Pedro Muñoz Seca (20 February 1879 – 28 November 1936[1] ) was a Spanish comic playwright. He was one of the most successful playwrights of his era.[2] He wrote approximately 300 dramatic works, bothsainetes (short vignettes) and longer plays, often in collaboration withPedro Pérez Fernández orEnrique García Álvarez.[3][4] His most ambitious and best known play isLa venganza de Don Mendo (Don Mendo's Revenge, 1918); other major works includeLa barba de Carrillo (Carrillo's Beard, 1918) andPepe Conde (1920).[4]
Muñoz Seca was born into a large family in El Puerto de Santa María,Cadiz, Spain, on 20 February 1879.[1] (Because Muñoz Seca loved palindromic numbers, however, he often claimed that he was born in 1881.[1][5] He also claimed to have been born at 10:15 pm, "the normal time for shows to start".[6]) Muñoz Seca attended primary school at the Jesuit school of San Luis Gonzaga in El Puerto de Santa María.[1] He then moved to Seville to study philosophy and law; he graduated in 1901.[1][2] While Muñoz Seca was still a student, his first plays premiered in El Puerto de Santa María (República estudiantil,Un Perfecto de pasivas, andEl señor de Pilili) and in Seville (Las Guerreras).[1]
After his graduation, Muñoz Seca moved to Madrid.[1][2] There, he taught Latin, Greek, and Hebrew and later would work as a lawyer.[1][4][7] He often attended literary society meetings, and there met Sebastian Alonso.[1] The two collaborated on the playEl Contrabando, which premiered in 1904.[1] Muñoz Seca entered public service in 1908, taking a post in the Ministry of Public Works and Transport.[1][4][8] Soon thereafter, he married María Asunción Ariza Díez de Bulnes; they would have nine children.[1][9]
His work often employed "slang, puns, plays on words, caricature, parody, and dramatic tricks".[3] He was the inventor of a new genre of comic theatre, the astracanada, the most celebrated example of which isLa venganza de Don Mendo, a satire of the romances popular in Spain at the turn of the century.[1]
Muñoz Seca's popularity grew after the premiere ofLa venganza de Don Mendo. Many of his later plays were very successful, includingLa pluma verde (1922),Los chatos (1924),La tela (1925), andLos extremeños se tocan (1927) (all written in collaboration with Pedro Pérez Fernández, but who contributed little to the works).[1][10] These works shifted away fromcostumbrismo toward Muñoz Seca's trademark astracanada.[1]
After the establishment of theSecond Spanish Republic in 1931, Muñoz Seca was at the height of his career, though his dramatic output slowed.[1][11] Major works during this period includeLa voz de su amo (1933),Anacleto se divorcia (1932),La EME (1934), andLa plasmatoria (1935). Muñoz Seca was aroyalist and friend ofAlfonso XIII, and his playsLa oca (1931) andJabalí (1932) sharply criticized the Second Republic.[1][7] In July 1936, after the outbreak of theSpanish Civil War, he was arrested in Barcelona; he was later transported to Madrid.[1][7] A humorist to the end, he said to hiscourt-martial, "You can take my hacienda, my land, my wealth, even—as you are going to do—my life. But there is one thing that you cannot take from me—the fear that I have!"[note 1] On 28 November 1936 hewas executed by a Spanish Republican Army firing squad in theParacuellos massacre.[1][2][7] His final words, addressed to the firing squad, were "I am starting to believe you are not intending to count me among your friends!"[18]
In 1995, the Pedro Muñoz Seca Foundation (Fundación Pedro Muñoz Seca) was established; it is sponsored by descendants of the author and by the government of El Puerto de Santa Maria.[19] The foundation maintains a small museum devoted to the author in his former family home in El Puerto de Santa Maria.[20][21][22]
Muñoz Seca is the grandfather of Spanish writer and journalist Alfonso Ussía.[23]
^"¡Podéis quitarme la hacienda, mis tierras, mi riqueza, incluso podéis quitarme, como vais a hacer, la vida, pero hay una cosa que no me podéis quitar, y es el miedo que tengo!"[12] Other versions of the quote have also been reported.[13][14][15][16] This phrase is often called his last words, but it was reported several weeks before his death.[17]
Alejo Fernández, Francisco; Caballero Oliver, Juan Diego (2003).Cultura andaluza: geografía, historia, arte, literatura, música y cultura popular (in Spanish). MAD-Eduforma.ISBN978-84-665-2913-6.
Azcune, Valentín (2007).Biblioteca Teatral (in Spanish). CSIC.ISBN978-84-00-08548-3.
Pascual Martínez, Pedro (1994).Escritores y editores en la Restauración canovista, 1875-1923 (in Spanish). Ediciones de la Torre.ISBN978-84-7960-101-0.
Cantos Casenave, Marieta; Alberto Romero Ferrer (1998).Pedro Muñoz Seca y el teatro de humor contemporáneo: (1898-1936). Cádiz: Universidad de Cádiz.ISBN84-7786-522-1.
Comision Pro-Homenaje a D. Pedro Muñoz Seca (1950).Homenaje a la memoria de Don Pedro Muñoz Seca. Puerto de Santa María: Talleres de Gráficas Andaluzas.OCLC16641511.
Ferrer, Alberto Romero; Cantos Casenave, Marieta (2004).¿De qué se venga Don Mendo?. El Puerto de Santa María: Fundación Pedro Muñoz Seca.ISBN84-923295-3-X.
Montero Alonso, José (1939).Pedro Muñoz Seca: vida, ingenio y asesinato de un comediógrafo español. Madrid: Ediciones españolas.OCLC3506723.
Peinado, Carlos Alba (2009).La censura del teatro republicano de Pedro Muñoz Seca. Madrid: Cátedra Valle-Inclán-Lauro Olmo, Ateneo de Madrid.ISBN978-84-936415-4-2.
Ussía, Alfonso (1994).Pedro Muñoz Seca, el hombre y el teatro. Oviedo: Ayuntamiento de Oviedo.OCLC431918085.
Varela Gilabert, Juan Ignacio (1979).Muñoz Seca a través de una amistad familiar. Puerto de Santa María: Fundación Municipal de Cultura.ISBN84-500-3235-0.
