José Manuel Castañón: una balandra entre dos mundos

The article proposes to rescue the relevant trajectory of a notable writer of Spanish exile in Venezuela: José Manuel Castañón (1920-2001), who fought the Civil War in the nationalist camp, but soon distanced himself from the Franco regime and in 1958 left Spain taking the road of exile like the Republicans. In Venezuela he developed his literary vocation. The novel Una balandra encalla en tierra firme (1958) was written during the crossing of the Atlantic and it focuses on a group of clandestine immigrants who travel in 1949 on the Canary-Venezuelan route, seeking peace and a new life. It touches many of the problems of the relations between the two shores of the ocean at this crucial historical moment.