Antonio Otero Seco, the Forgotten Memory of a Spanish Republican Journalist, Literary Critic and Author in Exile

Abstract

The aim of this review is to raise awareness of the crucial importance which lies in rescuing the memory of Antonio Otero Seco, a fine Spanish poet, journalist and literary critic who went into exile after the Spanish Civil War. Due to this circumstance, his memory was progressively forgotten in his home country. He is famous for having made the last interview to Spanish major poet Federico García Lorca, just a few days before he was assassinated in Granada by the Falangist militia. His second greatest achievement was the publication of Gavroche en el Parapeto (1936), the first novel ever written in Spain dealing with the subject of the Spanish Civil War, in collaboration with colonel Elías Palma Ortega. Following the recent publication of the complete poetry of this author in Spain, called Poemas de ausencia y lejanía, published by ‘Libros de la Herida’ from Seville, I believe the perfect moment has come to place Otero Seco back on the spot as one of the greatest Spanish intellectuals of the 20th Century.