Murals in Orihuela in honor of Spanish poet Miguel Hernandez

In the city of Orihuela, in the Spanish province of Alicante, there lies a hidden treasure: beautiful murals painted by Spanish artists in tribute to the poetry of hometown son Miguel Hernandez. I never heard of this poet before but he was very popular during and after the Spanish Civil War. Unfortunately, he wasn’t a friend of Franco since he fought on the Republican side in its struggle against fascism. This resistance led to his imprisonment. He ended up dying in jail from tuberculosis where he languished long after the civil war was over. It is a sad tale as he only lived 32 years, from 1910 to 1942. But he certainly made an impact on Spanish people during his short life judging from the amazing art that was done in tribute to his poetry.

Here is a great blog post about the life of Spanish poet and fascist fighter Miguel Hernandez. https://viewfromlavila.com/2019/11/01/miguel-hernandez-the-power-and-emotion-of-alicantes-civil-war-poet/. There is more information about him on wikipedia. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_Hern%C3%A1ndez. Lastly, my friend Kathy blogged about our experience there together last weekend. You can read her interesting post here. https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/153618070/posts/444.

In this post, I am going to share photos of some of the many murals that were done in Hernandez’s honor. I think you will agree that they are impressive. Not all the murals are political, but those were my favorite so that’s mostly what you will see on this post. If you are ever in the San Isidro neighborhood of Orihuela, make sure to check them out. There is no charge to see them. There is also a great tapas restaurant at the bottom of this hilly neighborhood, across from the Guernica revisited mural, called Casa Diego. I highly recommend their food and service.