From the Seminar to Literature via the Courtroom

Every minute spent in conversation with José de Vicente García reveals a new profession. If it's said that a cat has nine lives, ... it's clear that he would surpass this saying. Born in the small town of Sayalonga in Málaga, José de Vicente launched his first novel, 'La dama de Agadir', a few months ago, and for that reason, he meets with this newspaper for an interview. But what is astonishing is that his life goes far beyond and could be summarized as 'From the seminary to literature via the Courtroom'. Although here it details how everything unfolded: "Now that I am 72 years old...", as he himself began.

Now at 72, he can say he is a Graduate and Doctor in Law, as well as being the vice president of the Málaga Writers Collective. His resume says much more: he was a career military officer in the Navy's Quartermaster Corps, Local Administration Auditor-Treasurer, Magistrate, associate professor at the University of Málaga for fifteen years, vice-secretary of the Ibero-American Union of Municipalists...

And almost a priest. José de Vicente recalls how as a "young boy" he settled into the Seminary of Málaga, where he studied his high school. He never became a priest because at 18 he left to study Law in Granada. "I was not even 10 years old when I entered the seminary; I was there for many years and the reality is that it was very decisive because it provided me with a very important humanistic education. But I realized that what I liked was not compatible with being a priest," he confesses.

José de Vicente reinvents his life at 72 with his first novel, 'La dama de Agadir'

In his town, it was rare for someone to go to university. "I was almost the first university student from Sayalonga," points out a proud José de Vicente. His father wanted him to be a career military officer, but he refused to study Law. "So what I did was finish my degree and spent about eight years in the military. I was then six months in naval school which were tough, but I had endurance because I came from the stoic life of the Seminary," recounts the man from Málaga, who in the next phase of his life came to prepare for competitive exams with José María Aznar. "I was preparing to be a local administration auditor. I passed and my first assignment was in Benalmádena, where I was later appointed manager of the main Revenue agency; at that time I was alternating teaching at the faculty and I became a doctor in Law in 1997," he details.

But then another new passion came into his life: the magistracy. "I was in the Provincial Council as an auditor and I saw that a contest for magistrates came up; I applied in the Administrative Litigation and got a position in Melilla. There I spent a few years in Court No. 1 and then I came here to Málaga because a position in Court No. 4 became vacant," José de Vicente specifies.

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In 2004, he encountered a decisive moment in this journey. "Judicial life was going to drive me crazy, it's very beautiful, but I liked working in a team more. I requested a leave of absence and returned as auditor and treasurer in Ceuta. Then the president of the Association of Municipalities of the Western Coast called me and there I was from 2006 until 2022 when I retired," he adds. But, as he himself says, "to all this is added being a family man." And it is that in one of his assignments he met his wife and now has two children and two granddaughters. He dedicates many of his poems to them, another of his passions.

A Calling

"I have always had a calling to write. In the Seminary, I dedicated poems and in Granada as well. I am more into poetry than narrative, but now I see that it is not so bad either," he points out. With 'Renacer desde el Ocaso' he debuted in literature and now with 'La dama de Agadir' he reaffirms himself. "They say it's written in a way that seems like a real story, but nothing in the novel is biographical. The topics I deal with are current, everyday because they are universal. Although I am personally a jurist, socially I tend to be an activist," clarifies the man from Málaga.

Retirement gave him more time to develop what he had left to do, if there was any more room in his resume, and so it is: now that José de Vicente who started his journey in a Seminary continues walking among the threads of literature.