José Ortega Munilla

Spanish writer and journalist, father of philosopher José Ortega y Gasset.

Born in Cárdenas, Matanzas, (Cuba), in 1856. Moved to Spain from his childhood, he studied at the seminary in Cuenca, resided in Gerona (Spanish city and municipality), and in 1868 he abandoned his ecclesiastical career and studied Law in Madrid.

Contributor to the newspaper Los Lunes del Imparcial, he eventually became its director. His marriage to the daughter of Eduardo Gasset made him a co-owner of the publication. He was one of the managers of the Trust and a patron of the newspaper El Sol, which was influenced by the cultural work of his son José Ortega y Gasset. He turned his press chain into a springboard for writers of the 98. In 1901 he was admitted to the Real Academia Española.

His work is distinguished by two periods: the first, which runs from 1879 to 1884, is marked by the writing of what the author himself called "contemporary novels"; these are ten narratives (seven extensive novels and three brief ones), in which one can appreciate—both the burden of an outdated romanticism (Lucio Tréllez, from 1879), and the triumph of literary costumbrismo present in (El tren directo, 1880) and, above all, the timid assimilation of the naturalist current (well present in El fondo del tonel, from 1880, and, in a very pronounced way, in Cleopatra Pérez, from 1884).

The last of the aforementioned narratives is his best-known work. It tells the tragic story of a prostitute whose son abandons the adoptive family that had taken him in, to go and live with his biological mother, in a crude tone that does not spare tragic events, such as the young man's suicide.

In Congress for the district of Padrón (La Coruña), in the elections of April 27, 1898 he obtained the seat of deputy. Reelected continuously for the same district until the elections of May 8, 1910 (a total of 7 electoral convocations).

He died in Madrid, Spain, in the year 1922.