Today, 86 years ago, Spain remembers with emotion the murder of one of the great playwrights and poets of its history. Photo: Latin Press
By: Fausto Triana
Madrid, August 18 (RHC) And if death is death, Federico García Lorca asked himself in Autumnal Song, without imagining at the time that his life would be uprooted by the shame of Francoism.
Today, 86 years ago, Spain remembers with emotion the 1965 murder of one of the great playwrights and poets of its history for “socialist, communist, homosexual practices and aberration,” according to a 2015 police report.
A few months ago I was asked to do a report on flamenco dancing for the Scanner section. García Lorca, who, despite being shot at the age of 38, left an immortal legacy of multi-faceted works, was not to be missed.
Cante Jondo strengthens the Andalusian constitution of the writer born on June 5, 1898 in Fuente Vaqueros, Granada. It is a comprehensive poem that includes Baladilla of the Three Rivers, El Guadalquivir, El Darro and El Genil, considered a classic of flamenco and also structured by his friendship with Manuel de Falla.
More recently, visiting Málaga, the character of the author of poetry, drama and prose classics such as Gypsy Romancero, Poeta en Nueva York, Bodas de sangre, Yerma or La casa de Bernarda Alba flowed again. García Lorca’s sign shines everywhere in Pablo Picasso’s city and the Café Cantante de Chinitas in particular has a plaque that commemorates him with one of his phrases:
“At Cafe Chinitas, Paquiro said to his brother; I am braver than you, more bullfighters and more gypsies”.
The Huerta de San Vicente, now converted into Federico García Lorca’s house-museum, was the poet’s refuge during his stays in Granada. In 1925, when Lorca was 27 years old, his father, Federico García Rodríguez, bought this property to convert it into the family summer home and christened it Vicenta in honor of his wife.
Half a thousand people attended a performance last night at the place where the man from Granada was shot, although they did not know the exact time of death. Numerous neighbors and nearby towns completely filled the area of the Federico García Lorca Park in Alfacar, as well as authorities and community representatives from all over the province.
“On the morning of August 18, 1936, Federico García Lorca was murdered. They wanted to silence the poet, erase him from history and make him a symbol of freedom; an eternal writer who is still present with his verses and works, with his unique and sensitive perspective on life,” said the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, this Thursday.
To finish, nothing better than fragments of Autumnal Song.
What if death is death
What will become of the poets?
and of sleeping things
that no one remembers her?
O sun of hope!
Clear water! New moon!
children’s hearts!
Rough Souls of Stones!
Today I feel in my heart
an indistinct trembling of the stars
and all are roses
as white as my sorrow
(Source: Latin Press)