Recently, I’ve learned that writer Miguel Cervantes wasn’t at all that successful early on in life. He had to try to make a living in all kinds other ways. He was a soldier. He was captured by Barbary pirates and sold as a slave in Algiers for 5 long years. He worked as a traveling government grain and oil collector. A couple of times he was jailed for financial reasons. Sometimes he wrote a lot, sometimes he despaired. He married, had no luck, divorced, had a daughter, and received three gun shot wounds in a fight, one of which caused major and permanent damage to his left hand. He moved on, looked for new jobs, new opportunities. (I have no idea why there hasn’t been a major movie produced about all he went through. There are many of us who could sympathize with him. In the 60s there was a b-movie released. Later it was retitled The Young Rebel, and went nearly unnoticed at the box office and did not do well critically.)
In the mid 1580s, he was 40 by then, Cervantes worked as a tax collector and lived in Velez-Malaga, just down the hill from us. It is likely Cútar was part of his jurisdiction. That meant he came up the road at times, knocked on people’s doors, invited himself in, had a chat, a glass of wine, and convinced those who owed money to pay off a sum. Apparently he was pretty good with people. Maybe he sat in our kitchen. Parts of the house most certainly stood here then.
When Don Quixote was released, Cervantes was close to 60, and by the standards of the time, he must have seemed pretty old. He also must have had many memories of his stay around here, because Velez-Malaga is mentioned three times in the novel.
When I was younger, I thought one would have it all figured out by the age of almost 60. Now I know better. I didn’t think I’d have a house that Cervantes possible visited either. I guess it’s of no use getting carried away by it all.
“... he who's down one day can be up the next, unless he really wants to stay in bed, that is...” Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
In the mid 1580s, he was 40 by then, Cervantes worked as a tax collector and lived in Velez-Malaga, just down the hill from us. It is likely Cútar was part of his jurisdiction. That meant he came up the road at times, knocked on people’s doors, invited himself in, had a chat, a glass of wine, and convinced those who owed money to pay off a sum. Apparently he was pretty good with people. Maybe he sat in our kitchen. Parts of the house most certainly stood here then.
When Don Quixote was released, Cervantes was close to 60, and by the standards of the time, he must have seemed pretty old. He also must have had many memories of his stay around here, because Velez-Malaga is mentioned three times in the novel.
When I was younger, I thought one would have it all figured out by the age of almost 60. Now I know better. I didn’t think I’d have a house that Cervantes possible visited either. I guess it’s of no use getting carried away by it all.
“... he who's down one day can be up the next, unless he really wants to stay in bed, that is...” Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
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