Federico García Lorca

Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936) worked as a poet, playwright, and theatre director. He became a key figure in the Generation of '27, a collective of poets who brought European styles like symbolism, futurism, and surrealism into Spanish writing. His first major success came with *Romancero gitano* (Gypsy Ballads, 1928), a poetry collection that portrayed life in his home region of Andalusia. His work mixed traditional Andalusian themes with avant-garde techniques. After spending 1929 to 1930 in New York City—a period later captured in the posthumous *Poeta en Nueva York* (Poet in New York, 1942)—he went back to Spain and created his most famous plays: *Blood Wedding* (1932), *Yerma* (1934), and *The House of Bernarda Alba* (1936).

García Lorca was homosexual and experienced depression after his relationship with sculptor Emilio Aladrén Perojo ended. He also had a close emotional bond for a time with Salvador Dalí, who stated that he rejected García Lorca's sexual advances. Nationalist forces killed him early in the Spanish Civil War. His remains have never been recovered, and the reason for his murder is still debated; some believe he was targeted for being gay, a socialist, or both, while others think a personal conflict was the cause.

He was born on 5 June 1898 in Fuente Vaqueros, a small town 17 km west of Granada in southern Spain. His father, Federico García Rodríguez, was a wealthy landowner whose fortunes grew with the sugar industry; his mother, Vicenta Lorca Romero, was a teacher. In 1905 the family moved to Valderrubio (then called Asquerosa), and in 1909, when he was 11, they relocated to Granada, where he attended high school. Their best-known home there was the summer house Huerta de San Vicente, on the city's outskirts. He always stressed the importance of living close to nature, crediting his rural upbringing. All three homes—Fuente Vaqueros, Valderrubio, and Huerta de San Vicente—are now museums.

After finishing secondary school in 1915, he studied at the University of Granada, taking courses in law, literature, and composition. As a teenager, he felt more drawn to music than to writing. At age 11 he began six years of piano lessons with Antonio Segura Mesa, a harmony teacher and composer, who inspired his dream of a musical career. His early artistic influences came from Claude Debussy, Frédéric Chopin, and Ludwig van Beethoven. Later, through his friendship with composer Manuel de Falla, Spanish folklore became his inspiration. He did not start writing until Segura died in 1916, and his first prose works—such as "Nocturne," "Ballade," and "Sonata"—used musical structures. He was part of a circle of young intellectuals at El Rinconcillo in the Café Alameda in Granada. In 1916 and 1917 he traveled through Castile, León, and Galicia with a university professor, who encouraged him to write his first book, *Impresiones y paisajes* (Impressions and Landscapes), published at his father's expense in 1918. Fernando de los Rios convinced García Lorca's parents to let him move to the progressive Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid in 1919, while he nominally attended classes at the University of Madrid.

At the Residencia, he became friends with Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí, and many other creative figures who would become influential across Spain. Poet Juan Ramón Jiménez mentored him, and he grew close to playwright Eduardo Marquina and Gregorio Martínez Sierra, director of Madrid's Teatro Eslava. In 1919–20, at Sierra's invitation, he wrote and staged his first play, *The Butterfly's Evil Spell*, a verse drama about the impossible love between a cockroach and a butterfly, with other insect characters. It was poorly received and ran for only four performances, shaping his lifelong view of theatre audiences. He later claimed that *Mariana Pineda*, written in 1927, was actually his first play. At the Residencia, he pursued degrees in law and philosophy but focused more on writing than on his studies.

His first poetry collection, *Libro de poemas*, appeared in 1921, gathering work written from 1918 and selected with help from his brother Francisco. The poems dealt with religious faith, isolation, and nature—themes from his earlier prose. In early 1922, in Granada, he joined Manuel de Falla to promote the Concurso de Cante Jondo, a festival celebrating flamenco and its cante jondo style. During this time he explored short song forms, such as the poem "Orchard, March," written between 1921 and 1924 and later included in his book *Canciones*. The previous year he had begun *Poema del cante jondo* (Poem of the Deep Song, published in 1931), so he wrote an essay on flamenco and spoke publicly in support of the festival. At the June music event, he met the celebrated flamenco singer Manuel Torre. The next year in Granada he also...