The Casa-Museo Zenobia y Juan Ramón Jiménez (House and Museum of Zenobia and Juan Ramón Jiménez) is located in the town of Moguer in Huelva Province, Andalusia, Spain.

Moguer, the poet’s home town, is the setting for his beloved book of prose poetry Platero y yo (Platero and I).

Juan Ramón Jiménez (1881–1958) was a Spanish poet who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956 for “his lyrical poetry, which in the Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistical purity.”

Jiménez is one my favorite authors and has been so ever since high school when I read Platero y yo, his most famous book, in English translation.

Zenobia Camprubí (1887–1956) was the poet’s wife. She herself was a writer and poet and the translator of the works of Rabindranath Tagore.

I traveled to Andalusia in May and June of this year with a friend. Jiménez’s birthplace in Moguer, now a museum, was a must see, partly because Platero and yo is suffused with local color.

The museum was well worth the visit.

–– Roger W. Smith

   June 2016

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photographs by Roger W. Smith

Public sign, Moguer, Spain. Moguer was the birthplace of poet Juan Ramón Jiménez. The year 2014 was the centennial of the publication of Jiménez’s Platero y yo.

The Casa-Museo Zenobia y Juan Ramón Jiménez in Moguer, Span is about five minutes from the town center, shown here.

central square, Moguer

Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío (1867-1916) was an early admirer of Jiménez. His letter to the latter begins “Mi amado Poeta” (my beloved poet).

Juan Ramón Jiménez’s typewriter

typescript, Chapter XVIII of Platero y yo, “la Fantasma” (The Ghost)

typescript, Chapter XVI of Platero y yo, “la Casa de Enfrente” (The House Across the Street)

Zenobia Camprubí, wife of Juan Ramón Jiménez

Zenobia Camprubí, wife of Juan Ramón Jiménez

Zenobia Camprubí Aymar (1887–1956), wife of the poet Juan Ramón Jiménez, was a writer, poet, and translator.

Don Victor Jiménez, father of poet Juan Ramón Jiménez,

bust of Juan Ramón Jiménez

Juan Ramón Jiménez

portrait of Juan Ramón Jiménez

portrait of Juan Ramón Jiménez

portrait of Juan Ramón Jiménez

photo of Juan Ramón Jiménez as a young man

Juan Ramón Jiménez

Juan Ramón Jiménez

Juan Ramón Jiménez

Platero (this drawing is prominently displayed in in the museum’s entrance hall)

summary of the exhibit

poster in museum entranceway

plaque, “El Andaluz Universal” (The Universal Andalusian) — Platero y yo was subtitled Elegía andaluza (An Andalusian Elegy)

ticket for entrance to the Casa-Museo Zenobia y Juan Ramón Jiménez

A plaque in the doorway reads: “En esta casa — hoy museo — vivío Juan Ramón Jiménez todos sus sueños de infancia y de adolescencia (In this house — now a museum — Juan Ramón Jiménez experoeinced all his dreams of childhood and adolescence)

10 calle Juan Ramón Jiménez, Moguer; now a museum