José Antonio Labordeta

From Hispanopedia
José Antonio Labordeta
Deputy in the Cortes Generales
In office
March 27, 2000 – April 1, 2008
ConstituencyZaragoza
Deputy of the Cortes of Aragon
In office
June 13, 1999 – March 12, 2000
ConstituencyZaragoza
Personal details
ChildrenÁngela, Ana, Paula
RelativesMiguel Labordeta (brother)

José Antonio Labordeta Subías (Zaragoza, March 10, 1935 – Zaragoza, September 19, 2010) was a Spanish singer-songwriter, writer, politician and teacher, deputy in the Congress for Chunta Aragonesista in the VII and VIII legislatures.[1]

Biography

The son of Miguel Labordeta and Sara Subías, he was the brother of the poet Miguel Labordeta, and on September 29, 1963, he married Juana de Grandes, niece of General Agustín Muñoz Grandes. He had three daughters, Ana, Ángela and Paula, and two granddaughters. His nephew Juan Manuel Labordeta is a retired singer, a former member of the humorous music group Puturrú de Fuá.

He completed his primary studies at the German School of Zaragoza and at the family school, where he finished his bachillerato; he enrolled in law and finally graduated in philosophy and letters from the University of Zaragoza, which in 2010 named him doctor honoris causa. In 1964 he passed the competitive examinations for secondary education as a teacher of geography, history and art, and was posted to the Instituto Nacional de Bachillerato Ibáñez Martín in Teruel, a city where he lived for six years. Both there and at the Colegio Menor San Pablo he taught Joaquín Carbonell, Federico Jiménez Losantos, Federico Trillo[2] and Manuel Pizarro.[3]

He returned to his native Zaragoza in 1970, where he continued teaching at the El Buen Pastor school—as headmaster and history teacher—and at the Ramón Pignatelli secondary school—located in the Alto Carabinas area of Zaragoza. In 1972 he founded, together with Eloy Fernández Clemente—whom he had met during his time in Teruel—the cultural magazine Andalán.

In 1976 he took part in the creation of the Socialist Party of Aragon and later ran for the Senate for United Left. As a member of Chunta Aragonesista (CHA), he was elected deputy for Zaragoza in 2000, and was the representative of this Aragonese nationalist party in the Congress of Deputies from 2000 until 2008.[4][5] He was a member of the trade union Workers' Commissions from 1977.[6]

A staunch supporter of the "no to war" movement and opposed to the Ebro water transfer, he was an ardent defender of the interests of Aragon and the Aragonese people and struck a distinctive note in the chamber. On a couple of occasions he got into verbal confrontations with some deputies of the People's Party. In one of them he blurted out his famous phrase «¡a la mierda!» ("to hell with it!").[7] He himself said that this would be the phrase they would put as the epitaph on his gravestone, and he explained that it came about because it had been a very hard day of debate on the Iraq War and he was being heckled with phrases such as "go back to Teruel with your backpack," and at the moment someone said to him "what are you on about, you damn singer-songwriter," he could take no more and said the phrase because they would not let him speak.[8]

José Antonio Labordeta died in the early hours of September 19, 2010, at the Miguel Servet Hospital in Zaragoza, at the age of 75, from prostate cancer that had been diagnosed in 2006 and that had forced him to remain bedridden at home during the last months of his life.[9][10]

The last public event in which he took center stage took place on September 6, 2010, when the Minister of Defense, Carme Chacón, and the Minister of Education, Ángel Gabilondo, presented him at his home with the Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Alfonso X the Wise; an honor that the Government granted him for his wisdom, his passion, his convictions and his defense of freedom and the people, reasons for which it also awarded him the Medal for Merit in Work.[11]

Work

Poetry

Verses by José Antonio Labordeta.

His facet as a writer was always overshadowed because he was better known as a singer-songwriter and deputy. However, following the family example of his father (a professor of Latin very fond of ancient classical poetry) and of his brother Miguel Labordeta, one of the most outstanding figures of Spanish postwar poetry, his poetic activity was paramount in his life. In this regard he stated that his true profession was that of writer and that his songs were nothing but poems set to music.[12] In any case, his poetry reveals a more intimate, meditative and existential voice than his songs, which are more combative and social. He published his first collection of poems in 1959—long before beginning his musical career—and was the author of the following books of poems:

  • Sonata ibérica, 1958 (unpublished)
  • Sucede el pensamiento, 1959
  • Las Sonatas, 1965
  • Cantar y callar, 1971
  • Treinta y cinco veces uno, 1972
  • Tribulatorio, 1973
  • Método de lectura, 1980
  • Jardín de la memoria, 1985
  • Diario de un náufrago, 1988
  • Monegros, 1994

In 1976 he published the anthology Poemas y canciones (Lumen publishing house, El Bardo collection), and in 2004 the selection Dulce sabor de días agrestes, devoted solely to his poetic work, was released.

His first book of poetry, Sucede el pensamiento, is an attempt to reconcile the intellectual style of Juan Ramón Jiménez with the neo-popular style of the Generation of '27, but it still shows the burden of the need to acquire a voice of his own, especially considering the weight and influence exerted by the tremendist and epic-lyric poetry of his brother Miguel Labordeta, from which José Antonio cannot escape. However, tedium and existential emptiness, and the influence of César Vallejo or Paul Verlaine, are genuinely personal traits. According to Eloy Fernández Clemente, this work could be defined as "a poetry of the self immersed in a closed world without great hopes."[13]

The most decisive work of his poetic career is Cantar y callar, which was ready for publication in 1967 but did not appear until four years later. In it, according to Antonio Pérez Lasheras,[12]

[...] he attains a personal and authentic voice, abandoning or refining the echoes that surfaced in his earlier poetry. The author's encounter with the social reality that had concerned him in an "intellectual" way until then (Lower Aragon, with its people, its problems, its silences) merges with the autobiographical. From this confrontation emerges the conclusion that, by way of reflection, goes beyond the personal to become universal.

Diario de un náufrago represents one of the high points of his poetry. It is a book unified by the dates that serve as titles of the poems, in the manner of a personal diary, but its themes go beyond mere poetry of experience, since it combines all the social and existential concerns that were present in his earlier poetic works, always melancholic, including a preoccupation with destiny. The life of man is a shipwreck in anguished solitude, dominated by weariness and emptiness. It also shows the importance of oblivion and memory, recovered through a technique frequent in his poetry, that of monologue and even dialogue with people who have passed away. The poet's voice is consolidated in this book, "one of the most beautiful by its author and one of the most singular of recent years of Spanish poetry," in the words of Pérez Lasheras.[12]

His last collection of poems, Monegros, has a different tone, ironic and wry, which emphasizes Aragonese identity, one of the constants of his poetry. José Antonio Labordeta reflects, against the backdrop of the Monegros desert, on the men who inhabit it, seeing them frozen in time in brief poetic vignettes with short verses.

His last poems were published on a blog.[14]

In 2011 the Zaragoza publishing house Eclipsados published Setenta y cinco veces uno, Labordeta's complete poetry in two volumes. The first, titled La duda del paisaje. Vida y obra de José Antonio Labordeta), is an extensive biography by Antonio Pérez Lasheras; and the second, Setenta y cinco veces uno. Poesía reunida 1945-2010.

Prose

His narrative work was also notable, beginning in 1971 with «Mediometro», included in the literary magazine Papeles de Son Armadans. In 1974 his first book of fiction, Cada cual que aprenda su juego, was published, consisting of two short stories. In 1986 he published El comité, a short narrative. The novel Mitologías de mamá dates from 1992, and Cuentos de San Cayetano (2004) is a book of stories whose protagonists and common thread are two children, and whose setting is the Spanish postwar period. In 2007 his last novel, En el remolino, appeared. There are other scattered stories that appeared in cultural magazines such as Andalán (of which he was a founder) or Ínsula.[15]

  • «Mediometro», 1970, short story, included in Papeles de Son Armadans
  • Cada cual que aprenda su juego, 1974, two short stories
  • El comité, 1986, novel
  • Mitologías de mamá, novel
  • Cuentos de San Cayetano, 2004, short stories
  • En el remolino, 2007, novel
  • Mercado Central, 2011, short stories
  • Paisajes queridos, 2017, short stories

In the field of the essay, the importance of his travel books Aragón en la mochila (1983) and Un país en la mochila (1995) is noteworthy; in the latter he published, in expanded form, the scripts of the television program of the same name. Con la mochila a cuestas dates from 2001. He devoted himself to researching and disseminating the poetry of his brother Miguel in several books of a philological nature, such as the one published in collaboration with Javier Delgado, Recuerdo de Miguel Labordeta (Zaragoza, Diputación Provincial, 1987). César Vallejo, one of the authors who most influenced his poetics, was also the subject of one of his essays of literary criticism.[15]

  • Aragón en la mochila, 1983, travel book
  • with Javier Delgado: Recuerdo de Miguel Labordeta, 1987, essay
  • Un país en la mochila, 1995, travel book

He wrote several books of memoirs: Con la voz a cuestas (1982), Banderas rotas (2001) and Memorias de un beduino en el Congreso de los Diputados (2009), in which he recounts his experiences as a deputy in Madrid; or the autobiographical Tierra sin mar (1995), in which he anthologized some of his stories, articles and poems. Regular, gracias a Dios (2010) arose from the serious illness from which he suffered.

  • Con la voz a cuestas, 1982, memoirs
  • Tierra sin mar, 1995, essay
  • Banderas rotas, 2001, memoirs
  • Memorias de un beduino en el Congreso de los Diputados, 2008, memoirs
  • Regular, gracias a Dios. Memorias compartidas, 2010, memoirs

As an editor and journalist he took part in the founding and development of the weekly Andalán, which opposed the Francoist dictatorship and left its mark on the transition in Aragon. He also contributed as a columnist to newspapers such as El Día, Diario 16, El Periódico de Aragón, Público or El Mundo.[15][16] Los amigos contados (1994) and Historia de Paletonia (2011) are two compilations of his work as a columnist.

  • Los amigos contados, 1994, memoirs, various writings
  • Historia de Paletonia, 2011, articles in Andalán

Discography

He was considered one of the leading exponents of the Spanish singer-songwriter song. He began his musical career in 1968 with the album Andros II, an EP produced and released by EDUMSA, which would later be published in the Fuendetodos edition of the poetry book Cantar y callar (1971).[12][17][18] It was followed by:

José Antonio Labordeta at a concert held in Huesca on October 26, 2007.
  • Andrós II, 1968, EP
  • Cantar i callar, 1971, EP, disc-book; 1974, LP
  • Tiempo de espera, 1975
  • Cantes de la tierra adentro, 1976
  • Labordeta en directo, 1977
  • Que no amanece por nada, 1978
  • Cantata para un país, 1979
  • Las cuatro estaciones, 1981
  • Qué queda de ti, qué queda de mí, 1984
  • Aguantando el temporal, 1985
  • Tú y yo y los demás, 1986, live
  • Qué vamos a hacer, 1987
  • Trilce, 1989
  • Canciones de amor, 1993, compilation
  • Recuento, 1995, live
  • Paisajes, 1997
  • Con la voz a cuestas, 2001
  • With Eduardo Paz, of La Bullonera, and Joaquín Carbonell: Cantautores aragoneses, 2006, live
  • With Eduardo Paz, of La Bullonera, and Joaquín Carbonell: ¡Vaya tres!, 2009.
  • En el jardín de la memoria, 2016

In his songs he speaks of his land, always with a tone of melancholy that, as he acknowledges, characterizes him. Among his most important songs are «Canto a la libertad», «Aragón», «Somos» and «Banderas rotas».

In 1989 the proposal by the Aragonese Party (PAR) to adopt «Canto a la libertad» as the anthem of Aragon was rejected. After Labordeta's death, in 2011 it was proposed again through a popular legislative initiative (ILP) backed by 24,256 signatures, the Aragonese Institute of Anthropology, the Rolde de Estudios Aragoneses, the Amparo Poch Association and other organizations. The proposal was rejected by 36 votes from the PP and PAR against 26 from the PSOE, CHA and IU.[19]

In 2011 the filmmaker Vicky Calavia directed the 30-minute documentary Canto a la libertad. Himno de Aragón. about the proposed anthem of Aragon.[20]

Television

On TVE, in 1990, he took part in the adaptation of Camilo José Cela's work Del Miño al Bidasoa, in which he played the vagabond Dupont.[21]

Later he was the scriptwriter and presenter of the successful Televisión Española program Un país en la mochila (1995–2000), a 29-episode series in which Labordeta, backpack on his shoulders, traveled through inland Spain, showing the least known side of the country and of the people who live in it.

In 1999 he recorded, together with Juancho Ruiz, el Charro, the song Severino el Sordo, which served as the theme tune for a Televisión Española program.[22]

Honors

Order of Saurí

The Government of Panama awarded José Antonio Labordeta the Order of Saurí in 2003.

Gold Medal for Merit in Work

The Council of Ministers of Friday, December 4, 2009, agreed to award the Gold Medal for Merit in Work to José Antonio Labordeta. This honor aims to "reward and highlight the merit of socially useful and exemplary conduct in the performance of the duties imposed by the exercise of any job, profession or service." It was presented to him at his home on January 15 of the following year by the then Minister of Labor and Immigration, Celestino Corbacho.[23]

Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Zaragoza

On March 23, 2010, the University of Zaragoza held the ceremony investing José Antonio Labordeta as Doctor Honoris Causa.[24]

Grand Cross of the Order of Alfonso X the Wise

On September 6, 2010, he was presented with the Grand Cross of the Order of Alfonso X the Wise, awarded by the Government of Spain.[25]

Medal of Aragon

This is the highest award of the autonomous community. Its purpose is to recognize and lend prestige to the work of natural or legal persons, or of organizations, centers or groups of public and recognized social identity, in the defense of Aragonese values and identity. It was awarded to him posthumously and presented on September 20, 2010.

José Antonio Labordeta Great Park

Zaragoza City Council approved naming as the José Antonio Labordeta Great Park the park that until then bore the name Primo de Rivera Park, and which the citizens popularly knew as the Parque Grande (Great Park), one of the best-known green spaces in the city.[26][27]

Foundation

Headquarters of the José Antonio Labordeta Foundation in Zaragoza.

In September 2014 the headquarters of the José Antonio Labordeta Foundation opened on Mariano Barbasán Street in Zaragoza. It displays a large part of Labordeta's material and library. The Foundation was created with funding from the Government of Aragon, Zaragoza City Council and the Provincial Council of Zaragoza. It aims to finance itself with its own resources since, although it is non-profit, it does aim to generate enough activity to be self-financing through the publication of books and musical and audiovisual documents. The objectives of the Foundation are to remember, study, preserve and disseminate the work, thought and memory of José Antonio Labordeta, as well as to host the work of all those people linked to him generationally or affectively.[28]

References

  1. ↑ «José Antonio Labordeta, un poeta escéptico e instigador de la conciencia aragonesa.» 20minutos, September 19, 2010, retrieved the same day.
  2. ↑ «Labordeta, medalla de oro de Aragón a título póstumo.» Archived 2010-09-20 at the Wayback Machine cope.es, September 20, 2010. Retrieved the same day.
  3. ↑ Redacción (September 20, 2010). "Manuel Pizarro honra al artista y manifiesta la "gratitud de sus alumnos"". Europa Press (in español). Retrieved June 3, 2020.
  4. ↑ Gómez, Rosario G. (2004-05-27). "Carmen Caffarel pide "un gran acuerdo" político para afrontar la reforma de RTVE". El País (in español). ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 2022-01-24. El proyecto de Caffarel fue acogido de manera dispar. Para el diputado del Grupo Mixto, José Antonio Labordeta, es un "cuento de hadas".
  5. ↑ Manrique, Diego A. (2022-01-24). "La pulsión suicida de Radio 3". El País (in español). Retrieved 2022-01-24. Aparecen muchos momentos de involuntaria comedia en Canción triste de Radio 3. Como la exquisita hipocresía de Carmen Caffarel, asegurando en sede parlamentaria, ante una pregunta del diputado José Antonio Labordeta sobre Trébede, el eliminado espacio de folk, que volvería a la antena, ya que ella lo "oía con mucho gusto".
  6. ↑ «José Antonio Labordeta, premio al "Compromiso" de CCOO de Aragón 2010.» ccoo.es, Zaragoza, December 20, 2010. Retrieved 12/27/2010.
  7. ↑ «Labordeta Crack», YouTube [online]. Uploaded by user DxHcf. Video. Available at <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17l3g2HBho4>. [Retrieved: 09/20/2010].
  8. ↑ «Labordeta comenta su ¡A la mierda!», YouTube [online]. Uploaded by user misextatv. Excerpt from the program Salvados, by Gestora de Inversiones Audiovisuales La Sexta. Video. Available at <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGB71U4E1Rk>. [Retrieved: 09/20/2010].
  9. ↑ Baeta, Fernando. "José Antonio Labordeta (1935-2010)". El Mundo (in español). El hombre que reinventó Aragón. Retrieved June 3, 2020.
  10. ↑ Redacción (September 21, 2010). "'Canto a la Libertad' en La Aljafería". Heraldo de Aragón (in español). Retrieved June 3, 2020.
  11. ↑ Redacción (September 19, 2010). "Miles de personas despiden a Labordeta en Zaragoza". El País (in español). Madrid. ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved June 3, 2020.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Antonio Pérez Lasheras, «José Antonio Labordeta, entre "las huellas de los labios" y "el duro roquedal"», published at <https://web.archive.org/web/20100826011048/http://www.10lineas.com/labordeta/libros.htm>. Retrieved September 19, 2010. Analysis of his poetic work.
  13. ↑ Entry «José Antonio Labordeta Subías.» Gran Enciclopedia Aragonesa (online).
  14. ↑ "José Antonio Labordeta - Poemas" (in español). Retrieved November 29, 2017.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 José Antonio Labordeta. Libros.
  16. ↑ Articles by José Antonio Labordeta in the newspaper Público.
  17. ↑ Javier Aguirre, Antología de poemas de José Antonio Labordeta. Includes discography.
  18. ↑ http://www.10lineas.com/labordeta/librosd.htm Archived 2010-08-25 at the Wayback Machine Labordeta. Bibliografía y discografía.
  19. ↑ "PP y PAR rechazan la toma en consideración de la ILP del 'Canto a la libertad'" (in español). 20 minutos. September 15, 2011. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
  20. ↑ Calavia, Vicky (2011). "Canto a la libertad. Himno de Aragón." (in español). Retrieved June 29, 2018.
  21. ↑ «Del Miño al Bidasoa», IMDb entry.
  22. ↑ youtube.com Severino el Sordo (arremojate La tripa)...Labordeta Juancho Ruiz, retrieved February 2018.
  23. ↑ Redacción (January 15, 2010). "José Antonio Labordeta recibe la Medalla de Oro al Mérito en el Trabajo". Aragón Digital (in español). Retrieved June 3, 2020.
  24. ↑ "José Antonio Labordeta, Doctor". Andalán (in español). March 23, 2010. Retrieved June 3, 2020.
  25. ↑ «Labordeta recibe hoy la Medalla de la Gran Cruz de Alfonso X el Sabio.» Archived 2010-09-11 at the Wayback Machine ABC
  26. ↑ «El parque Grande se llamará "José Antonio Labordeta".» El Heraldo de Aragón, September 29, 2010, retrieved April 25, 2011.
  27. ↑ Information about the park on the Zaragoza City Council website, retrieved April 26, 2011.
  28. ↑ Ibáñez, A. (September 21, 2014). "La Fundación José Antonio Labordeta comienza su andadura". El Periódico de Aragón (in español). Retrieved April 23, 2015.

Bibliography

Wikimedia Commons logo
Wikimedia Commons has media related to José Antonio Labordeta.
Retrieved from "https://en.hispanopedia.com/index.php?title=José_Antonio_Labordeta&oldid=2110"