Introduction

This is the introduction to a vocabulary list for reasonably advanced readers of works by Antonio Buero Vallejo (1916 – 2000), including Historia de una escalera (1949) and En la ardiente oscuridad (1950). The vocabulary was developed by TC Rindfleisch and is focused on unfamiliar words, idioms, and words that appear to be English cognates but really are not. A PDF version of this vocabulary list is also available on-line.

An interview Buero Vallejo did in 1976 with Joaquín Soler Serrano, a popular Spanish radio/television host, was available on-line. The interview included Buero Vallejo’s commentary about his youth and first love, his family, his attempts to become an painter, his service in the Republican army during the Spanish Civil War, his commuted death sentence and imprisonment for almost 7 years after the war, his work and success as a playwright (26 works), and various views about the world.

The video version of the interview (~60 min) was on YouTube, but has been removed to avoid copyright infringement. The video consisted mainly of talking heads and the sound was not wonderful. A purely audio version of the interview (~70 min) is available on-line in which the segments are concatenated, the rate of speaking is slowed down a bit, and the sound quality is enhanced to try to make things more understandable. The soundtrack still has a few discontinuities from segment to segment as was present in the original YouTube files.

This vocabulary is for non-commercial educational or personal use. Please contact me with corrections or additions.