología. Miguel Hernández|publisher=[[Instituto Cervantes]]|language=Spanish|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160714034230/http://cvc.cervantes.es/literatura/escritores/m_hernandez/cronologia.htm|date=|archive-date=14 July 2016|access-date=14 May 2017}}</ref>) was a 20th-century [[Spanish language|Spanish-language]] poet and playwright associated with the [[Generation of '27]] and the [[Generation of '36]] movements. Born and raised in a family of low resources, he was self-taught in what refers to literature, and struggled against an unfavourable environment to build up his intellectual education, such as a father who physically abused him for spending time with books instead of working, and who took him out of school as soon as he finished his primary education. At school, he became a friend of Ramón Sijé, a well-educated boy who lent and recommended books to Hernández, and whose death would inspire his most famous poem, ''Elegy''.

Hernández died of [[tuberculosis]], imprisoned due to his active participation on the [[Spanish Civil War|Republican side of the civil war]]. His last book, ''[[:es:Cancionero y romancero de ausencias|Cancionero y romancero de ausencias]]'', was published after his death, and is a collection of the poems he wrote in prison, some written in rudimentary pieces of toilet paper, others preserved in letters to his wife, is considered one of the finest pieces of Spanish poetry of the 20th century.

==Biography==
Hernández was born in [[Orihuela]], [[Alicante]], 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]].<ref name="Poetry">{{cite web |url=http://users.adelphia.net/~fvila/Spain/poetry.htm |title=Poetry |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080101093800/http://users.adelphia.net/~fvila/Spain/poetry.htm |archive-date=1 January 2008 |work=Adelphia |language=es |access-date=2 August 2018}}</ref>  He was introduced to literature by friend Ramón Sijé. As a youth, Hernández greatly admired the [[Spanish Baroque literature|Spanish Baroque]] lyric [[poet]] [[Luis de Góngora]], who was an influence in his early works.<ref name="Poetry"/> Shaped by both [[Spanish Golden Age|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.<ref name=r1/> Though Hernández employed novel images and concepts in his verses, he never abandoned classical, popular rhythms and rhymes. A member of the [[Communist Party of Spain]], Hernández was a member of the Fifth Regiment at the start of the [[Spanish Civil War]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Thomas |first1=Hugh |title=The Spanish Civil War |date=2012 |publisher=Penguin Books |location=London |isbn=978-0-141-01161-5 |page=678 |edition=50th Anniversary}}</ref> and served in the 11th Division during the [[Battle of Teruel]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Beevor |first1=Antony |title=The Battle for Spain |date=2006 |publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |location=London |isbn=978-0-7538-2165-7 |page=353}}</ref> He campaigned for the [[Second Spanish Republic|Republic]] during the war, writing poetry and addressing troops deployed to the front.<ref name=":1" />

During the Civil War, on the 9 March 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). Josefina died on 18 February 1987 at age 71 in [[Elche]], [[Alicante]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://elpais.com/diario/1987/02/19/cultura/540687607_850215.html |title=Josefina Manresa, viuda de Miguel Hernández, muere a los 71 años |date=19 February 1987 |access-date=18 August 2016 |newspaper=[[El País]] |language=es |first=Joaquim |last=Genis |location=Alicante |publisher=Prisa}}</ref>

Unlike others, he could not escape [[Spain]] after the Republican surrender and was arrested multiple times after the war for his [[anti-fascism|anti-fascist]] sympathies. He was tried in 1939, along with [[Eduardo de Guzmán]] and 27 others, accused of being a communist commissar and of writing poems harmful to the Francoist cause.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Preston |first1=Paul |title=The Spanish Holocaust |date=2013 |publisher=Harper Press |location=London |isbn=978-0-00-638695-7 |page=485}}</ref> He was eventually [[death penalty|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. He suffered [[pneumonia]] in [[Palencia]] prison, [[bronchitis]] in [[Ocaña, Spain|Ocaña]] prison<ref>Beevor (2006) p.451</ref> and eventually succumbed to [[typhus]] and [[tuberculosis]] in 1942 <ref>{{cite book |last=Beevor |first=Antony |author-link=Antony Beevor |year=2006 |title=The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939 |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/battleforspainsp00anto/page/406 406] |isbn=014303765X |url=https://archive.org/details/battleforspainsp00anto|url-access=registration }}</ref> in [[Alicante]] gaol.<ref>Thomas (2012) p.904</ref> 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.''<ref name="Poetry"/> Some of his verses were kept by his jailers.

While in prison, Hernández produced an extraordinary amount of poetry, much of it in the form of simple songs, which the poet collected in his papers and sent to his wife and others.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}} These poems are now known as his ''Cancionero y romancero de ausencia'' (''Songs and Ballads of Absence''). In these works, the poet writes not only of the tragedy of the Spanish Civil War and his own incarceration, but also of the death of an infant son and the struggle of his wife and another son to survive in poverty. The intensity and simplicity of the poems, combined with the extraordinary situation of the poet, give them remarkable power.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Infante |first=Alberto |date=2017-04-29 |title=Miguel Hernández: 'Cancionero y romancero de ausencias' |url=https://www.entreletras.eu/letras/miguel-hernandez-cancionero-y-romancero-de-ausencias/ |access-date=2022-08-08 |website=Entreletras |language=es}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Grande |first=Felix |date=2005-04-24 |title=Cancionero y romancero de ausencias |work=El Pais |url=https://elpais.com/diario/2005/04/24/cultura/1114293610_850215.html |access-date=2022-08-08}}</ref>

Perhaps Hernández's best known poem is "Nanas de la cebolla" ("Onion Lullaby"), a reply in verse to a letter from his wife in which she informed him that she was surviving on bread and onions.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gigena |first=Daniel |date=2022-03-28 |title=De pastor de cabras a su muerte en prisión, vida y obra de Miguel Hernández, figura clave de la literatura española |url=https://www.lanacion.com.ar/cultura/de-pastor-de-cabras-a-su-muerte-en-prision-vida-y-obra-de-miguel-hernandez-figura-clave-de-la-nid28032022/ |access-date=2022-08-20 |website=La Nación |language=es}}</ref><ref name="IC2" /> In the poem, the poet envisions his son breastfeeding on his mother's onion blood (''sangre de cebolla''), and uses the child's laughter as a counterpoint to the mother's desperation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Don Share on Miguel Hernández's "Lullaby of the Onion" |url=https://poetrysociety.org/features/in-their-own-words/don-share-on-miguel-hern%C3%A1ndez |access-date=2022-08-20 |website=Poetry Society of America |language=en}}</ref> In this as in other poems, the poet turns his wife's body into a mythic symbol of desperation and hope, of regenerative power desperately needed in a broken Spain.

In July 2010 the poet's family filed a lawsuit in the [[Supreme Court of Spain|Spanish Supreme Court]] in which they asked  for his guilty verdict (for his supposed crime of left wing sympathies), to be annulled. In 1939 he had been condemned to death as "an extremely dangerous and despicable element to all good Spaniards." [[Francisco Franco|Franco]] later reduced the sentence so that he would not become an international martyr, as [[Federico García Lorca|García Lorca]] did. In March 2010 the family had a posthumous "declaration of reparation" from the Spanish government, but, his daughter-in-law Lucía Izquierdo said: "We want something more, that they void the death sentence.. that they hand down a ruling of innocent". Lawyers for the poet's family had new evidence, a 1939 letter from a fascist military official, Juan Bellod, testifying to his innocence. "I have known Miguel Hernández since he was a boy", the letter began. "He is a person with an impeccable past, generous sentiments and deep religious and humanist training, but whose excessive sensitivity and poetic temperament have led him to act in accordance with the passion of the moment rather than calm, firm will. I fully guarantee his behaviour and his patriotic and religious fervour. I do not believe that he is, at heart, an enemy of [[Movimiento Nacional|our Glorious Movement]]".<ref name=r1>{{cite news |first=Anita |last=Brooks |date=10 July 2010 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/family-of-spains-dead-great-poet-hernandez-want-name-cleared-2023168.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220514/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/family-of-spains-dead-great-poet-hernandez-want-name-cleared-2023168.html |archive-date=2022-05-14 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Family of Spain's dead great poet Hernandez want name cleared |access-date=15 December 2013 |newspaper=[[The Independent]]}}</ref>

==Works==
The poet's works include:

===Poetry===
* ''Perito en lunas'' (''Lunar expert'', 1933)<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Miguel Hernández |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/miguel-hernandez |access-date=2022-08-19 |website=Poetry Foundation |language=en}}</ref>
* ''Imagen de tu huella'' (1934)<ref name="IC1" />
* ''El rayo que no cesa'' (''Unceasing Lightning'', 1936)<ref name=":1" />
* ''Viento del pueblo'' (1937)<ref name=":1" />
* ''El hombre acecha'' (1939)<ref name=":1" />
* ''Cancionero y romancero de ausencias'' (incomplete, 1938–1942)<ref name=":0" />
* ''El silbo vulnerado'' (''The Injured Whistle'', 1939)<ref name=":1" />

===Drama===
* ''Quién te ha visto y quién te ve y sombra de lo que eras'' (If only they could see you now, and shadow of what you were, 1934), an [[Autos sacramentales|auto sacramental]]<ref name="IC2" /> that mimics [[Pedro Calderón de la Barca|Calderón]] ones.
* ''El torero más valiente'' (The Bravest Bullfighter, 1934) dedicated to [[Ignacio Sánchez Mejías]], published in 1986.<ref>{{Cite web |title=El torero más valiente; La tragedia de Calisto ; Otras prosas / Miguel Hernández |url=http://www.blr.larioja.org/content/el-torero-m%C3%A1s-valiente-la-tragedia-de-calisto-otras-prosas-miguel-hern%C3%A1ndez |access-date=2022-08-19 |website=Biblioteca de La Rioja |language=es}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Rodríguez |first=Quetzal |date=2019-12-06 |title=Teatro: "El torero más valiente" |url=https://www.altoromexico.com/index.php?acc=noticiadprint&id=36168 |access-date=2022-08-19 |website=Al Toro México |language=es}}</ref>
* ''Hijos de la piedra'' (The sons of the stone, 1935)<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=El labrador de más aire |url=http://www.blr.larioja.org/content/el-labrador-de-m%C3%A1s-aire#:~:text=Esta%20obra%20de%20Miguel%20Hern%C3%A1ndez,sus%20condiciones%20y%20sus%20derechos. |access-date=2022-08-19 |website=Biblioteca de La Rioja |language=es}}</ref>
* ''El labrador de más aire'' ([[The farmer of more air]], 1937)<ref name=":2" />
* ''Teatro en la guerra'' (War theatre, 1937)<ref name="IC2" />
* ''Pastor de la muerte'' (Death's shepherd, 1937)<ref name="IC2" />

===Anthologies===
*''The Selected Poems of Miguel Hernández'' (2001), translated by [[Ted Genoways]], [[Robert Bly]], [[Philip Levine (poet)|Philip Levine]], [[Edwin Honig]] and others. {{ISBN|978-0226327730}}.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Garcia Groyon |first=Vicente |date=2010 |title=100 Years of Miguel Hernández |url=https://www.themantle.com/literature/100-years-miguel-hernandez |access-date=2022-08-19 |website=The Mantle}}</ref>

==Legacy==
[[Miguel Hernández University of Elche]], and [[Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport]] are named after him, as is the [[Madrid Metro]] station {{MdM|Miguel Hernández}}, which is decorated with his poetry.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.metromadrid.es/en/news/the-station-of-the-month-miguel-hernandez-in-l1|title=The station of the month: Miguel Hernández, in L1|date=January 31, 2023|website=Metro de Madrid}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Generation of '27]]
* [[Generation of '36]]
* [[Spanish poetry]]
* [[The farmer of more air]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*{{wikiquotelang|es}}
*[http://cvc.cervantes.es/literatura/escritores/m_hernandez/cronologia.htm Miguel Hernández] on Cervantes.es {{in lang|es}}
*[https://sites.google.com/site/nightingalesthatsing/40-poemas/ 40 poems] {{in lang|en|es}}
*[http://www.poemasde.net/poemas-de-miguel-hernandez/ Poems] {{in lang|es}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070929050526/http://www.amigosmiguelhernandez.org/ Association of friends of Miguel Hernández] {{in lang|es}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060911054024/http://www.acamfe.org/acamfe/autor/hernandez_c.htm Hernandian Center of studies and investigation] {{in lang|es}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20061224005113/http://www.miguelhernandezvirtual.com/vida/vida.htm Biography] (site of the Miguel Hernández Foundation) {{in lang|es}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20071001103104/http://www.miguelhernandezvirtual.com/ Miguel Hernández non-profit foundation] {{in lang|es}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070928060527/http://www.elecohernandiano.com/ El Eco Hernandiano] {{in lang|es}}
*[http://www.umh.es/ Miguel Hernández University] {{in lang|es}}
*[http://mhernandez.narod.ru/sobrestesitio.htm More information about the author] {{in lang|es}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20180411002304/http://radiopoesia.com/ Sounds and videos about Miguel Hernandez and his works. Web site about poetry in general. Internet Radio] {{in lang|es}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hernandez, Miguel}}
[[Category:1910 births]]
[[Category:1942 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Orihuela]]
[[Category:20th-century deaths from tuberculosis]]
[[Category:Spanish people of the Spanish Civil War (Republican faction)]]

[[Category:Spanish people who died in prison custody]]
[[Category:Tuberculosis deaths in Spain]]
[[Category:Spanish Civil War prisoners of war]]
[[Category:Spanish prisoners of war]]
[[Category:Prisoners who died in Spanish detention]]
[[Category:Spanish prisoners sentenced to death]]
[[Category:Prisoners sentenced to death by Spain]]
[[Category:Spanish communists]]
[[Category:20th-century Spanish poets]]
[[Category:Spanish communist poets]]
[[Category:Communist Party of Spain politicians]]