Joaquin Albaicin (Madrid, 1966)

Writer, lecturer and artistic life chronicler, his articles and tales, as well as his Flamenco art reviews -decisives for the present rebirth of the genre- have been published by Spanish dailies as ABC and El Pais or the Mexican one Reforma, and magazines as El Europeo, Vogue, Sur-Exprés, Axis Mundi, Letra y Espíritu, La Clave, Generación XXI, Debats, Amanecer, Web Islam, 6 Toros 6, El Ruedo, MAN, Próximo Milenio, The Ecologist, Más Allá, Omarambo...

Esoterism of the great World Religions, geopolitical analysys, tauromachia, spying, Mongol Empire and the last Romanov´s world are some of the main subjects of the work of this writer born in a Kali/Romani rooted family of artists.

Regular talker at the TV program El Faro de Alejandría, directed and conducted by Fernando Sánchez Dragó, Joaquín Albaicín has published in Spain the novel La serpiente terrenal (The Earthly Serpent -Anagrama, Barcelona 1993); Gitanos en el ruedo: el Indostán en el toreo (Roma in the Circle of Sand: Hindusthan in bullfights -Espasa Calpe, Madrid 1993), an essay on the great Roma bullfighters; Diario de un paulista (Diary of a Paulist -El Europeo, Madrid 1995), written following the wake of the genius-like bullfighter Rafael de Paula; En pos del Sol: los gitanos en la historia, el mito y la leyenda (After the Sun: the Roma in History, Myth and Legend -Obelisco, Barcelona 1997); El Príncipe que ha de venir (The Prince to Be Become -Muchnik Editores, Barcelona 1999), an approach to the Millennialist prophecies found in all the World Religions; and the book of tales La Estrella de Plata (The Silver Star -Manuscritos, Madrid 2000).

He is currently finishing a new novel, as well as an essay dealing with the medieval legend of Prester Johns´s Realm, another one on Grand Duchess Anastasia´s mystery and a third one dealing with the polemic Baron Ungern-Sternberg. In his safe-box sleeps also an inedit collection of tales. All his works are available to foreign publishers. He is his own literary agent.

Publishers should submit their proposals to:

Joaquín Albaicín
c/ Princesa 81, 1-izda.
28008-Madrid
SPAIN

e-mail: yeticave@hotmail.com

PRESS CLIPPINGS

"In the pages of The Earthly Serpent, Albaicín knows how to transmit us the art and passion of a royal race every day condemned but, nevertheless, never ever giving in, never ever accepting defeat." Daniel Morón, Mercado, 12 Jul 1993

"Albaicín deeply feels what he narrates and -Gypsy elegance- transmits it." El Siglo, Dec 1993

"While collecting the sources needed to write my Gárgoris and Habidis, I thoroughly revised all the bibliography available on Gypsies. And I have to concede that I did not found anything not even by far meeting the challenge of After the Sun. It is, in my opinion, the best book up to date written about one of the most fascinant segments of the Humankind. Do not leave the chance to pass!" Fernando Sánchez Dragó, El Mundo, 6 Jun 1998

"Caste of Rajputs defeated in Hindusthan, riders in Vlad Dracul´s host, boilermakers, bullfighters or fortune-tellers, the Gypsy people belongs to myth; this is what the author narrates in his legendary history, swimming under water among the Indian peoples, travelling through Asia and staring at the secrets of Duende". José Manjón, Generación XXI, Jan 1998

"Joaquín Albaicín, belonging to a Romani lineage of artists, introduces us into the incredible history of the Roma not through universitary reflection or erudit channels, but by means of spiritual code. Albaicín, in a book written halfway between Spain and India, looks for his arguments in Holy books, in esoteric books and, above all, in the oral tradition. (...) Forget García Lorca and go to the legitimate sources". María Bienvenida de Vargas, The Ecologist, Jan 2002

"Albaicin´s new work will give rise to an angry Inquisition trial by the allegedly pluralist and tolerant readers of this difficult and polemic book, unique in Spain since the days of Arnau of Vilanova. The apocalyptic literature, absent from our stands since 500 years ago, resucites now, at the Millenium borderline, with The Prince to Be Become". José Manjón, Generación XXI

"An apocalyptic book for pre-apocalyptic times. A book, nevertheless, that does not appeals to dramatism, but analyzes the facts. (...) A widely documented work, very well printed and coming, as well as the Messiah, in the very just moment to be become." Nuevos Horizontes, Apr 2000

"Over the crowd of books dealing with the Last Days, it does stand out the detailed essay by Joaquín Albaicín titled The Prince to Be Become, scrutinizing the Antichrist in the Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Brahmanic sources." Sergio González Rodríguez, Reforma, 17 Jul 99

"He is one of those convinced that that Heaven will provide, fact that grants him the passport needed to live in free. I ask myself if it is due to his Indian roots and Gypsy heritage that his responses are so clean, clear and bruising, in the carefree manner typical of the man that seeps art through all his pores. Writer and chronicler of the artistic life, his work is marked by an special and intense sense of rythm." Pilar de Miguel, MC, Feb 2000

"Joaquín Albaicín belongs to a peculiar dinasty of artists. Bullfighters, painters, dancers and musicians shape the family label of this anarchist and a little right-winged Gypsy, a free writer who honors his blood and loyalties.
Joaquín made his start in ABC, going later through the novel, the tale and above all the essay. Specialist in non-correct subjects, his thinking is strangely marginal due to its traditional outlook and because the world -as he, I myself and many others think- is upside down.
Joaquín denounces the present inversion of values, the Kali Yuga or Last Days crisis, the capitalist satanism we live within. But Albaicín is also the bohemian nigths, rumba flying in the air, the Movida death rattles and this or that duel and broken heart left behind in his road of lonely or tribal nocturnal man.
Spy of the Government of Bhutan and conspirator, I distinguish until four Joaquins: the revolutionary one; that of the roots; the Dalinian-styled of the bohemian life; and the mystic who went to India to stay and live as one among his people.
In the pivot hole of the End of the World, Albaicín paints sea-horses in the lyrics he is starting to compose for la crème of Flamenco." Javier Esteban, Radio Intercontinental, 17 Dec 02

"Joaquín Albaicín has written a history of the Roma people, but is in his short stories and first novel that his historical vision takes on an astounding richness. Albaicín weaves tradition and myths through his narratives, creating a seamless identity spanning centuries and the many miles between India and the Iberian Peninsula. The protagonists of his stories are at once timeless and firmly set in contemporary urban grittiness; they live in the city yet are eternal travelers. The language of the texts moves as well, surging from baroque flourishes to the crudest street talk, with stops in between for liberal doses of caló and even Indian languages. In content and in style, the texts of Heredia Maya and Albaicín evoke the gitano experience, at once hundreds of years old and still brand new. For the next generation of college students, it may perhaps be the Gypsies themselves who tell their history." Dra. Erika M. Sutherland, The Gypsy Lore Society Annual Meeting Information 2003