Agustín de Foxá and Torroba (1906-1959) was a Spanish writer, novelist, poet, journalist and diplomat. In addition, he was III Count of Foxá and IV Marquis of Armendariz. From a political point of view, the author had a close relationship with José Antonio Primo de Rivera, son of the dictator.
Foxá's work was very striking, originality and creativity being the most outstanding elements of his writings. This was also framed within the current of modernism. The girl with the snail was his first work, however, his most important and renowned writing was Madrid from cut to Czech.
Foxá developed his talent for letters in various genres, including poetry, narrative, theater written in verse, newspaper articles, chronicles and reports. Regarding the theme, it was related to war, love, disloyalty, travel and own experiences.
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Agustín de Foxá was born on February 28, 1906 in Madrid. The writer came from a wealthy family linked to the Spanish nobility. He studied the different levels of his education at the Nuestra Señora del Pilar school, then he studied law..
Shortly after graduating from university, in 1930, Foxá began to live as a diplomat. He was the representative of Spain in Bucharest and Sofia. Through his ability to express himself, he managed to establish good relationships in high society, although at times he was sarcastic and hurtful.
Foxá showed talent for letters at an early age, even at school he published for the school magazine. On a professional level, he began with some collaborations for the printed media such as ABC, The Literary Gazette Y Hero and World.
In 1933 he published his first poetic work entitled The girl with the snail, the prologue and the edition were in charge of Manuel Altolaguirre. In addition, this book was dedicated to the writers María Zambrano and Ramón Gómez de la Serna. The style of the collection of poems was modernist and avant-garde.
Before the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, Agustín de Foxá published his second book, The bull, death and water, in which he showed his affinity with modernism, but belatedly. The foreword to this book was written by his friend Manuel Machado.
When the fight began, he was to be shot for his relationship with the aristocracy. In a letter to his brother, the writer recounted what happened, explained that on July 21 his life was in danger because he was "about to be shot.".
He continued by telling him that in the afternoon his door was slammed violently, the screams and offenses were immediate; "They targeted me," he said.
Agustín de Foxá went to Bucharest, Romania, after the incident; He served as Secretary of the Embassy of the Diplomatic Representation of the Republic. But Foxá had already identified himself with the rebel group that carried out the coup against the Second Republic..
This is how he later held positions in the Falange Foreign Service, which was an entity in charge of organizing and directing political actions outside of Spain. In his capacity as a writer he wrote in Falangist magazines such as Vertex, Hierarchy and was in the direction of the bilingual magazine Legions and Phalanges.
Agustín de Foxá served a good time as a diplomat. After the Spanish Civil War ended he was sent as a representative to Rome. However, in 1940 he was fired because he was considered a spy; then in 1942 he was a diplomat in Helsinki, Finland.
From 1947 to 1950 Foxá did foreign policy in the city of Buenos Aires. At that time he delved into the political and social situation of his native Spain. In addition, he continued to hold conferences, and in some he had to face criticism and opposition from exiled Spaniards..
Between 1949 and 1950 the Franco dictatorship resumed relations with some Latin American countries, including Honduras. It was then when Agustín de Foxá returned to literary activity through his participation in the so-called "poetic mission", together with other Spanish poets they toured various nations.
In the course of 1950 he served as ambassador of Spain in Havana, Cuba. After five years he returned to Spain, and in that year, 1955, he was elected as an academic of the Royal Spanish Academy, but he could not present his words of admission because he died on June 30, 1959.
Agustín de Foxá's literary style was characterized by having a precise and well-elaborated language. In addition, his lyrics enjoyed authenticity and originality. In his poetry there was a presence of the popular and traditional, as well as modernist and avant-garde.
The quality, brilliance and rhythm of his prose writing was similar to that of the poet and writer Del Valle-Inclán. Foxá also presented works with short content on many occasions, but which were loaded with satire, irony and various occurrences..
- The girl with the snail (1933).
- The bull, death and water (1936).
- The almond tree and the sword (1940).
- Poems to Italy.
- Poetic Anthology 1933-1948 (1949).
- The rooster and death (1949).
- Poetry: anthology 1926-1955 (Posthumous edition 2005).
It was Agustín de Foxá's first poetic work, framed within the popular and avant-garde poetic elements of the time. Most of the verses are of the romance type; the author made dedications to various political, intellectual and monarchical personalities of the time.
"Synagogue of fine golds
the bible behind velvets.
Solomon's Triangles
about blind chandeliers.
Wet clothes hanging
on the iron stove
and in the stained glass, hanging
a sad light of crows ".
This work was part of Foxá's poetry, where the author expressed a personal and intimate lyric, often combined with war and heroic acts. The parts that made up the book were: Brief childhood romance, Romantic poems Y Songs of war.
The first two parts refer to nostalgia for the memory of childhood and adolescence in the years before the Civil War. While in the last section, with a forceful language, he talks about the traditions of his country, and makes claims to those who wanted to do it less.
"The sea has other months, different seasons
the may of the flowers never reaches their algae.
Our January that snows the forests, only
sweetly cool the blue skin of the water.
Oh cold pale underwater gardens!
Are you a hell of doomed roses
because adulteresses went to the kiss of the bee,
who raised hives of love, to forget them? ".
- Madrid, from Corte to Czech (1938).
- Mission in Bucharest and other narratives (Two editions: 1965 and 2009).
- Science fiction stories (2009).
It has been one of the most outstanding and acclaimed works of Agustín de Foxá. The novel was developed in times of the Spanish Civil War. This text is, in part, autobiographical, because the author clearly expressed his political position; there are also elements of the monarchy, the Republic and the militia.
The work was structured in three parts; the first was called Lily flowers, which referred to 1931, a historical period in Spain in which the monarchy had disappeared. Irrigation hymn, second part, had to do with the birth of a new Republic.
Finally sickle and hammer, He recounted the incidents that the characters experienced, after the atrocities of the events between 1936 and 1937, when the nation was submerged in chaos, inclement, violence and disrespect. At first, Foixá wanted the work to be a historical series.
“It was no longer only the Falangists, the priests, the military, the aristocrats who fell. Already the wave of blood reached the peaceful bourgeoisie, the thirty-dollar clerks and the non-unionized workers. He was shot for everything, for being from Navarra, for having a fascist face, for simple antipathy ".
- Dance in captaincy (1944).
- Passing people.
- Fall 3006.
It was one of Foxá's plays, it premiered on April 22, 1944 at the Spanish Theater in Madrid. The author structured it in four acts, although the prologue placed it in the middle of the Civil War in 1936, the actions take place between 1872 and 1876 during the Third Carlist War, in the town of Aranjuez.
The play tells the story of Doña Esperanza and her two daughters Elvira and Eugenia, for whom the mother wants a good marriage. However, Eugenia is forced to marry a wealthy old man named Anselmo, but she is madly in love with Luís, a young captain..
- Cui-Ping-Sing (1940).
- The kiss of the sleeping beauty.
- A world without melody (1950).
- On the other shore. Chronicles and impressions of travel in America (1961).
- Select items (2003).
- Nostalgia, intimacy and aristocracy (2003).
- On the banks of the Ladoga (2019).
A proposal to edit your Complete works, went on to publish three volumes of IV. Corresponding to 1963, 1971 and 1976 respectively.
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