Albert Camus was born in Algeria to a poor working-class family. His mother was Spanish and his father was French. His father died in battle and he was left to live with his grandmother. When he was 17 he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which was very impactful on him at that point in his life. It limited him greatly in his athletics as well as in his career opportunities, due to the fact that tuberculosis is quite contagious. For this reason he claimed that his disease “set him free” because he would have done something else with his life had he seen the opportunity. He went to the University of Algiers, where he graduated with a degree in 1935. In the 1930s, Camus became interested in politics. In 1935, Camus joined the French Communist Party, a political group. In the late 1930s, Camus was a writer for the socialist newspaper, the "Alger-Republicain".