Ramón J. Sender

Ramón J. Sender, was an Aragonese Spanish novelist, essayist and journalist.

His most famous works include La tesis de Nancy, about the experiences of a young American student in Spain named Nancy, and Réquiem por un campesino español.

In 1923 Ramón was obliged to serve in the Spanish military and take part in the Spain Morocco Rif War. After that, he worked as a journalist for the critical newspaper El Sol. In 1926 he was imprisoned for writing Casas Viejas and when the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, Sender immediately enlisted to help resist Franco.

While he was at the front, the Nationalists shot his wife, Amparo Barayon and his brother.

He had been an anarchist and then a communist but after the Spanish Civil War he reneged of this ideology and sought asylum in France in 1938. He left for New York in 1939, and then relocated to Mexico like many scientists, artists and intellectuals during the government of Lázaro Cárdenas. He became an American citizen in 1948, and he lived in the US until 1972, when he returned to live in Spain for several years before dying in California in 1982.

Sender's son is composer and writer Ramon Sender. His grandson is Chicago-based designer Sol Sender, best known for the development of the Obama campaign logo.