Manuel Curros Enríquez was born on 15th, September, 1851 in Celanova (Ourense). He is together with Rosalía de Castro and Eduardo Pondal the great outstanding figure of the “Rexurdimento” in the Galician Literature at the end of the 19th century.

     His work “Aires de miña terra” identifies him as a great civil poet able to combine the social condemnation in favour of the most disadvantaged class, as he shows in some of his poems such as: “As Pragas”, “Nouturnio”, or “Mirando ó chau”. In his poetry he makes an exaltation of the traditional values of the Galician Culture as in: “Unha boda en Einibó”, “O Gaiteiro de Penalba” and specially in “A Virxe do Cristal” where he describes in a masterly way the legend about the apparition of the image of the little Virgin of this place whose shrine is placed in the parish of Vilanova dos Infantes, where his mother, Petra Enríquez, was born.     

But his work goes beyond poetry and focuses on journalism during a great part of his life. He was a prestigious editor of “El País” and the “Gaceta de Madrid”. His informative job led him to work as a war correspondent in the Basque Country during the III Carlist War writing several “Cartas del Norte” which he published in the newspaper “El Imparcial”; after coming back to Galicia for a time as a civil servant in Public Finance in Ourense, he finally travelled to Cuba and he founded in its capital city, La Habana, “La Tierra Gallega”. He also worked for “El Eco de Galicia” and the “Diario de la Marina”.

His stay in that Caribean Isle was very important to promote the setting up of the present Real Academia Galega da Lingua in collaboration with Manuel Murguía and other Galician intellectuals at one side and the other side of the Atlantic Ocean by means of the “Asociación Iniciadora y Protectora de la Academia Gallega”.
     He was persecuted by the Church and the Justice –he was condemned to two years and four months imprisonment in Ourense, in order to be later acquitted in the Audiencia Territorial in A Coruña- because of the publication of several poems of “Aires da Miña Terra”. His ability to connect with people would be recognized in a coronation act as the great civil poet of Galicia in which the main people of the cultural and literary world of Galicia participated at that moment. This act took place in A Coruña, in October, 1904 on the occasion of the last journey he did from La Habana.

    

After his death in the capital city of Cuba on 7th, March, 1908, the Herculean city, which had received him during his life and which remembered and honoured him for more than one of his poetries, took charge of his mortal remains which are buried in the cemetery of San Amaro in A Coruña.

    

• 1851: He is born in Celanova, son of the notary José María de Curros Vázquez and Petra Enríquez.
• 1865: He leaves his home and ends up living in Madrid in the house of Antonio, one of his brothers.
• 1869: He starts studying Law and writes his first poem entitled “Cantiga”.
• 1871: He marries Modesta Vázquez Rodríguez, native from Puebla de Sanabria and daughter of a magistrate in the Audiencia Nacional in Madrid.
• 1873: He incorporates himself in the “Gaceta de Madrid” as an editor starting his journalistic career in this city.
• 1874: He wins a literary contest announced by “El Imparcial” with a work entitled “Oda a la Guerra Civil” which serves him to work in this newspaper.
• 1875: Working in “El Imparcial” he goes to the Basque Country to inform about the details of the III Carlist War. He writes his collaborations entitled “Cartas del Norte” from that place.
• 1877: He wins a literary contest in Ourense promoted by one of his patrons, Modesto Fernández González, with the poems: “A Virxe do Cristal”, “Unha Boda en Einibó” and “O Gaiteiro de Penalta”.
• 1878: He comes back to Ourense where he works as a civil servant in Public Finance.In this city he is given the direction of the newspaper “El Trabajo” and collaborates with “El Heraldo Gallego”.
• 1880: His mother dies and this event inspires him to write a painful poem entitled “Na Morte de Miña Nai”. He publishes his best known book “Aires da Miña Terra” what is banned by the Church and which means to him a civil process. He would be condemned at first in Ourense to a sentence of two years, four months and one day, and a fine of 250 pesetas. Afterwards he would be acquitted by the Audiencia Territorial of A Coruña.
• 1883: He comes back to Madrid and he incorporates himself to work as an editor in “El Porvenir”, going to different media as “El Progreso” or “El País”.
• 1888: He publishes his second book in Galician: “O Divino Sainete”.
• 1893: On the occasion of the foundation of the Centro Gallego in Madrid, the writer is crowned poetically in a honour act that is held in the Teatro de la Comedia in this city.
• 1894: He arrives in Cuba in March and founds the newspaper “La Tierra Gallega” which would be published for two years. He has several problems at this time with the Galician community that accuses him of being a separatist in the face of the Cuban problem, being a strong defender of an autonomy regime for the isle.
• 1896: He works as a proofreader in the “Diario de la Marina” where he achieves important professional success and public recognition. At the same time he starts to feel a critical attitude towards a part of the Galician community in the isle.
• 1904: He decides to come back to Galicia because he suffers from asthma and rheumatism. This year, when he arrives, the city of A Coruña organizes in honour to him an act of poetical coronation, the second one in his life. During his stay in Galicia he keeps in touch with Murguía, Tettamacy and others, who would be the source of the Asociación Iniciadora y Protectora de la Academia Gallega. At this year, in October, after the poetic function, in the Teatro Principal of A Coruña, he goes bak to Cuba.
• 1905: He is elected the president of the Asociación Protectora de la Academia Gallega which would set the basis for the birth of the Real Academia Gallega, the following year.
• 1908: On 7th, March, he dies at the clinic Covadonga of the Centro Asturiano. On 31st, March, his body arrives at A Coruña in which cemetery he is buried in the middle of a popular mass declaration of mourning because of his death at a moment when he is considered the best civil poet of Galicia.

Aires da Miña Terra. Ourense, 1880
O Divino Sainete. A Coruña, 1888
El Maestre de Santiago. Madrid, 1892
Eduardo Chao´s biography. Biographical-political study, Madrid, 1893

Complete Works. Madrid, 1910

 

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