Chronology

1908 - 1921

1908 - 1914

On 10th October, 1908, Mercè Rodoreda Gurguí was born in a small house with a garden belonging to her grandfather, located on Carrer de Sant Antoni, currently called Carrer Manuel Angelon, in the neighbourhood of Sant Gervasi de Cassoles, in Barcelona. She was the only child of Andreu Rodoreda Sallent and Montserrat Gurguí Guàrdia. Her father, an accountant for a gun shop, always liked the theatre. Her mother felt a certain inclination towards music. Both shared a fondness for the theatre, and a somewhat bohemian lifestyle, and they attended the Institut del Teatre (Theatre Institute), headed by Adrià Gual, in order to learn declamation.

1909

Joan Gurguí Guàrdia, Montserrat’s brother, left for Argentina.

1915 - 1917

Elementary school studies in two different schools: the Lourdes school, in Sarrià, and another closer to her home, between Pàdua and Vallirana streets. In fact, her great teacher was her grandfather, an admirer of Verdaguer and writer for La Renaixença.

1917

She participates in the reintroduction of the comedy The Mysterious Jimmy Samson, performed by an amateur company at the Ateneu de Sant Gervasi. Rodoreda played the role of Ketty.

1919

Joan Gurguí, who had written regularly to his family, returns to Barcelona. Mercè enthusiastically awaited the arrival of her uncle’s letters, and over time, she turns him into a myth.

1921

Her grandfather, Pere Gurguí, dies. The arrival of her uncle at the Gurguí household changes the family’s lifestyle. Austerity and conventional order are established.