Pedro Antonio de Alarcón

Pedro Antonio de Alarcón was born in the city of Guadix, Granada. He studied Law and Theology. As a young man, he was politically active with the liberal, anti-religious, and subversive movements of his time. Later, he switched to the opposing camp of conservatism and Catholicism. He enlisted and fought in Africa, and from this experience, he wrote "Diario de un testigo de la guerra de Africa" (Diary of a Witness to the War in Africa). He was elected as a member of parliament and later became an academic. His work contains many elements of realism and romanticism, while in the later years of his life, he turned to ethnographic writings, such as the famous "Sombrero de tres picos" (The Three-Cornered Hat), which became well-known through Manuel de Falla's music in the ballet of the same name that premiered in London in 1919.