Machado Y Ruiz, Antonio

Born May 26, 1875, in Seville; died Feb. 21, 1939, in Collioure, France. Spanish poet.

The son of the folklorist A. Machado y Alvarez and brother of M. Machado y Ruiz, Machado studied at the Institution Libre de Ensenanzain Madrid. The poems of his first collection, Loneliness (1903), are deeply reflective and written in a clear, simple style. In the collection The Fields of Castile (1912) the poet evokes Spanish provincial life, affirms his faith in the people, and conveys his presentiment of coming social upheaval. In his narrative poem The Land of Alvargonzdlez, written in the style of a folk ballad, Machado attempts to revive the ancient Spanish epic genre; the poem may be seen as a condemnation of private property. During the 1920’s and 1930’s, as his philosophical outlook and aesthetics matured, he tended toward more laconic forms—sonnets, tercets, and strophes modeled on folk poetry, as well as aphoristic prose essays. He wrote several verse plays in collaboration with his brother Manuel.

From the outset of the Spanish people’s national revolutionary war (1936-39), Machado devoted himself to the republican cause, publishing poems and articles calling for struggle against fascism. He addressed the Second International Congress of Writers in Defense of Culture in 1937. In January 1939 he escaped to France with other refugees but died soon after his arrival.