José Antonio Olivar

José Antonio Olivar Cubiella (1939–2019) was a Spanish poet, journalist, former Roman Catholic priest, and writer of sacred-song texts. Born in Lastres, Asturias, into a seafaring family, he lost his parents and four siblings to tuberculosis while still young and was raised by his grandmother. He entered the Seminary of Covadonga at thirteen and later studied at the Metropolitan Seminary of Oviedo, where his interest in poetry continued to develop.

After ordination, Olivar served for several years as a priest in Villaviciosa before leaving the priesthood. He then built a long career in journalism in Madrid. The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology records work with the EFE news agency and later positions in popular journalism, while biographical accounts also note national recognition for his poetry. Alongside journalism he continued writing religious verse and contributed lyrics to more than thirty albums of sacred music.

Olivar belongs to the generation of Spanish writers whose vernacular sacred songs emerged during the liturgical changes surrounding and following the Second Vatican Council. His texts often connect worship with ordinary human experience, compassion, peace, and social responsibility. “Cuando el pobre nada tiene,” written in collaboration with composer Miguel Manzano, became one of the most widely transmitted examples of that strand of Spanish-language congregational song.