Selected Poems

Juan Antonio Villacanas (1922-2001) was born in Toledo, the first of five siblings in a family of modest means. The Civil War interrupted his secondary studies at the age of fourteen, and he spent the war years with his mother and three of his siblings in Madrid and in several villages of the province of Toledo, in the so-called republican zone, while his father had to remain in Toledo, in the so-called nationalist zone. During these years Villacanas worked in several manual jobs, mainly in bread- and wine- making. At 18 Villacanas began his military service in Melilla, where he also started his serious reading of Spanish and French authors. Subsequently, he obtained administrative work in the cultural and archival section of the Town Hall in Toledo, in which he remained until illness forced his retirement in 1982. His work experience in the Town Hall enabled him to write Los Sapos (The Toads), a book of poems and an indictment against the abuses of power, not only of municipal power, but of power in any political institution. Villacanas always lived in Toledo and, despite the advice of some of his friends, refused to move to Madrid where he could more easily have advanced his literary career. He travelled a good deal, but remained independent of literary circles and devoted himself to poetry. His work was to win international recognition, especially in the 60s and 70s, and has appeared in the most important anthologies of Spanish poetry.