born May 11, 1916, Iria Flavia, Spain
died Jan. 17, 2002, Madrid
Spanish writer.
As a young man Cela served with Francisco Franco 's forces in the Spanish Civil War; his literary works, however, represent a renunciation of his former Falangist sympathies. Primarily novels, short narratives, and travel diaries of Spain and Latin America, they are characteristically experimental and innovative in form and content. He is sometimes credited with establishing tremendismo , a narrative style tending to emphasize violence and grotesque imagery. He is perhaps best known for his first novel, The Family of Pascual Duarte (1942); other works include The Hive (1951) and the avant-garde San Camilo, 1936 (1969). In 1989 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.