Fernán Caballero
Cecilia Francisca Josefa Böhl de Faber y Ruiz de Larrea, under the pen name Fernán Caballero, wrote about the folklore of rural Andalusia.
Her father was Johann Nikolaus Böhl und Lütkens (Juan Nicolás Böhl de Faber), a German businessman, married with Spanish Frasquita Larrea, who converted to Roman Catholicism and instaled on 1813 in Andalusia, his wife's native land.
In 1816 Cecilia married Antonio Planells, an infantry officer who was killed in action just a year later. In 1822 she married the Marqués de Arco Hermoso. He died in 1835, leaving Cecilia widowed for a second time. In 1837 she married a much younger man, Antonio de Ayala, who committed suicide in 1859.
Cecilia had to publish her writings to help her desperate situation and improve her income. Her first and best-known novel, "La gaviota" was a great success. It is considered one of the first examples of the literary spanish movement "costumbrismo".
She was a very popular writer in Spain for many years. Her death was considered a great loss to the Spanish community.
“Be fair before being generous, be human before being fair.”
“Sé justo antes de ser generoso; sé humano antes de ser justo.”
“Happiness! There is no word with more meanings, each person understands it in his own way.”
“¡La felicidad! No existe palabra con más acepciones; cada uno la entiende a su manera.”
“Educar no es dar carrera para vivir sino templar el alma para las dificultades de la vida.”
“La vanidad es la necedad del egoísmo, y el orgullo, la insolencia de la vanidad.”
“There is a force more powerful than steam and electricity: the will.”