Miguel Hernández Guided Tour

“Andalusians from Jaén, / haughty olive growers, / tell me in my soul: who, / who raised the olive trees?”. These verses by Miguel Hernández, which are currently part of the provincial anthem of Jaén, were composed in 1937. The poet from Alicante, shortly after marrying his love Josefina Manresa, had to leave for the Jaén front during the Spanish Civil War . On our guided tour, which will begin in the central Plaza de San Ildefonso, we will remember the writer's legacy during his stay in the Andalusian city.

During this tour of the historic center of Jaén we will also discover the links between Miguel Hernández and the city. In it he held the position of Commissioner of Culture, directing the newspaper "Altavoz del Frente Sur". It is also at this stage when he writes the poem “Aceituneros”, whose first verses we quoted at the beginning of this description. We will delve into the importance of these stanzas and many others that the poet composed in Jaén, collected in his famous book "Vientos del pueblo".

We will end the tour by visiting one of the places in Jaén that most impressed Miguel Hernández during the Civil War: the air-raid shelter in Plaza de Santiago. In this underground bunker where the local population took refuge during the bombings of 1937 we will see various portraits, poems and journalistic chronicles of the writer: “Jaén is bombarded: the trilite shakes and bursts even the deepest stones of the city [...] and in the cemetery need revenge for their inhuman death children, women and elderly who had not committed another crime than being born and living”.