Ramon Vinyes (Berga, 1882 - Barcelona, 1952). Playwright, poet, narrator, journalist, critic and editor. He spent his life between Barcelona and Barranquilla, Colombia.

In Colombia, he is considered an essencial figure in the cultural developement of the country, for his cultural iniciatives, especially at the front of the cultural magazine Voces (1917-1920). He brought together important people such as Julio Gómez de Castro, León de Grieff, Vicente Huidobro, Germán Vargas and Gabriel García Márquez, who hommaged him in his novel Cien años de soledad [100 Years of Solitude], where Vinyes appeared as the "Catalan wise man", "the man that has read everything".

In Catalonia he opened around twenty theatre plays, such as Al florir els pomers (1910), Qui no és amb mi... (1929), Peter's Bar (1930) and Comiats a trenc d'alba (1938), and published a poetic prose compilation, L'ardenta cavalcada (1909). He was very active as a critic, theoretician and theatre polemist, and defended modern theatre, concerned with the issues of its time. He collaborated in the main journals in Barcelona, where he also wrote literary critics, narrations and poems. He published, in Mexico, the short stories compilation A la boca dels núvols (1946).

For a long period after his death, his work was almost ignored in Catalonia, however, in Colombia he has always been recognized. Only after the popularization and critiques of specialists, and the celebration of the centenary of his birth in Berga, did he receive the interest and recognition that he deserved. Since the late 1980's, some of his work has been edited, often for the first time, and several critics have done relevant studies that have placed down his name in the history of Catalan literature.



Page by Josep Miàs for AELC.
Documentation: Josep Miàs.
Pòrtic's photograph: Ramon Vinyes's files, © of Arxiu Comarcal del Berguedà.
Translation by Josep Miàs.