 |
|
|
Federico
García-Lorca
(1898 - 1936)
|
|
|
In 1919, García Lorca traveled to Madrid, where he remained for the next fifteen years. Giving up university, he devoted himself entirely to his art. He organized theatrical performances, read his poems in public, and collected old folksongs. During this period García Lorca wrote El Maleficio de la mariposa (1920), a play which caused a great scandal when it was produced. He also wrote Libro de poemas (1921), a compilation of poems based on Spanish folklore. Much of García Lorca's work was infused with popular themes such as Flamenco and Gypsy culture. In 1922, García Lorca organized the first "Cante Jondo" festival in which Spain's most famous "deep song" singers and guitarists participated. The deep song form permeated his poems of the early 1920s. During this period, García Lorca became part of a group of artists known as Generación del 27, which included Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel, who exposed the young poet to surrealism. In 1928, his book of verse, Romancero Gitano ("The Gypsy Ballads"), brought García Lorca far-reaching fame; it was reprinted seven times during his lifetime. In 1929, García Lorca came to New York. The poet's favorite neighborhood was Harlem; he loved African-American spirituals, which reminded him of Spain's "deep songs." In 1930, García Lorca returned to Spain after the proclamation of the Spanish republic and participated in the Second Ordinary Congress of the Federal Union of Hispanic Students in November of 1931. The congress decided to build a "Barraca" in central Madrid in which to produce important plays for the public. "La Barraca," the traveling theater company that resulted, toured many Spanish towns, villages, and cities performing Spanish classics on public squares. Some of García Lorca's own plays, including his three great tragedies Bodas de sangre (1933), Yerma (1934), and La Casa de Bernarda Alba (1936), were also produced by the company. In
1936, García Lorca was staying at Callejones de García,
his country home, at the outbreak of the Civil War. Toward the
end of July, he was arrested by Franquist soldiers. After a few
days in jail, soldiers took García Lorca to "visit" his
brother-in-law, Manuel Fernandez Montesinos, the Socialist ex-mayor
of Granada whom the soldiers had murdered and dragged through
the streets. When they arrived at the cemetery, the soldiers forced
García Lorca from the car. They struck him with the butts
of their rifles and riddled his body with bullets. His books were
burned in Granada's Plaza del Carmen and were soon banned from
Franco's Spain. To this day, no one knows where the body of Federico
García Lorca rests.
I first met with Federico García Lorca's work during my school days a long time ago. For many years, his poems special sound, the plain 'pictures' of his poetical language had accompanied me, always somewhat reminding me of the poet's barren, southern country under a 'cruel' sun, full of glaring and dark symbols for the presence of death. Now after a lifetime and almost forgotten, some of his lines somehow had again occurred to me, still having their specific power ... |
|
Canción de jinete (Castillian Spanish)
