A well written article about the man behind the great poetry that is Lorca. The article helped shed light on the mysteries of Lorca’s life through some rare sources. Anyway great work!
I was obsessed with Lorca in my late teens. In college, I directed a Lorca play La zapatera prodigiosa, which Lorca's brother, a professor at Columbia, came to see. He told me it was the best staging of it he had ever seen. (I think he was being polite.) I can still hum the flute music I wrote for the interlude between acts. I also loved Lament for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías (a matador), which in my mind always becomes a lament for Federico Garcia Lorca.
Sounds amazing Brooks. I know Lorca enrolled as a student at Columbia, didn't know about his brother. Must have been some experience to have Francisco come to see the play!
Yes it was! This was the mid-Sixties when he was teaching at Columbia. He traveled all the way to Poughkeepsie to see it. I believe he was good friends with the professors in our Spanish department, who were, like him, expats from Franco’s Spain. For instance, one professor was the sister of Salvador de Madariaga.
Hmmm... sometimes I believe that people are obsessed with these details about death instead of reading the work of poets such as Lorca, Plath, Pizarnik... We´re morbid indeed!
What is terrible about the Lorca case is that its political dimension is still largely glossed over. Lorca was murdered for being “a red and a faggot,” according to his direct accomplices. He sought refuge in his own city, Granada, and was betrayed. A metaphor for Republican and democratic Spain, abandoned to its fate by the rest of the countries, which looked the other way as fascism advanced. So much so that there was a world war. But in Spain, the assassins had already won. And the regime persecuted hundreds of thousands of people: for being left-wing, homosexual, non-white, for nothing at all… And it imposed shame and silence for four decades on the losers of the war and their families. A silence and a shame that continued into democracy, like a chronic disease.
Lorca’s last lover, Juan Ramírez de Lucas, kept silent for more than seventy years. Shortly before his death, in 2010, he put his memories, letters and documents in order. According to his own writings, he carried the weight of that thwarted love with him all his life. He was, in all likelihood, the person to whom the Sonnets of Dark Love were addressed.
In my humble opinion, Lorca’s body has never been found because the family took away his remains at some point, also out of modesty, silence and shame. If this happened to a figure of universal importance like Federico, imagine the censorship imposed on the other victims.
It is estimated that some 10,000–12,000 Republican victims of repression may still be buried today in unexcavated mass graves, without individual graves of their own, although there is no exact figure. In total, around 6,000 mass graves have been catalogued in Spain. Since 2000, more than 17,000 bodies have been recovered, but only around 700 have been identified through DNA.
With the renewed rise of the far right—a euphemism for fascists, Francoists or neo-Nazis—pressure is being brought to bear to stop these searches, so that the silence and shame may continue: the worst disgrace for a country, but also for a writer, a poet.
“Listen to my blood, broken in the violins. See: they are still lying in wait for us!”
It was beautiful to see the tributes yesterday both in Madrid and Granada. Thank you for writing this!
Poema del cante jondo, damn!
A well written article about the man behind the great poetry that is Lorca. The article helped shed light on the mysteries of Lorca’s life through some rare sources. Anyway great work!
I was obsessed with Lorca in my late teens. In college, I directed a Lorca play La zapatera prodigiosa, which Lorca's brother, a professor at Columbia, came to see. He told me it was the best staging of it he had ever seen. (I think he was being polite.) I can still hum the flute music I wrote for the interlude between acts. I also loved Lament for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías (a matador), which in my mind always becomes a lament for Federico Garcia Lorca.
Sounds amazing Brooks. I know Lorca enrolled as a student at Columbia, didn't know about his brother. Must have been some experience to have Francisco come to see the play!
Yes it was! This was the mid-Sixties when he was teaching at Columbia. He traveled all the way to Poughkeepsie to see it. I believe he was good friends with the professors in our Spanish department, who were, like him, expats from Franco’s Spain. For instance, one professor was the sister of Salvador de Madariaga.
Brooks, you have to write about the whole experience. I’d love to read it. Or maybe you have already?
Hmmm... sometimes I believe that people are obsessed with these details about death instead of reading the work of poets such as Lorca, Plath, Pizarnik... We´re morbid indeed!
Hola , Hay Tantas Cosas Que No Sabemos Del Maestro Lorca , Que Durante Los Próximos Años , Habrá Un Conteo Incansable De Nuevos Títulos Literarios. Aquí Comparto Un Álbum De Música Que Es Un Gran Homenaje A Lorca Y Que Cambió El Sonido Del Flamenco. Un Saludo. 1- https://open.spotify.com/album/7khfJrqD6lkyCNFFvAvBU5?si=Vn80zvalQ86H7ZT9iSHpLA&utm_source=copy-link&sci=spotify%3Acard-config%3A1wN7JiBImWDZ5QiXHpq6A3
Gracias!!!!!
What is terrible about the Lorca case is that its political dimension is still largely glossed over. Lorca was murdered for being “a red and a faggot,” according to his direct accomplices. He sought refuge in his own city, Granada, and was betrayed. A metaphor for Republican and democratic Spain, abandoned to its fate by the rest of the countries, which looked the other way as fascism advanced. So much so that there was a world war. But in Spain, the assassins had already won. And the regime persecuted hundreds of thousands of people: for being left-wing, homosexual, non-white, for nothing at all… And it imposed shame and silence for four decades on the losers of the war and their families. A silence and a shame that continued into democracy, like a chronic disease.
Lorca’s last lover, Juan Ramírez de Lucas, kept silent for more than seventy years. Shortly before his death, in 2010, he put his memories, letters and documents in order. According to his own writings, he carried the weight of that thwarted love with him all his life. He was, in all likelihood, the person to whom the Sonnets of Dark Love were addressed.
In my humble opinion, Lorca’s body has never been found because the family took away his remains at some point, also out of modesty, silence and shame. If this happened to a figure of universal importance like Federico, imagine the censorship imposed on the other victims.
It is estimated that some 10,000–12,000 Republican victims of repression may still be buried today in unexcavated mass graves, without individual graves of their own, although there is no exact figure. In total, around 6,000 mass graves have been catalogued in Spain. Since 2000, more than 17,000 bodies have been recovered, but only around 700 have been identified through DNA.
With the renewed rise of the far right—a euphemism for fascists, Francoists or neo-Nazis—pressure is being brought to bear to stop these searches, so that the silence and shame may continue: the worst disgrace for a country, but also for a writer, a poet.
“Listen to my blood, broken in the violins. See: they are still lying in wait for us!”