Queralt Pons

In Memoriam Biel

The poet Gabriel Ferrater – or Biel, as his friends called him – grew up during one of the most turbulent times in Spanish history. Shortly after his birth, there was a coup d’état; before he even turned 10, the king abdicated and Spain became a Republic; as he was entering adolescence, the police imprisoned his father for politically supporting an independent Catalan republic, and two years later, a terrible civil war broke out. During his childhood, Biel is barely aware of what is happening. He is a gifted child who learns to read and write at home. However, the radicalization of the political and social clashes taking place around him turns Biel into a witness of horror. The story of a teenage boy through the most violent years in the history of Spain, years that will lead to the disenchantment with which Gabriel Ferrater and other members of his generation perceive the human condition.