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obtained while he was still in Spain, he was
able to secure a place for himself in papal
service, eventually governing, successively,
Ravenna and Bologna. He died at an
advanced age in his native town, Piacenza,
his brief but significant role in Spanish his-
tory long since past.
viewed from his native Cádiz and marked
him as a rising poet. Among the poetical
works that he published in subsequent
years, perhaps the most striking was
Sobre
los ángeles
(About the angels, 1929), which
showed surrealist influences. As a member
of the Generation of '27, he never ceased to
assert his idealistic vision for a new and bet-
ter Spain in his plays, such as
Noche de guerra
en el Museo del Prado
(Night of war at the
Prado Museum, 1935), and his autobio-
graphical writings, which included
La
arboleda perdida
(The lost grove). When he
died in 1999 he was the last survivor of that
generation, but he had lived long enough
to see the birth of a truly democratic
Spain.
Alberti, Rafael
(1902-1996)
Spanish poet
A native of C
ÁDIZ
, Alberti shared his friend
F
EDERICO
G
ARCÍA
L
ORCA
's passion for the
landscape and environment of A
NDALUSIA
.
Some critics consider these two the finest
lyric poets of modern Spain. They were part
of a group of poets and other intellectuals
known as the G
ENERATION
OF
'27 that gath-
ered in M
ADRID
in the years just before the
proclamation of the republic and dedicated
themselves to a new cultural direction for
their country. Alberti defended the Second
Republic during the S
PANISH
C
IVIL
W
AR
both
as a combatant and a writer of propagandis-
tic material. After the triumph of F
RANCISCO
F
RANCO
, Alberti chose exile, living in vari-
ous countries until settling in Rome, where
he and his wife, also a writer, maintained a
rendez-vous for Spanish expatriates
opposed to the dictatorship. Alberti returned
to Spain in 1977 and was elected as a Com-
munist member of the legislature. He soon
gave up this political post to devote himself
to public poetry reading. The literary awards
that were conferred upon him, including
the Cervantes Prize and the National The-
ater Prize (1980), were a recognition of cul-
tural achievements that transcended any
lingering political antagonisms.
Alberti's
Marinero en tierra
(Sailor on
land), published when he was only 23,
reflected his enduring love for the sea as
Albuquerque, Afonso de
(1453-1515)
Portuguese admiral and colonial
administrator
After a naval-military career, including bat-
tles with the Turks in the Mediterranean,
Albuquerque was dispatched by King M
AN
-
UEL
I to be his viceroy in Portuguese Asia.
Arriving in the Indian Ocean, he asserted
Portuguese control over the rulers of south-
ern Arabia but failed to establish his author-
ity on arriving in India. After spending a
year in confinement (1508-09), he was lib-
erated upon the arrival of a fleet from Lis-
bon and installed as viceroy. In a brilliant
series of campaigns he conquered G
OA
,
which was to become the center of the Por-
tuguese Empire in Asia; the great island of
Ceylon; the strategic straits of Malacca; and
the Sunda Islands, key to the Eastern spice
trade. By capturing Hormuz at the entrance
to the Persian Gulf, he further disrupted
Arab attempts to challenge Portugal's new
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