José Agustín Goytisolo

José Agustín Goytisolo Gay (13 April 1928 – 19 March 1999) was a Spanish poet, scholar and essayist.

Born in Barcelona on 13 April 1928, in an upper class Spanish-only speaking family (that is, non Catalan-speaking though he spoke perfect Catalan and translated Catalan poems into other languages[1]), his family was brutally shaken by the death of his mother (Julia Gay) in a Francoist Nationalist bombardment in 1938.

In Words for Julia, one of his best-known poems (sung by Paco Ibáñez and Los Suaves, among others), he joins the love for both women.

According to Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Goytisolo's poetry was not just an ideological substitute for the capitalism of Francoist Spain, but aspired to build a new humanism:

He translated, among others, works by Cesare Pavese, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Salvador Espriu and Pere Quart.