Federico García Lorca left Madrid just days before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in July 1939, and headed for Granada. A month later, his brother was arrested and shot, and he himself was taken, as part of the mass arrests and assassinations of republicans by the fascist forces trying to eliminate support for the Popular Front government.
The intention of the military rising was to exterminate all support for republicans and terror was the weapon. Lorca, at the time of his death, was a famous and established popular poet, dramatist, and songwriter, but he was also closely associated with the avant-garde, and gay. An associate of Dalí and the surrealists, he was a cultural threat to fascism and his works were banned right up to the early '50s.
Although it was believed he was shot outside Alfacar, a small town 5 km north of Granada, his body has never been found. It had been believed that he was buried in a communal grave along with a teacher, Dióscoro Galindo, two bullfighters called Joaquín Arcollas and Francisco Galadi, an inspector, Fermín Roldan, and a restaurateur, Miguel Cobo.
Earlier this year, permission was granted to search the area around Alfacar, to locate the grave and exhume the bodies. Despite initial opposition from Lorca's family, the search and exhumation were agreed to. The possible sites were located using geophysics to identify where the underlying structures could contain human remains.
An area of 1000 square metres was mapped out, and six locations were identified. A total of 276 square metres were searched in detail with the removal of around 75 cubic metres of earth. But nothing was found. No graves, no bones, nothing.
Of course, the search was based on reports from the time, military maps, some personal testimonies, and the collective recorded memories of the people in the area, all of which could be inaccurate, but the correlation of accounts left little doubt that the site was in Alfacar. It had given sufficient confidence for the erection of a memorial to Lorca, but now his actual burial place is uncertain.
Article comments
1 - Kate Burgon
I am confused. Why are you calling him Gabriel ? I studied at he University of Granada where I now live and wrote my thesis on Lorca. I have never heard him referred to as Gabriel. His full name was Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Marquez ! Maybe you are getting confused with another famous writer :)
Also it was actually his brother -in-law Manuel Fernández- Montesinos at that time Mayor of Granada and married to Federico's sister Concha who was arrested, imprisoned and executed not Lorca's brother Fransisco.
2 - Kate Burgon
OOops now I am getting my writers confused ! His full name of course was Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca !
3 - Bob Lloyd
You're absolutely right - his name wasn't Gabriel, and I have absolutely no idea where in my head that came from. I've been reading Ian Gibson's stuff about Dalí and Lorca and I seem to remember a Gabriel passing through but even so... must be getting old.
I've asked the editor to correct it, but thanks for pointing it out. No idea how I proofed it and still let it through.
4 - Bob Lloyd
And it was the brother-in-law who was shot, at the same time as five university professors. Lorca had taken refuge with a friend from the Falange (which is curious given Lorca's sympathies) but that didn't save him, and it was a former CEDA deputy, Ruiz Alonso who arrested him. He's the one who claimed that Lorca did more damage with his pen than others had done with their guns. I think (though I'd have to check) that CEDA claimed responsibility for killing Lorca.
5 - Bob Lloyd
Lorca has now respectfully been restored his first name :)
6 - Chris
For anyone who wants to remember Lorca, I HIGHLY recommend Ben Sidran's 'Concert for Garcia Lorca'...a bit of spoken jazz on Lorca will teach you history AND change your life perspective a bit...it did for me.