author
Valentín Lamas Carvajal
1849–1906
A key voice in Galicia’s cultural revival, he wrote with humor, warmth, and a strong feeling for everyday life. His poems and journalism helped bring the Galician language into print for a wide readership.
1 Audiobook
Catecismo d'a Doutrina Labrega
by Valentín Lamas Carvajal
About the author
Born in Ourense in 1849, Valentín Lamas Carvajal became one of the best-known writers of the Galician Rexurdimento, the 19th-century revival of Galician language and literature. He studied in Ourense and later moved to Santiago de Compostela to study medicine, but an eye disease interrupted those plans and eventually left him blind.
He is especially remembered as a poet and journalist who wrote in Galician at a time when doing so carried real cultural importance. He founded O Tío Marcos da Portela, widely noted as the first periodical written entirely in Galician, and he also stood out for popular works such as Catecismo do labrego. Alongside his literary work, he was a founding member of the Royal Galician Academy.
Lamas Carvajal died in Ourense in 1906, but his place in Galician letters has lasted well beyond his lifetime. He is often remembered not just for defending a language, but for making it feel lively, familiar, and close to ordinary readers.