Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Conde, Carmen
(1907-1996)
Spanish writer
Already an active teacher and writer by the
time of the S
PANISH
C
IVIL
W
AR
, Conde later
said that the shock and horror of this great
Spanish national trauma lifted her from per-
sistent naïveté to true adulthood. Unlike
many other intellectuals who fled the coun-
try, Conde and her husband, fellow poet
Antonio Oliver Balmas, stayed on in their
country throughout the Franco era. They
refused, she would later declare, to leave the
spoils to the enemy. Her work as an educator
and as the author of more than 50 topics
(primarily of poetry but also including nov-
els, biographies, and a memoir) established
her as an elder stateswoman of Spanish lit-
erature. Her status was recognized by her
induction into the Spanish Royal Academy
in 1978, as its first female member.
Carmen Conde's poetical work spans
more than six decades. Her collections
include
Brocal
from 1929,
Júbilo
(Joy),
Empe-
zando la vida
(Starting to live),
El Arcangel
(The Archangel), and
Mientras los hombres
mueren
(While men are dying), all published
in the 1930s. The two latter ones were
inspired by her own anguish regarding the
Spanish civil war. In 1967 she won the
national prize for literature for her collection
Obra poética
(Poetic work), which includes
the greater part of her writings. Among her
most recent works are
Del obligado dolor
(Enforced pain, 1984),
Por el camino viendo
estrellas
(On the road and looking at the stars,
1985) and
La calle de los balcones azules
(The
street of the blue balconies, 1986).
bus to win support for his original plan
and to carry it to fulfillment in 1492 had
by now made enemies. Just as among set-
tlers in Hispaniola, so at the royal court
there were those who resented the titles
and powers extracted from the Crown by
this foreign-born upstart. With the death
of Queen Isabella in 1504 Columbus lost
his supporter and protector. By the time of
his own death in 1506 Columbus had been
reduced to relative obscurity. His descen-
dants would enjoy the titles of nobility
that he had earned by his achievements,
but the proudest title of all—Admiral of
the Ocean Sea—had become something of
a mockery, and the nominal governorship
of his discoveries was quickly taken over
by royal bureaucrats.
Although Columbus probably died still
believing that he had reached Asia and
that the wonders of the Chinese imperial
palace lay just over the horizon, the cal-
culations that led him to propose the
transatlantic route underestimated the
distance to Asia and failed to anticipate a
vast landmass and a great unknown ocean
that lay between his starting point and his
goal. He had, in fact, discovered the
Americas, although they would later be
named for someone else. To be sure, other
Europeans touched upon the coast of
North America before him, and the Amer-
indian population that had spread from
its Asian point of entry throughout both
North and South America had clearly
been on the ground long before him. Nev-
ertheless, Columbus was the effective dis-
coverer of the Americas, and the New
World to which he had opened the way
became a magnet for European explorers
and the basis for Spain's imperial great-
ness for centuries to come.
Córdoba (Cordova)
Like the other ancient cities of A
NDALU
-
SIA
, Córdoba overwhelms with the sheer
grandeur of its history (and perhaps is
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