Miguel De Cervantes: Biography Of The Famous Author Of Don Quixote
Don Quixote de la Mancha is an international symbol. Translated into various languages, his character, the unforgettable Alonso Quijano, is the archetype of the naive dreamer who comes face to face with the bitter reality of existence. The story of Don Quixote is, therefore, the story of many of us. Maybe that’s why it’s so universal.
Who was the author of this unforgettable character? We all know his name, Miguel de Cervantes, but, in reality, little is known about his life. What we know about the most important author of the Spanish Golden Age are crumbs, loose fragments that, together, help us compose the more or less complete picture of his biography. In this biography of Miguel de Cervantes we focus on the life of the famous author of the no less well-known Don Quijote of La Mancha
Brief biography of Miguel de Cervantes, the author of the famous Don Quixote
What we do know for sure about Miguel de Cervantes is that his existence was not easy at all. In fact, he was plagued by misfortunes, which seem more taken from one of his novels than from real life.
Born into a family of possible Jewish converts (this fact has not been confirmed with certainty either), his father, Rodrigo Cervantes, was a modest surgeon-barber who toured the cities of old Castile with his family to get something of prosperity. It was during this journey marked by economic instability that our character was born, probably on September 29, 1547 (Saint Michael’s Day, hence his name), although as is customary in his biography, the date is not at all clear either.
A family pilgrimage through Castilla
We only have one reliable document: that of his baptism, which took place in the church of Santa María la Mayor in Alcalá de Henares, on October 4 of that year, 1547. It follows that the future writer was born in that town near Madrid. , on a date very close to his baptism.
Alcalá de Henares was more than likely his birthplace, but not the only one where he spent his childhood. We have already commented how the Cervantes family, made up of the parents and four children, went from city to city in search of a better life. In 1552 we know that they are in Valladolid, where his father remained imprisoned for a few months for non-payments. That was probably where little Miguel went to a Jesuit school to receive his first training The following year, however, we find them in Córdoba, and in 1556, in Seville, the great city of Spain at the time, where Rodrigo Cervantes surely wanted to prosper.
But, apparently, everything remained the same, so the family ended up moving to Madrid, which had been the capital since 1551. In those years the city was still a small town in full growth, so new opportunities could be found. The Cervantes family settles there and, against all odds, it seems that they remain there, since, in 1569, a twenty-year-old Miguel de Cervantes is arrested for wounding a knight.
The famous soldier of Lepanto
The matter of the arrest is murky, and little is known about it. Most likely, to escape the sentence (prison and amputation of his right hand), Miguel fled to Italy. We find him there at the end of 1569, accompanied by a certificate corroborating his lineage as an “old Christian.” That same year he began his military career by enlisting in Diego de Urbina’s militia.
This intrepid soldier thirsting for adventure from the renowned writer of his later years is still very far away. In 1571 the so-called Holy Alliance was formed, uniting Rome, Venice and Spain against the threat of the Turks, which loomed over Europe. In October, Cervantes participates in the famous battle of Lepanto, on the Greek coast, where the men of John of Austria, the bastard brother of King Philip II, sweep away the Turkish ranks and win. Cervantes participates in the battle with zeal, and as a reward receives three harquebus blows, one of which renders his left hand useless From then on he would be known as El manco de Lepanto.
Once again we lose track of our character. Around 1574 we find him again in Italy; specifically, in Rome, where he established a relationship with Cardinal Aquaviva, to whom he would dedicate, years later, his Galatea. In those years, perhaps eager to return to his home, Cervantes obtained letters of recommendation from Juan de Austria and the viceroy of Naples, where his extreme bravery in battle was praised. With these documents, Miguel hopes to be able to make his way in the Madrid of Philip II, and with this intention he sets sail, together with his brother Rodrigo, towards Spain. However, things were not going to be so easy for the distinguished soldier.
Just when the schooner that was transporting them from Italy was approaching the coast of the Gulf of Roses, the ship was intercepted by some Barbary pirates. After a cruel combat, Cervantes and his brother are taken prisoner by the captain, an Albanian named Mamí, who takes them captive to Algiers, in North Africa. The city was famous for its enormous slave trade, so both Miguel and Rodrigo surely guessed what their unfortunate fate would be.
And here is another of the great mysteries of Cervantes’s life. Why was he not sold into slavery, as might have been expected? Perhaps the documents he had in his possession, signed by John of Austria himself, convinced the Albanian that the brothers were too valuable to part with. Thus begins a long captivity that would last no less than five years.
Meanwhile, in Spain, Cervantes’ family tries to raise the money necessary for the rescue. The two sisters, Andrea and Magdalena, allocate their respective dowries, acquired after an arduous lawsuit, to this mission. For her part, her mother, Leonor de Cortinas, gathers all the money she is capable of to give it to the Mercedarian Brothers, the order in charge of saving captives held by the Muslims.
While the rescue arrives, Miguel de Cervantes has not stood by. No less than four escape attempts have been documented, all of them truncated for one reason or another. Finally, Rodrigo is rescued, but the sum is not enough for the two brothers, and Miguel remains in Algiers. He would not be free again until September 1580, after five years as a prisoner.
Tax collector and late writer
Despite being one of the most illustrious names on the literary scene (not only Spanish, but universal), Miguel de Cervantes began his career as a writer quite late His first work, Galatea, was published when he was thirty-eight years old and brought him considerable financial benefit. It is a pastoral novel, quite in vogue at the time, which the newly released writer dedicated to his old acquaintance, Cardinal Aquaviva.
In those years, Miguel meets Catalina de Salazar, an eighteen-year-old girl whom he marries and abandons shortly after. Shortly before, the writer had had an illegitimate daughter, Isabel, with a married woman. Miguel’s economic situation is still not buoyant: at the same time as his first literary attempts (this is the time of the Cervantes comedies, eclipsed however by his great rival, Lope de Vega), Cervantes becomes tax collector His extraordinary zeal when it came to collecting the stipulated amounts that the Church must pay led him to be excommunicated several times.
The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quijote of La Mancha
Therefore, the trail of misadventures that characterizes the life of our character continues. In 1597 he was imprisoned in Seville for a shady affair, apparently linked to the misappropriation of public money. This new prison will be crucial in his literary career, since many critics agree in stating that it is during his months in prison that the genius projects the story of Don Quixote, which will see the light of day a few years later, in 1605.
The success of this first part of the adventures of the hidalgo is total However, the author does not receive the financial compensation he deserves, so Cervantes’ financial situation will continue to be precarious. In 1613 his Exemplary Novels appear and, the following year, his Journey to Parnassus. With all these creations, Cervantes is laying the foundations of the modern novel.
The fame of his Don Quixote is such that, in 1614, A second part appears in Tarragona, written by a certain Alonso Fernández de Avellaneda Outraged, Miguel writes his own second part, the genuine one, to make it clear to whom the extraordinary creature belongs. Thus emerges the second volume of the adventures of the nobleman, published shortly before the death of our author.
In April 1616, Miguel de Cervantes is sick and tired. He receives the last rites at his home in Madrid and dies on the 22nd. He is buried the next day, apparently (and according to legend), the same day as the other great writer of the time, William Shakespeare. That is why, obviously, April 23 is International Book Day.
