Juan Muñoz The man who invented children's literature
He was responsible for several generations of Spanish children knowing that
the pirate life was the best life
.
The creator of characters such as Fray Perico and his donkey, El Pirata Garrapata, the 20 friars who taught the things of life in a convent in Salamanca... And he died today at the age of 93 in his usual home, in the neighborhood Cuatro Caminos in Madrid,
several floors above the hustle and bustle, in a huge house that always opened lovingly to everyone
.
Juan Muñoz Martín was above all a teacher, but also one of those responsible for children's literature taking flight in our country.
He had many children and taught many more children
.
And luckily there was a day in his youth, when his wife was his girlfriend, in which he decided to enter a literary contest.
2019 marked the 40th anniversary of not only the publication of
Fray Perico y su borrico
but also the beginning of children's literature as we know it in our country.
And the truth is that what Muñoz Martín wrote
in a small room in his house where his children studied for decades
is still being read now .
Always by machine, at least that's how he did it when in 2020, during the confinement, EL MUNDO was able to visit him to celebrate the aforementioned anniversary.
"The least likely to know why these books are successful is me," he said then.
Anyone who has been with him for a while knows that, right away, you feel like a student again, with that feeling you had as a child, when a teacher taught you, treated you well, was affectionate, and on top of that he wrote about pirates
!
Always at the Barco de Vapor publishing house, from SM, those orange covers, books not too big and not too small, the first collections of many of the Spaniards who today are around 40 years old.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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