Cruz, Ramon Francisco de la

Cruz, Ramón Francisco de la 

(full surname, Cruz Cano y Olmedilla). Born Mar. 28, 1731, in Madrid; died there Mar. 5, 1794. Spanish dramatist.

Ramón de la Cruz wrote primarily in minor dramatic genres, realistically describing the everyday life of Madrid. His sainetes, The Vindictive Majas (1768) and The Gangs of Lavapiés Street (1776), sympathetically portrayed the urban lower classes. Many of his playlets (The Unsuccessful Marriage, 1767; The False Devotee, 1783) mocked family relations among the nobility, but occasionally he took an antiaristocratic or anticlerical stance (The Mirror of Fashion, The Triumph of Greed). His sainetes, written in the meters of national songs and in idiomatic Spanish, became a beloved genre of the popular theater. Ramón de la Cruz also wrote musical comedies—zarzuelas and tonadillas — on themes of everyday life (Licentiate Farfulla, 1776).

WORKS

Sainetes, 2nd ed. Preface by F. C. Sainz de Robles. Madrid, 1958.

REFERENCES

Spiridonova, L. D. “Sainety Ramona de la Crus.” In the collection Voprosy filologii. Moscow, 1959.
Vega, J. Don Ramón de la Cruz…. [Madrid, 1945.]

Z. I. PLAVSKIN