Federico García Lorca is one of the most important Spanish poets and dramatists of the twentieth century. García Lorca was born June 5, 1898, in Fuente Vaqueros, a small town a few miles from Granada. His father owned a farm in the fertile vega surrounding Granada and a comfortable mansion in the heart of the city. His mother, whom Lorca idolised, was a gifted pianist. After graduating from secondary school García Lorca attended Sacred Heart University where he took up law along with regular coursework.
His first book, Impresiones y Viajes (1919) was inspired by a trip to Castile with his art class in 1917.
In 1919, Garcia Lorca traveled to Madrid, where he remained for the next fifteen years. Giving up university, he devoted himself entirely to his art. He organised theatrical performances, read his poems in public, and collected old folksongs. During this period Garcia 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 organised 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 moved to New York City. The poet’s favourite neighbourhood was Harlem; he loved African-American spirituals, which reminded him of Spain’s ‘deep songs.’
In 1930, Garcia 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 Garcia 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. He was arrested by Franquist soldiers, and on August 19, 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. 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.
Lorc’s poetry : In Search of Duende (1998), Selected Poems (1941), Canciones (1927), Poeta en Nueva York (“Poet in New York”) (1940), Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter and Other Poems (1937), Llanto por Ignacio Sanchez Mejias (1935), El poema del Cante Jondo (1932), Romancero Gitano (“The Gypsy Ballads”) (1928), Libro de poemas (1921), Impresiones y viajes (1918)
Drama : The Comedies (1955), La casa de Bernarda Alba (‘The House of Bernarda Alba’) (1936), Yerma (1934), Bodas de sangre (‘Blood Wedding’) (1933), Amor de Don Perlimplin con Belisa en su jardin (1931), La zapatera prodigiosa (‘The Shoemaker’s Marvelous Wife’) (1930), Mariana Pineda (1927), El malificio de la mariposa (1920)
-www.poets.org
His first book, Impresiones y Viajes (1919) was inspired by a trip to Castile with his art class in 1917.
In 1919, Garcia Lorca traveled to Madrid, where he remained for the next fifteen years. Giving up university, he devoted himself entirely to his art. He organised theatrical performances, read his poems in public, and collected old folksongs. During this period Garcia 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 organised 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 moved to New York City. The poet’s favourite neighbourhood was Harlem; he loved African-American spirituals, which reminded him of Spain’s ‘deep songs.’
In 1930, Garcia 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 Garcia 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. He was arrested by Franquist soldiers, and on August 19, 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. 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.
Lorc’s poetry : In Search of Duende (1998), Selected Poems (1941), Canciones (1927), Poeta en Nueva York (“Poet in New York”) (1940), Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter and Other Poems (1937), Llanto por Ignacio Sanchez Mejias (1935), El poema del Cante Jondo (1932), Romancero Gitano (“The Gypsy Ballads”) (1928), Libro de poemas (1921), Impresiones y viajes (1918)
Drama : The Comedies (1955), La casa de Bernarda Alba (‘The House of Bernarda Alba’) (1936), Yerma (1934), Bodas de sangre (‘Blood Wedding’) (1933), Amor de Don Perlimplin con Belisa en su jardin (1931), La zapatera prodigiosa (‘The Shoemaker’s Marvelous Wife’) (1930), Mariana Pineda (1927), El malificio de la mariposa (1920)
-www.poets.org
