LIFE OF LUIS BUÑUEL

 

Luis Buñuel was born on February 22, 1900, the son of Leonardo Buñuel and María Portolés Cerezuela. His father had been in Cuba and received the nickname Weyler, in memory of General Vañeriano Weyler, Captain General of Cuba from 1896 and 1897. Leonardo was from Indiana and María, a native of Calanda. In 1901 a sister of Luis was born, named María del Pilar who came into the world on March 7 of that year. On May 22, 1904, another Buñuel sister was born, María de la Concepción Rita (Conchita), Luis's favorite sister. Leonardo had a mansion built in the center of Calanda, as a home, it had three floors and an attic and a modernist façade.
Buñuel's parents decided that Luis would begin his studies with the Corazionistas, who had settled in Calle Independencia, 29. The Corazionistas were a group of French religious from the Brothers of the Sacred Heart. They were the ones who taught Buñuel to read in Spanish and French. In 1908, he left the Corazionistas and began his studies with the Jesuits at the Colegio del Salvador, famous in the Aragonese capital. Throughout the 1908-1909 and 1909-1910 academic years, the Jesuits prepared Luis for the formal examination at the school. Subjects included Catechism, Grammar, Arithmetic, and Geometry.
Luis's parents had five children, the last one born on March 19, 1909, named Leonardo Tomás José. In the Jesuits, Luis Buñuel had to accept a strict discipline that did not go well with his rebellious character. Between the sepulchral silence that was imposed in the school, the catechism every day, the lives of saints, apologetics, scholastic argumentation, etc; Buñuel's life was a torment there.

 

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