Francisco Candel Tortajada (May 31, 1925 in

Casas Altas Casas Altas is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Rincón de Ademuz in the Valencian Community The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth mo ...

– November 23, 2007 in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

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), usually known as well as Paco Candel, was a Valencian-born writer and journalist who lived most of his life in

. He was born in a town of the Spanish-speaking comarca of

Rincón de Ademuz Rincón de Ademuz is a Spanish comarca constituted as an exclave of both the Valencian Community and the Valencia province located between the provinces of Cuenca ( Castile-La Mancha) and Teruel (Aragon). It is part of the Spanish-speaking area in ...

, Valencia. When he was a little child, his family moved to Barcelona. Most of his contributions are devoted to studying the 20th-century Spanish migrations in the Barcelona metropolitan area. The book which made him famous was ''Els altres catalans'' (''The Other Catalans'' in Catalan), a journalistic and sociological study about the immigration, which heavily influenced final decisions of the Assemblea de Catalunya in 1971. He wrote severals novels, tales, essays and articles. He also collaborated in several newspapers and magazines such as Tele/eXprés,

Serra d'Or ''Serra d'Or'' () is a Catalan magazine that appeared in October 1959. It was promoted by a group of university students, and was published by the Montserrat abbey press, with a monthly circulation of 8.000 copies. Origins The origins of the magaz ...

Avui ''Avui'' (, meaning "Today" in English) was a Catalan daily newspaper, based in Barcelona, in Catalonia. It was one of the city's newest papers, having been founded in 1976. The editorial line was Catalan nationalist. History and profile ''Avui' ...

. He collaborated with Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC). In 1977, he was elected as senator in the

Spanish Courts The Cortes Generales (; en, Spanish Parliament, lit=General Courts) are the bicameralism, bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house), and the Senate of Spain, Senate (the upper house). T ...

for Barcelona demarcation in

Entesa dels Catalans Agreement of the Catalans ( ca, Entesa dels Catalans) was a Catalan electoral alliance formed by the Socialist Party of Catalonia–Congress (PSC–C), the Catalan Socialist Federation (FSC), the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (PSUC) and th ...

candidature. In 1979, he became town councilor of

Hospitalet de Llobregat L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (; es, Hospitalet de Llobregat), often shortened to L'Hospitalet or just L'H, is a municipality of Spain, located to the immediate southwest of Barcelona, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. It is part of the Bar ...

as independent for PSUC, where he assumed the Culture department. In 1983 he received the Creu de Sant Jordi. In 2003, Generalitat de Catalunya conceded him its Golden Medal. He died, after a long illness.

Selected works

* 1956: Hay una juventud que aguarda (There is a youth which awaits) * 1957: Donde la ciudad cambia su nombre (Where the city changes its name) * 1959: Han matado a un hombre, han roto el paisaje (They have killed a man, they have broken the landscape) * 1964: Els altres catalans (The other Catalans) * 1967: Parlem-ne (Let's talk about it) * 1973: Encara més sobre els altres catalans (Even more about the other Catalans) * 1979: Un charnego en el Senado (A ''

charnego Xarnego ( in Catalan or charnego in Spanish is a pejorative or descriptive term used primarily in the 1950s–70s in Catalonia (Spain) to refer to economic migrants from other regions of Spain. In its modern usage, it refers to Catalans with recent ...

'' in the Senate) * 1981: El Candel contra Candel (Candel vs Candel) * 1985: Els altres catalans vint anys després (The other Catalans twenty years later) * 1988: La nova pobresa (The new poverty)

External links

Paco Candel Foundation

Piece of news about his decease

Website about Francisco Candel's books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Candel Tortajada, Francesc 1925 births 2007 deaths Catalan-language writers Spanish male writers Journalists from Catalonia