Ramon Otero Pedrayo-Vanguard

Otero Pedrayo taught Geography and History in Burgos and Santander Spain, before he went back to his natal city of Ourense. In 1918 he becomes a member of the Galicianist organisation Irmandades da Fala. He was a member of the Spanish parliament during the time of the Spanish Second Republic representing the Partido Galeguista Galicianist Party. He was the first professor of Geography at the University of Santiago de Compostela. Apart from being considered the person who first introduced modern Geography in Galicia, he also was an accomplished writer as he demonstrates in his numerous essays, novels, plays and poems. He was also renowned as a great orator with a charismatic voice.
Some of his famous novels are Os camiños da vida and O mesón dos Ermos, where he provides a meticulous description of Galician rural life. In fact, his non-scientific works are often taken as historical sources, since they are quite accurate and rigorous in terms of localization, description and context. It must also be mentioned ,novel often considered to be a veiled autobiography.

by:Alejandra Bautista