"I have never felt like such an orphan," singer Joaquin Sabina said at the morgue where Gonzalez's body was taken. Gonzalez was a member of the Spanish Royal Academy, the prestigious, official watchdog of the Spanish language, and won awards that included the Asturias Prize for Letters in 1985. His poems addressed issues like freedom and solidarity, and like many intellectuals under the Franco regime, Gonzalez eventually left Spain. In the 1970s he accepted a teaching position at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and stayed there until retiring in 1993, although he frequently traveled back to Spain.
"It is too early for him to have left, although I am glad he died without having fallen into decadence," said novelist Almudena Grandes. "He was a mentor to all of us. He exercised literary and vital authority." Gonzalez is survived by his widow, Susana Rivera.
