In 2026, one hundred and ten years have passed since the birth of the writer and thirty-five since the publication of the poet’s lyrical anthology, edited by Manuel Urbano.
“One of the finest and firmest poetic voices of the province of Jaén in the postwar period.” This is how the remembered polygrapher Manuel Urbano (1940-2013) defines the figure and work of Juan Martínez de Úbeda (born Juan Martínez García, Úbeda 1916-Linares, 1963).
So fond of his small homeland that he chose it as his last name: “And I added to my name / as poor as I am, your name / and now I love you and even knowing / transferred from you,” he wrote in his poem Sorry, my Úbeda.
A text collected in the anthology In the voice the wingpublished by the Provincial Council of Jaén within its collection Poetrywith an introduction and selection by Urbano himself and which brings together verses from the seven books that make up Martínez’s production.
Can be classified (according to the great Gerardo Diego) in the Generation of ’36 (in the lee of Ridruejo, García Nieto or Luis Rosales, among others), his work sometimes includes his first vocation, the religious one, if one takes into account (as Ramón Quesada Consuegra assures in his Úbeda, men and names) that he “tried to become a priest”, without succeeding.
He did achieve, on the other hand, an abundant list of awards in different literary competitions: “His lyrical agility, born from his noble feelings and his delicate humility, made him a poet of great horizons and clear designs” (Quesada Consuegra).
Administrative in his work role, he carried the name of his native land where his poems achieved recognition until that year 1963 when his voice was silenced forever.
2026 is the year of his one hundred and tenth anniversary, and the thirty-fifth anniversary of the publication of his beautiful anthology, whose rereading informs a poet full-length, deserving (Urbano dixit) of a “fair revaluation.”
