Emilio Bobadilla Lunar

A prose writer with a clean and penetrating style, contributor to the best French, Spanish, and Spanish American magazines. Author of various critical pieces that he later compiled into several volumes. He also practiced Didactic Literature and conducted linguistic and grammatical studies.

He was born in Cárdenas, a municipality in the province of Matanzas. When the Ten Years' War broke out, his father emigrated with his family to the United States and later to Mexico City. Bobadilla traveled through Europe and lived for a long time in Paris and Madrid, studied Law at the University of Madrid, where he graduated in 1899, twelve years after having begun his studies in Ciudad de La Habana.

Writer, poet, literary critic, and journalist, from a very young age he began working in Havana newspapers, among which was El amigo del país. From that time on he adopts the pseudonym that made him famous: Fray Candil.

From 1866 to 1881 the press collected his articles and chronicles. In April 1887 he embarked again for Spain; by that time he had already published several books and had completed his latest work: Reflejos de Fray Candil.

In addition to Chronicle, he cultivated Poetry and the Novel. He was a member of the Academy of the History of Cuba and the National Academy of Arts and Letters.

He traveled through America and Europe; his bold, cutting, and mocking Prose continued to grow, increasing his fame and his name. Because of this, he engaged in numerous controversies and some duels in the field of honor.

In 1894 in Paris he made connections with Cuban revolutionaries and collaborated in La República Cubana, edited by Domingo Figarola Caneda. At the end of 1897, after traveling again through Europe, he embarked toward New York and later moved to Panama, where he wrote for La Estrella de Panamá.

Upon concluding the War of '95, Bobadilla departed for Europe and returned to the Island of Cuba in 1910 where he was offered tributes and banquets, in addition to writing for El Fígaro.

Named Consul of Cuba in Bayona, he resided there for some time, until he moved to Biarritz with the same position, where he remained until his death on January 1, 1921.

Publications
Magazines and newspapers to which he contributed
La República Cubana, Francia, La Estrella de Panamá, Panamá, El amigo de París, Ciudad de La Habana Elegante, El Fígaro, El Sol, Madrid, El Liberal, Madrid, El Mundo.

Pseudonyms: "Dagoberto Mármara"; "Fray Candil".

Works
Novels in embryo, (1900); A fuego lento, novel, Barcelona, (1903); En la noche dormida, erotic novel, Madrid, (1913); En pos de la paz. Pequeñeces de la vida diaria, novel, Madrid, (1917); Capirotazos (1890); A través de mis normas (1903); Muecas (1908); Con la capucha vuelta.

Verses
Sal y Pimienta, (collection of epigrams) by Dagoberto Mármara (pseud.), (1881); Relámpagos, poems, Ciudad de La Habana, (1884); Mostaza, Epigrams, (1885); Fiebres, poems, Madrid, (1889); Vórtice, poems, (1902); Rojeces de Marte, (poems), (1921); Selection of poems, (1962).

Journalistic Articles
Reflejos de Fray Candil, La Habana, (1886); Con la capucha vuelta, chronicles, París, (1909); Journalistic Articles by Emilio Bobadilla, (1952).