The writer and journalist Alejandro Sawa Martínez (Seville, 1862 – Madrid, 1909) published his first chronicles at just sixteen years old. In them, he already expressed his progressive ideas about the State and society. He arrived in Madrid around 1885 and there published naturalist novels such as The woman of the whole world (1885) Legal crime (1886) Declaration of a defeated person (1887) Breeding grounds for priests (1888) Nightlife o The Igúzquiza chasm (1888).

Years later, drawn by its bohemian lifestyle, he moved to Paris. In the City of Lights, he befriended Verlaine, Daudet, and other poets, as well as Rubén Darío, and his name began to resonate in European intellectual circles. Returning to Madrid in 1896, he wrote for the most important newspapers of the time, criticizing politicians and denouncing the moral and material misery that plagued the country.

His final years, marked by physical and moral decline coupled with financial hardship, plunged him into poverty. He died in 1909.