Rafael Pérez Estrada is a Spanish poet and artist, who shares the house with Gerald Brenan

Imagen http://es.biblioteca-virtual.wikia.com/wiki/Rafael_P%C3%A9rez_Estrada

Pérez Estrada was born in Málaga, Spain on February 16, 1934 and died on May 22, 2000. He was the son of the general physician and Mayor of Málaga City: Manuel Pérez Bryán (1943 and 1947), and the famous painter "naïf" Mari Pepa Estrada.

He left Málaga to study law at the University of Granada, (1954), this training would allow him to work as a lawyer with great prestige. In 1959 he went to Madrid where he would combine his professional work with painting and poetry. In 1960 he returns to Málaga definitively. In 1968 appears his first book Valle de los Galanes, this work is followed by numerous titles of theater, poetry and narrative of vanguard. Some of the most important books are El Libro de los Reyes, El Levitador y su Vértigo, La Ciudad Velada etc. His drawings illustrate many literary editions and the letters he sent to his friends. Part of his work can be visited at the Foundation's headquarters in Casa Gerald Brenan (Churriana, Málaga). There is a permanent exhibition, which runs throughout the year.

http://www.diariosur.es/culturas/201602/01/perez-estada-instala-casa-20160201140412.html

His characters are angels, animals (horses, birds, fish, swans or tigers), or hybrid beings (centaurs, sirens). We can read and see different elements: fish, glasses of ice cream, cava or champagne, etc. These glasses are the symbol of the joy of living and sharing in a dreamy and surrealistic world. The title of the exhibition, "Annunciation of the eye" is taken from one of the 49 works on display. It is a reinterpretation of "The Heart Takes Control" that the Municipal Book Institute organized in 2012 in the Municipal Archive, where the writer's legacy is still preserved.

Anunciación del Ojo http://www.fundacionrafaelperezestrada.com/

Imagen http://www.diariosur.es/v/20120506/cultura/rafael-perez-estrada-artista-20120506.html

There is a bronze sculpture based on this drawing of his "quiromántica dove"

(Half bird, half open hand), on a marble pedestal. It was placed in 2001, it is a work of José Seguiri in homage to the poet on the anniversary of his death, and is located near the artist's home in the city center.

Pérez Estrada participated very actively in key events of the social and cultural life of Málaga, among others, in the creation of the Social Council of the University of Málaga. He said in his speech as Favourite Son of Málaga: "Málaga is the city of joy and happiness." 

Before his death, Rafael Pérez Estrada was one of the leading figures of avant-garde poetry and narrative in Spain. 

References

Pérez Estrada, R.(1968). Valle de los Galanes. A. Caffarena (Ed.). Málaga: El Guadalhorce, Dardo
Pérez Estrada, R.(1990). Libro de los Reyes (y obra poética 1985-1989). Prólogo M. Alvar. Barcelona: Anthropos.
Pérez Estrada, R.(2000). El Levitador y su Vértigo. Madrid: Carambuco.
Pérez Estrada, R.(1989). La Ciudad Velada. Málaga: Colegio de Arquitectos.
[Recuperado 26/03/2017] http://www.todocoleccion.net/libros/la-ciudad-velada-rafael-perez-estrada-jose-sanchez-ponce~x51260515
[Recuperado 26/03/2017] http://www.fundacionrafaelperezestrada.com/index.php/bibliografia/
[Recuperado 26/03/2017] https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_P%C3%A9rez_Estrada
[Recuperado 26/03/2017] http://es.biblioteca-virtual.wikia.com/wiki/Rafael_P%C3%A9rez_Estrada
[Recuperado 26/03/2017] http://www.diariosur.es/v/20120506/cultura/rafael-perez-estrada-artista-20120506.html

Hemingway in Churriana, Málaga (Summer of 1959)

Gamel Woolsey, Ernest Hemingway y Gerald Brenan en 1959

Imagen http://ccaa.elpais.com/ccaa/2014/10/28/andalucia/1414516900_071517.html

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American writer and journalist. He was born near Chicago on 21 July, 1899. In 1920, he moved to Toronto, Canada and started his first job with The Toronto Star, finally becoming a foreign correspondent. He then moved to Paris with his first wife, Hadley Richardson (he got married four times), joining a group of American expatriates that became known as “The Lost Generation” in the art world. It was here that he met the writers John Dos Passos, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, etc.

He published The Sun Also Rises in 1926. It became a best-seller. The story follows a journey from the nightlife of 1920s in Paris to the bullfighting rings of Spain with a group of expatriates. It is an age of spiritual dissolution. The disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation. Hemingway first travelled to Spain in 1923. It was then that he experienced “the running of the bulls: encierro", it is part of the Fiesta de San Fermin in Pamplona. The trip began his love affair with bullfighting.

http://www.andalucia.com/festival/sanfermin.htm

 https://www.amazon.com/Sun-Also-Rises-Ernest-Hemingway/dp/0743297334

This passion would be immortalised in his novel, Death in the Afternoon (1932). It reflects Hemingway's belief that bullfighting is more than sport, it is an art. A contemplation on the nature of cowardice, bravery and tragedy.

https://www.amazon.es/Death-Afternoon-Ernest-Hemingway/dp/0684801450

Hemingway returned to Spain in 1937 as a correspondent to cover the Spanish Civil War. These Spanish experiences served for the novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). The Old Man and the Sea (1951) made Hemingway an international celebrity, and won the Pulitzer Prize in May 1952. In October 1954, Hemingway received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

In 1959, he decided to return to Spain to chronicle what was known as "a mano a mano" (hand to hand) for Life Magazine. Eventually it was published as The Dangerous Summer in 1985 after his death. It describes the rivalry of two Spanish matadors and their competition in one season of bullfights. The two men were the veteran Luis Miguel Dominguín (lover of Ava Gardner, Rita Hayworth, etc.) and his opponent, Antonio Ordóñez (brothers-in-law). During a rest in the fighting, they came to stay in Churriana, Málaga, at the mansion (La Cónsula), where Hemingway had been invited to spend the summer by his friend, Bill Davies.

https://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Summer-Ernest-Hemingway/dp/0684837897

Bill y Mary Davis celebrated extraordinar parties. Champagne from France and food from London were flown in. There were also fireworks, carnival booths, and a live orchestra. Hemingway woud be 60 years old that summer of 1959 and it would be the last one in Spain. The writer’s mental and physical health would rapidly deteriorate of the next months, he would become paranoid, and he would attempt suicide a number of times. He finally shot himself on 2 July, 1961.

Sources

[Recuperado 19 de marzo 2017] <http://www.ernest-hemingway.info/page10.htm>
Owen, T.  Hemingway's Last Birthday in Andalucia. En andalucia.com.
[Recuperado 19 de marzo 2017] <http://www.andalucia.com/history/people/hemingway.htm>
[Recuperado 19 de marzo 2017] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Hemingway>

Gamel Woolsey (compañera de Brenan) fue una poetisa y novelista estadounidense

-Retrato original María José González-

Elizabeth Gammell Woolsey (28 de mayo de 1895) nació en Carolina del Sur, acortó su nombre a "Gamel: vieja". Su padre era un cultivador de algodón, la madre de Gamel fue la segunda esposa de su padre. Después de la muerte del padre, la familia se mudó a Charleston, donde Gamel creció y fue a la escuela.

Cuando era una adolescente, enfermó de tuberculosis. A pesar de su débil salud, Woolsey abandonó la casa familiar para ir a Nueva York, quería ser actriz o escritora. Su primer poema apareció en el New York Evening Post en 1922. Pero conoció a un periodista de Nueva Zelanda, y se casó con él (Rex Hunter). Despúes descubrió que no tenía nada en común con su marido. Así que se separaron después de cuatro años.

En 1927, mientras vivía en Greenwich Village, entró en contacto con el escritor John Cowper Powys y, a través de él, con su hermano Llewelyn y  su esposa, Alyse Gregory. Gamel y Alyse se hicieron amigas para toda la vida, mientras que con Llewelyn, Gamel tuvo una dolorosa relación amorosa.

Gamel salió de Nueva York para Inglaterra en 1929, estableciéndose en Dorset para estar cerca de Powys, donde encontró, en 1930, a Gerald Brenan. El escritor hispanista se enamoró de sus poemas (Middle Earth) y de su novela (One Way of Love). Más tarde, se fueron a vivir juntos, principalmente en España. Aunque su unión no fue un problema para sostener, ambos, otras relaciones íntimas. Gamel no podía tener hijos. Así pues, adoptaron a la hija de Brenan, Miranda (Juliana, su madre, era una muchacha joven que había trabajado como asistenta en la casa de Brenan en Yegen).

Gamel fue la compañera de viaje perfecta para Brenan. Aunque pasó gran parte de su tiempo escribiendo a máquina y colaborando en los manuscritos de Brenan, consiguió encontrar algún espacio para sus propias obras. Death's Other Kingdom en 1939 (reeditada como "Málaga  en llamas" en 1998 por Pythia Press), One Way of Love había sido aceptada por Gollancz en 1930, pero no publicada por su sexualidad explícita, finalmente salió en Virago Press en 1987. También, Gamel tradujo una novela del escritor español Benito Pérez Galdós, La de Bringas, al inglés, como The Spendthrifts, así como una colección de Cuentos españoles en 1944. Sus colecciones de poemas han sido publicadas, así como su obra Patterns on the Sand por The Sundial Press en 2012.

Gamel murió de cáncer, a los setenta y tres años en Churriana (1968), Málaga. Fue enterrada en el Cementerio Inglés de Málaga. Ahora, descansa junto a Gerald Brenan, quien inscribió en la lápida de su tumba estas palabras de la canción de Cymbeline, que a ella le gustaba: "No temas más el calor del sol / Ni el furor del invierno".


Fuentes bibliográficas:

Woolsey, G. (1939): Death’s Other Kingdom. London: Longman’s.
- (1988): F. Partridge (Introduction): Death’s Other Kingdom. London: Virago Press Limited.
- (1994): El otro reino de la muerte (A. Torre Villalba y F.J. Díaz Chicano, trad.). Málaga: Ágora.
Ozieblo, B. (2003). Gamel Woolsey: Thwarted Ambitions. La lettre powysienne. Número 5, pp.38-43.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamel_Woolsey

Gamel Woolsey (Brenan´s partner) was an American poetess and novelist

  -Retrato original María José González-

Elizabeth Gammell  Woolsey (May 28, 1895) was born in South Carolina. She shortened her name to Gamel: old. Her father was a cotton planter. Gamel's mother was her father's second wife. After he died, the family moved to Charleston, where Gamel grew up and went to school.

When she was a teenager, she developed  tuberculosis. Despite her weak health, Woolsey left home for New York City, she wanted to be an actress or a writer. Her first published poem appeared in the New York Evening Post in 1922. But she met Rex Hunter, a journalist from New Zealand. Gamel married him. She soon found that she had nothing in common with her husband. So, they separated after four years.

In 1927, while she was living in  Greenwich Village, she came into contact with the writer John Cowper Powys and his family, his brother Llewelyn and his sister in law, Alyse Gregory. Gamel and Alyse became friends for life, but  Gamel had a painful love affair with Llewelyn.

Gamel left New York for England in 1929. She was settling in Dorset to be near Powys, when she came to meet, in 1930,  Gerald Brenan. The Hispanist writer fell in love with her poems and her novel One Way of Love.  Later, they went to live together, mainly in Spain. Gamel was the perfect travelling companion for Brenan. Although the union was not a problem to sustain other intimate relationships to both sides. They did not have any children. So, they adopted Brenan's daughter, Miranda (Juliana, her mother, was a young girl who had worked as a servant in Brenan's house in Yegen). 

Gamel spent much of her time typing out Brenan's manuscripts, but she managed to find some space for her own works. Death's Other Kingdom in 1939 (re-released as "Malaga Burning" in 1998 by Pythia Press), One Way of Love  had been accepted by Gollancz in 1930, but suppressed at the last minute because of its sexual explicitness. In the end, it was published by Virago Press in 1987.Furthermore, she translated a novel by Benito Pérez Galdós into English, as The Spendthrifts, as well as a collection of Spanish  Fairy Stories in 1944. Her Collected Poems have been published after her death. Her novel Patterns on the Sand was published by The Sundial Press in 2012 and it recalls her South Carolina adolescence.

Gamel died in Spain in 1968. She was seventy-three years old  and was buried at the English Cemetery, Málaga. Now, she is next to Brenan's grave, who outlived her by almost twenty years. Brenan inscribed on the stone of her grave some words of the song from Cymbeline. Gamel had been fond of it: "Fear no more the heat o’ the sun/Nor winter’s furious rages."


Bibliographical sources

Woolsey, G. (1939): Death’s Other Kingdom. London: Longman’s.
- (1988): F. Partridge (Introduction): Death’s Other Kingdom. London: Virago Press Limited.
- (1994): El otro reino de la muerte (A. Torre Villalba y F.J. Díaz Chicano, trad.). Málaga: Ágora.
Ozieblo, B. (2003). Gamel Woolsey: Thwarted Ambitions. La lettre powysienne. Número 5, pp.38-43.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamel_Woolsey

Larios, en Málaga, es más que una famosa calle que nos recuerda una ginebra

La familia Larios estuvo formada por empresarios y políticos que, junto a los Heredia y Loring, representan el poderoso desarrollo industrial malagueño en el siglo XIX. 

El panteón de los Marqueses de Larios (1877) en el Cementerio Histórico San Miguel de Málaga compite en altura con otros panteones ilustres.

La familia Larios. de origen riojano, llega a Andalucía en busca de fortuna en vísperas de la guerra de la Independencia (1808 - 1814): Pablo Larios (viudo) y sus cuatro hijos se establecen en dos grupos, el gaditano (de Cádiz a Gibraltar) y el malagueño. La familia practica matrimonios de conveniencia, muchos de ellos entre parientes. 

La saga noble la inicia Martín Larios Herreros (Logroño, 1798 - París, 1873), quien funda, junto con Manuel Heredia la fundición "La Constancia". También, es uno de los impulsores de la empresa textil y de la utilización de la caña para obtener azúcar entre Motril y Vélez Málaga. Trabaja en obras hidráulicas en la provincia de Málaga, incluida las canalización de ríos como el Genal y Guadiaro. Es nombrado Marqués por Isabel II en 1865 como premio a sus méritos laborales. 

Manuel Domingo Larios y Larios (Málaga, 1836 - París, 1895), hijo del anterior y segundo Marqués de Larios, estudia ingeniería en París y a su regreso a Málaga administrará las empresas familiares. Como su padre, interviene en política, es diputado y luego senador hasta su muerte al servicio del partido conservador, consolidando un importante cacicato en el distrito de Torrox (Axarquía). Soltero, muere sin descendencia. Frente a la casa que fue de la familia Larios y junto a la Alameda en Málaga se levanta un monumento en su honor, por su contribución a la reforma urbanística de la ciudad, de la que será muestra la calle principal de la ciudad que lleva el nombre de la familia Larios. La familia será impulsora del Banco de Málaga y del ferrocarril Málaga-Córdoba, y sus miembros se convertirán en grandes terratenientes, con miles de hectáreas de terrenos en la Axarquía y el litoral granadino. 

José Aurelio Larios y Larios (Madrid, 1869 - Madrid, 1934),  tercer Marqués de Larios y segundo Marqués de Guadiaro. Heredó los títulos nobiliarios y acumuló las herencias de su abuelo, de su padre, de su tío Manuel Domingo, (el segundo marqués muerto sin descendencia), y de su tío-abuelo Carlos Larios y Martínez de Tejada, de quien recibió el título de marqués de Guadiaro, otorgado por Alfonso XII en 1875. Por su abuela materna, recibe la Compañía Larios Hermanos, de Gibraltar, de modo que el tercer marqués, José Aurelio, adquirió la representación de las Casas de Málaga y Gibraltar. José Aurelio Larios y Larios estudia en Inglaterra y en España (Derecho), luego se incorpora a las empresas familiares e interviene también en política. Compra las bodegas Jiménez Lamothe y en el año 1933 (Larios, S.A.) incorpora a sus elaborados la ginebra, que ha hecho popular el apellido Larios por todo el mundo.  En la actualidad la marca es conocida como "Gin Larios", aunque la ginebra pasó a manos de grandes compañías internacionales en los años 90. 

Larios tiene en Málaga presencia activa. Hoy en día, los descendientes de la familia adaptándose a los nuevos tiempos han diversificado su actividad y las antiguas explotaciones de caña de azúcar (caña dulce: "cañadú") se han convertido en diferentes cultivos, entre los que destacan los aguacates, además de haber creado una importante empresa inmobiliaria.

Fuente:

Sesmero, J.(1985). Paseo romántico por la Málaga comercial. Málaga: Bobastro, D.L. 

Virginia Woolf according to Brenan, (born January 25, 1882, London, England—died March 28, 1941, near Rodmell, Sussex)

Virginia Woolf, original name in full Adeline Virginia Stephen (born January 25, 1882, London, England—died March 28, 1941, near Rodmell, Sussex). Virginia Woolf was born into a privileged English household, she was raised by free-thinking parents and educated by private tutors. She also  copiously read from her father’s vast library of literary classics. But later, Virginia resented the degradation of women in a patriarchal society, rebuking her own father for automatically sending her brothers to schools and university, while she was never offered a formal education. 

She began writing as a young girl and published her first novel, The Voyage Out, in 1915. She wrote modernist classics including Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando and The Waves, as well as pioneering feminist works, A Room of One's Own and Three Guineas. 

In her personal life, she suffered bouts of deep depression. She committed suicide in 1941, at the age of 59. http://www.biography.com/people/virginia-woolf-9536773#synopsis

The first thing Brenan came to his mind when he used to think of Virginia was her beauty:

Although her face was too long for symmetry, its bones were thin and delicately made, and her eyes were large, grey or greyish blue, and as clear as a hawk´s. To appreciate Virginia Woolf´s brilliance as a talker, one had to see her in her own circle of friends (called Bloomsbury because of the district where they used to live). They formed part of "an intellectual aristocracy". It was a regular custom for five or six of these to meet every week after dinner, and usually one or two of the younger generation would be invited to be present. In that capacity Brenan went several times. What “Bloomsbury” evenings offered was the concert in which each talked, to produce himself and to draw the best out of others. Virginia talked as she wrote. Irony plays a great and important part in her writings. When Brenan saw her in a reflective or dreamy mood  he recognized only a little less slowly the authoress of To the Lighthouse. When she was working on The Waves, she told him that her difficulty lay in stopping the flow of her pen, but the secret was constant revision and correction. Virginia possessed those rare imaginative gifts that are known as genius. For a young writer even a slight acquaintance with such a group of people was an education. Yet it must be admitted that they lived in an ivory tower, their smug Cambridge philosophy. Although Virginia Woolf, the most open-minded, was tied to them by her family.  A class and mode of life that was dying (Brenan, 1963).

Bibliographic source

Brenan, G. (1963). South from Granada. London: Penguin Books.
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/15567/south-from-granada/
http://www.biography.com/people/virginia-woolf-9536773#synopsis