Francisco Candel Tortajada (May 31, 1925 in Casas Altas – November 23, 2007 in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

), usually known as well as Paco Candel, was a Valencian-born writer and journalist who lived most of his life in

Biography

He was born in a town of the Spanish-speaking comarca of

Rincón de Ademuz Rincón de Ademuz (; ) is a Spanish ''comarca'' constituted as an exclave of both the Valencian Community and the Valencia province located between the provinces of Cuenca ( Castile-La Mancha) and Teruel (Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ...

, Valencia. When he was a little child, his family moved to Barcelona. Most of his contributions are devoted to studying the 20th-century Spanish migrations in the

Barcelona metropolitan area The Barcelona urban area is an urban area in Catalonia (Spain) centered on the city of Barcelona and located less than 100 km south of the border with France. With a population of over 5 million, it is one of the largest urban areas in Europ ...

. The book which made him famous was ''Els altres catalans'' (''The Other Catalans'' in Catalan), a journalistic and sociological study about the immigration, which heavily influenced final decisions of the Assemblea de Catalunya in 1971. He wrote several novels, tales, essays and articles. He also collaborated in several newspapers and magazines such as Tele/eXprés,

Serra d'Or ''Serra d'Or'' () is a Catalan magazine that appeared in October 1959. It was promoted by a group of university students, and was published by the Montserrat abbey press, with a monthly circulation of 8.000 copies. Origins The origins of the mag ...

Avui ''Avui'' (; ) was a Catalan-language daily newspaper, based in Barcelona, Catalonia. It was one of the city's newest papers, having been founded in 1976. The editorial line was Catalan nationalist. History and profile ''Avui'' was first publi ...

. He collaborated with

Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia The Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia (, PSUC) was a communist political party active in Catalonia between 1936 and 1997. It was the Catalan branch of the Communist Party of Spain and the only party not from a sovereign state to be a full membe ...

(PSUC). In 1977, he was elected as senator in the

Spanish Courts The (; ) are the bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house) and the Senate (the upper house). The Congress of Deputies meets in the Palacio de las Cortes. The Senate meets in the Palac ...

for Barcelona demarcation in Entesa dels Catalans candidature. In 1979, he became town councilor of

Hospitalet de Llobregat L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (; ), often shortened to L'Hospitalet or just L'H, is a municipality in the Barcelonès ''comarca'', in Catalonia (Spain). It is part of the Barcelona metropolitan area, the Barcelona province, and of the Barcelona con ...

as independent for PSUC, where he assumed the Culture department. In 1983 he received the

Creu de Sant Jordi The Creu de Sant Jordi (, in English language, English 'St George's Cross') is one of the highest civil distinctions awarded in Catalonia (Spain), surpassed only in protocol by the Gold Medal of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Gold Medal of the G ...

. In 2003,

Generalitat de Catalunya The Generalitat de Catalunya (; ; ), or the Government of Catalonia, is the institutional system by which Catalonia is self-governed as an autonomous community of Spain. It is made up of the Parliament of Catalonia, the President of the Govern ...

conceded him its Golden Medal. He died, after a long illness.

Selected works

* 1956: ("There is a youth which awaits") * 1957: ("Where the city changes its name") * 1959: ("They have killed a man, they have broken the landscape") * 1964: ("The other Catalans") * 1967: ("Let's talk about it") * 1973: ("Even more about the other Catalans") * 1979: ("A '' charnego'' in the Senate") * 1981: ("Candel vs Candel") * 1985: ("The other Catalans twenty years later") * 1988: ("The new poverty")

External links

Paco Candel Foundation

Piece of news about his decease

Website about Francisco Candel's books
{{DEFAULTSORT:Candel Tortajada, Francesc 1925 births 2007 deaths Catalan-language writers Spanish male writers Journalists from Catalonia