the writer Fernando Sanchez Dragó died this morning of a heart attack at the age of 86, family sources told EFE.
Philologist by training, Sánchez Dragó, one of the most well-known intellectuals and controversial of the Spanish cultural scene, he received the National Essay Prize (1979) and Planeta Prize (1992), practiced all literary genres, is the author of more than forty works.
One of the last public appearances of Sánchez Dragó was at the Congress of Deputies last March 21 during motion of censure in which the economist presented himself as a candidate for Vox Ramon Tamamesan idea that was promoted by Sánchez Dragó himself.
On television he stood out for his program on literature “Negroe sobre blanco”, directed and presented by him, on TVE’s La2, then on Telemadrid he presented “Las noches blancas”, between 2005 and 2012.
Born in Madrid on October 2, 1936, son of the journalist Fernando Sánchez Monreal, murdered at the age of 27 by a Falangist group in the Civil War.
Sánchez Dragó always believed that he had been killed by the red sideuntil in 1956, when he was in Carabanchel prison, he learned the truth.
Graduated in Romance Philology (1959) and in Modern Languages (Italian section), he obtained a doctorate in Letters and was a high school teacher in Madrid.
He was imprisoned on several occasions during the Franco regime for participating in university riots and belonging to the Communist Party. At the beginning of the 60’s he fled Spain, upon learning that he had been sentenced to two years and four months in prison.
In 1967 he taught classes in Japan, at the University of Foreign Languages ”Gaigo Daigaku” and of History of Spanish Thought at the Imperial University of Tokyo, as well as at the Japanese Diplomatic School.
Between the years 70 and 80 he was professor of Language and History of Spain in the universities of Dakar (Senegal), Fes (Morocco), Amman (Jordan), Nairobi (Kenya) and National of Tsukuba (Japan).
He started in journalism in 1955 when he founded the poetry magazine “Aldebarán”. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was a correspondent for the newspapers “El Alcázar” in Japan and “Informacions” in Morocco, and a contributor to RAI and Japanese TV NKH.
Later he worked in “Encuentros con las letras” (1976-1981, TVE) and directed and presented the space “Biblioteca Nacional” (1982-83, TVE).
Also in the 80s he was in the program “Tauromagia” (TVE), he was a columnist of “Canvio 16” and founder-director of the literary supplement “Dissidences” of “Diario 16” (1980-83). At the end of the decade (1989-90) he directed the TVE program “El mundo por montera”, on religious, philosophical and esoteric subjects.
As a writer he was integrated in the generation of 56 and published poetry, essays and novels. Among his essays, “Gárgoris y Habidis. Una historia mágica de España” (1978), for which he won the 1979 National Essay Award, which he covered again in “La España Mágica.
Finalist for the Planet Award in 1990 with his novel “El camino del corazon” (1990), he won it with “La prueba del laberinto” (1992).
Influenced by Eastern culture and religions, he evolved from materialistic positions to idealism and spirituality in his texts. In 1992 he released “La Dragontea. Diario de un guerrero” and five years later, “En el alambre de Shiva”: La Dragontea 2″. At this stage he also published “La del alba sería”, the first installment of “Mis encuentros con lo invisible”, spiritual memoirs, where he reflects on his childhood up to the age of 14.
The compilation of his articles “La Dragontea” published in the magazine “Època” (1994-1997), “El camino hacia Ítaca” (1998), or “Sentado alegre en la popa” (2004), where they appear, was also autobiographical his articles from 1998 to 2000.
From 1994 he published in the newspaper “El Mundo” and was a columnist for its literary supplement “La esfera” (1996-97). In addition, he collaborated with Onda Cero, COPE and RNE.
In 1997 he returned to TVE two with “Negro sobre blanco”, with the last books that appeared and which earned him the 2000 National Reading Promotion Award.
He wrote “Letter of Jesus to the Pope” (2001), one evangelical epistle in which he exposes that the life of Jesus Christ was more than debatable and “El sendero de la mano izquierda” (2002), a vision of Eastern philosophy and wisdom.
After undergoing heart surgery in 2004, he wrote “Kokoro, a vida o mort. Va dragar interview a Dragó” (2005), a self-interview that is “the Time.news of a journey to the land of the dead, a book full of life
With “Muertes paralelas” (2006), where he explained the death of his father, he won the Fernando Lara Award for Novel.
He gathered writings, photographs, interviews and conversations with his friend Antonio Ruiz Vega, in “Libertad, fraternidad, desigualdad y derechazos” (2007), the year he presented “Diario de la noche” on Telemadrid.
In his work “Y si habla mal de España… es español” (2008) he admits to distributing “wood right and wrong” because there are only two things he likes about Spain, “the language and bulls”.
He was also the author of “Soseki: Immortal and Tiger” (2009), “Magic History of the Camino de Santiago” (2010), “Esos dias azules. Memorias de un niño raro” (2011), “Pacto de sangre: vidas cruzadas ” (2013) alongside his daughter Ayanta Barillior “La canción de Roldán: Crimen i Castigo” (2015), the year he started his program “Libros con uasabi” (TVE, 2015-17).
In 2023 the writer was recognized with the Castilla i León de les Lletres Award.
From anti-Franco and communist in its beginnings, it happened to side with the People’s Party of Aznar ia Voxby Santiago Abascal, about which he wrote “Santiago Abascal, la España vertebrata” (2019).
Sánchez Dragó married four times and had four children.