Xosé Luís Méndez Ferrín (

Ourense Ourense (; es, Orense ) is a city and capital of the province of Ourense, located in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, northwestern Spain. It is on the Camino Sanabrés path of the Way of St ...

, 7 August 1938) is a Galician writer and poet and is widely considered the highest representative of contemporary Galician literature. A doctor in philology, he studied philosophy at the University of Santiago de Compostela and

Romanic The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...

philology at the University of Madrid. He teaches literature at the '' Instituto Santa Irene'' in Vigo. He also writes for the daily newspaper '' Faro de Vigo'' and directs the quarterly political critic magazine '' A Trabe Ouro''. Ferrín is a member of the

Real Academia Galega The Royal Galician Academy ( gl, Real Academia Galega, RAG) is an institution dedicated to the study of Galician culture and especially the Galician language; it promulgates norms of grammar, spelling, and vocabulary and works to promote the l ...

( Galician Royal Academy). He was the president of that Academy from January 2010 until February 2013, when he resigned, accused of hiring relative

On 1 March 2013 he resigned his chair of academi

He is Doctor

Honoris Causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...

of the University of Vigo. He was proposed to the Nobel Prize in literature by the

Galician Writers Association Galician Writers Association ( gl, Asociación de Escritores en Lingua Galega, AELG) is an official entity of the autonomous region of Galicia's Xunta (government / board). The organization is formed by writers in galician language. It was foun ...

in 1999. He has been awarded with the

Galician Critics Prize Galician may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Galicia (Spain) ** Galician language ** Galician people ** Gallaeci, a large Celtic tribal federation who inhabited Gallaecia (currently Galicia (Spain) * Something of, from, or related to ...

, Spanish Critics Prize and National Critics Prize.

Politics

Ferrín maintains an active political activist life. Supporting political and social initiatives as Redes Escarlata. He is a member of the nationalist literary group Brais Pinto. He was a founding member of

Unión do Povo Galego The Galician People's Union ( gl, Unión do Povo Galego) is a Galicia (Iberian Peninsula), Galician nationalist and communist political party, and is one of the registered political parties of Spain. The party publishes the magazine ''Terra e Tempo ...

(Union of the Galician People) and centered in a

marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

independentist ideology. Also member of

Frente Popular Galega The Galician People's Front ( gl, Frente Popular Galega) is a Galician political organization with a socialist and independentist ideology. History After the Galician People's Union (UPG) accepted the participation of the Bloque Nacionalista Ga ...

(Popular Galician Front) and founder of

Galiza Ceibe-OLN Galiza Ceibe-OLN (in English: ''Liberated Galiza-National Liberation Organization'') was an independentist and socialist political party in Galicia, Spain. Galiza Ceibe was founded on 1980 by the Galician Party of the Proletariat (''Partido Galego ...

Literary work

As a poet he became notorious with his first work '' Voce na néboa'' (Voice in the fog) 1957. * ''Antoloxía Popular'' (popular anthology) 1972, with the pseudonym Heriberto Bens. * ''Sirventés pola destrucción de Occitania'' (Servants for the destruction of

Occitania Occitania ( oc, Occitània , , or ) is the historical region in Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe where the Occitan language, Occitan language was historically spoken and where it is sometimes still used as a second language. This ...

) 1975. * ''Con pólvora e magnolias'' (With gunpowder and magnolias) 1977. * ''Poesía enteira de Heriberto Bens'' (Complete poetry of Heriberto Bens) 1980. * ''O fin dun canto'' (The end of a singing) 1982. * ''Erótica'' (Erotic) 1992. * ''Estirpe'' (Breed/''Lineage'') 1994. * ''O outro'' (The other one) 2002. * ''Contra Maquieiro'' (Against Maquieiro) 2005 His works in prose, include narrative and essay. * ''Percival e outras historias'' (Percival and other stories) 1958. * ''O crepúsculo e as formigas'' (The twilight and the ants) 1961. * ''Arrabaldo do norte'' (Arrabaldo north) 1964. * ''Retorno a Tagen Ata'' (Return to Tagen Ata) 1971. * ''Elipsis e outras sombras'' ( Ellipsis and other shadows) 1974. * ''Antón e os inocentes'' (Antón and the innocents) 1976. * ''Crónica de nós'' (Chronicles of us) 1980. * ''Amor de Artur'' (The love of Artur) 1982. * ''Arnoia, Arnoia'' 1985. * ''Bretaña Esmeraldina'' 1987. * ''De Pondal a Novoneyra'' (From Pondal to Novoneyra) 1984. * ''Arraianos'' 1991 * ''No ventre do silencio'' (Inside the womb of the silence) 1999.

External links

UPG Website

Redes Escarlata Website

Galician Royal Academy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mendez Ferrin, Xose Luis 1938 births Living people People from Ourense Galician poets Galician-language writers