Gallego, Ruben

Ruben's parents met while studying at Lomonosov Moscow State University. Ruben's father is a student of the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University from Venezuela, his mother is a student of the Faculty of Philology of Moscow State University Aurora Gallego. Aurora (Esperanza), daughter of Ignacio Gallego , Secretary General of the Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain , later became a journalist and translator, worked for Radio Liberty . From 1974 to 1998 she was the wife of the writer Sergei Yurienen .

Ruben Gallego is paralyzed from birth. The official diagnosis is cerebral palsy . When he was one and a half years old, the mother was informed that the child had died. In fact, he was sent to an orphanage for the disabled. He spent his childhood wandering around orphanages and nursing homes of the Soviet Union ( Pasha of the Leningrad Region, Trubchevsk of the Bryansk Region, Nizhny Lomov of Penza and Novocherkassk ).

The teachers of the Nizhnelomovsky boarding house remember Ruben. “He could not write, but he reproduced everything from memory, like a tape recorder,” said mathematics teacher Olga Amvrosenkova and German teacher Elena Druzhinina. - He had some kind of special brain structure - just a walking encyclopedia. Ruben re-read our entire library several times ” ^[2] .

He graduated from the Novocherkassk Commercial and Commercial College with a degree in Law. In 2001, he met his mother in Prague and remained in Europe. He lived in Madrid, Freiburg. In 2007 he left for the USA, in 2014 - for Israel.

Married a third time. He has three daughters, two daughters from their first marriages (Nadezhda and Maya) live in Russia, both are engaged in ballet.

The hero of the film Algis Arlauskas "Letter to the mother."

Published in the journals Index / Censorship Dossier ^[3] , Twinkle ^[4] , New Beach ^[5] , El Pais ^[6] .

I am a hero. Being a hero is easy. If you do not have arms or legs, you are a hero or a dead man. If you do not have parents - rely on your hands and feet. And be a hero. If you have neither arms nor legs, and you also managed to be born an orphan, that’s all. You are doomed to be a hero until the end of your days. Or die. I am a hero. I just have no other choice.

Since 2007 he lived in the USA. With his wheelchair when boarding a subway train in Washington on August 16, 2011, he fell on the rails. With fractures of the legs and facial bones he was taken to intensive care. About a week spent unconscious, underwent several operations. Internet users sent money to help Gallego.

On January 25, 2017, an audio version of the book “White on Black” performed by Yefim Shifrin was published.

• White on Black ^[7] - winner of the 2003 Booker - Open Russia Award .
• I am sitting on the shore - the second book of Ruben Gallego (ed. Limbus Press, 2005)
• Saturday Candlelight in Iraq, or Operation Mickey Mouse, a novel written by Ruben Gallego in collaboration with his wife, Rina Gonzalez Gallego (Publisher Createspace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017)
• The Eternal Guest - The Third Book of Ruben Gallego (ed. Limbus Press, 2018)

• “The American Dream - Part I”
• "American Dream - Part II" - an essay for the broadcast of Bookplate on Radio Liberty. 2002 year.
• “We did not have time to look back” - the preface to the book of Sergei Yurenen “The Fascist flew by.” 2002 year.
• Amputation of the Soul - publication in the journal Index. 2002 year.
• “Tomorrow we will meet” - publication in the journal Index. 2003 year.
• “Censorship and propaganda are two ruts of the same information road” - publication in the journal Index. 2004 year.
• "Other" - publication in the journal "Index". 2005 year.
• “Love is not in vain, or whoever gives to the wretched” is an essay. 2004 year.
• "Russian smile. The difference between a football player and a writer is a smile." - 2004.
• "Canopy" - an essay for the magazine "New Beach". 2004 year.
• “Who are Murziks?” - article for www.murzik.ru. 2004 year.
• "My Personal Attic" - a review in the magazine "Spark" on the novel by Enrique Vila-Matasa "Such a strange life." 2005 year.
• “Marble Statues” - a review in the magazine “Spark” on the book of Lyudmila Petrushevskaya “City of Light. Magical stories. " 2005 year.
• “My Body” - an essay for the Hermitage magazine. 2006 year.
• “Anyway” is a publication in the captive Almanac. 2007 year

• Ruben David Gonzalez Gallego
• Ruben Gallego "I am sitting on the shore" (Russian) . Archived December 23, 2012.
• Reading and Interview with Ruben Gallego (Stockholm, Sweden, 2005)
• “Mother's Letter” - documentary - Grand Prix of the Disability Film Festival “Cinema Without Barriers - 2004” (dir. - Algis Arlauskas , Spain, 2003)
• About the performance of the Moscow Art Theater Chekhov's “White on Black” (dir. - Marina Brusnikina, premiere June 9, 2004)
• “Siluro rosso - La straordinaria storia di Ruben Gallego” - Red torpedo: the extraordinary story of Ruben Gallego - film - participant of the 1st International Film Festival in Rome 2006 (dir. - Mara Chiaretti, Italy, 2006)
• Ruben Gallego - on the rejection of the "Booker of the Decade"
• An article about the fate and books of Ruben Gallego (in Spanish) 2012
• Ruben Gallego: "I'm a bad teacher." - interview with Yuri Vasiliev 2013
• [one]

• Kuchina T.G. Documentary writing as a fictitious narrative: about R. Gallego's prose [2] // Bulletin of the Volgograd State Pedagogical University. - 2008. - No. 10 (34). S.205 - 209.
• Bokale, P. Analytical and colloquial elements in the novel by Ruben Gallego // Russian Language Today. Vol. 4 Problems of the language norm. Sat articles. Russian Language Institute VVVinogradova RAS. - M., 2006.