Manuel Azaña y Díaz
(January 10, 1880 - November 3, 1940) Spain
Stateman & President
Don Manuel Azaña y Diaz was born in Alcalá de Henares. As an author he had written a biography of Juan Valera, the Spanish poet, writer, and diplomat.
Azaña was married in the church in 1929 to Dolores de Rivas Cherif - a woman twenty-two years younger than he, the sister of his close friend and collaborator, Cipriano. They had no children.
With Cipriano, he had edited "La Pluma," a literary magazine. Azana became active in the revolutionary movement that deposed Alfonso XIII in 1931, was named minister of war, and then Prime Minister. He became known as a reformer, but political enemies forced his arrest and imprisonment.
Upon his release he became Prime Minister again, and then successfully ran for President. As the Spanish Civil War continued, he was defeated by Franco and went into exile in France in 1939. A year later, Azana died in Montauban, France.
Sexuality does not appear in any of Azaña's works. Although he chronicles his growing political awareness and his absolute commitment to liberal freedom and revolutionary reforms, as well as sarcastically mocking the malignant influence of the church on the minds of the people, he also staunchly defends the privacy of personal life.
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