AUTHOR BIOGRAPHYFederico Garcı ́a Lorca was born on June 5, 1898,
in Fuente Vaqueros, Granada, Spain. His mother,
Vicenta Lorca, with whom Lorca was close, was a
pianist and teacher, and his father, Federico Gar-
cı ́a Rodriguez, was a wealthy landowner. Lorca
studied law at the University of Granada from
1914 to 1919, though he was also closely affiliated
with the Granada Arts Club. His first book, the
travelogueImpresiones y paisajes,wasinspiredby
a 1917 trip to Castille that Lorca took with his art
class. The book was a critical success, if not a
popular one, and in 1919 Lorca moved to
Madrid, where he wrote plays and poetry. Lorca
was also a great lover of folk music and folklore,
and he collected and compiled folk materials as a
semiprofessional hobby. He additionally drew
and illustrated as a hobby throughout his life.
In 1920, Lorca’s controversial playEl malef-
icio de la mariposa(title means ‘‘The Butterfly’s
Evil Spell’’) was first staged, launching Lorca into
infamy. The play was universally panned. The
following year, Lorca released his first collection
of poems,Libro de poemas(title means ‘‘Book of
Poems’’). The collection was based entirely on
Spanish or Gypsy folktales. Lorca’s love for folk
music next led him to found the Cante Jondo
festival of Spanish music, the first of which was
held in 1922. Lorca was also studying at the Uni-
versity of Madrid at this time, and he received his
law degree there in 1923. Throughout the 1920s,
Lorca produced two additional poetry collec-
tions:Canciones (1921–24)(1927; translated as
Songs, 1976) andPrimer romancero gitano (1924–
27)(1928; translated asGypsy Ballads,1951).The
latter collection was an immense success. Lorca’s
playMariana Pineda: Romance popular en tres
estampaswas also produced in 1927. An English
translation of the play was published in 1962
asMariana Pineda: A Popular Ballad in Three
Prints.
During this prolific period, Lorca and his
work became associated with the Generacio ́n
del 27, a group of luminary Spanish writers and
artists including the filmmaker Luis Bun ̃uel and
the painter Salvador Dali. Indeed, Lorca’s work
reflects the surrealist mode of the day, which was
embodied by the work of the Generacio ́ndel27.It
is rumored that Lorca and Dali carried on a
romantic affair, though the two are believed to
have had a falling out around 1929. Following
that time, Lorca was no longer as closely associated
with the surrealist group. In fact, he traveled to
New York City in 1929, where he studied briefly at
Columbia University. His posthumous 1940 poetry
collection,PoetaenNuevaYork, was based on this
experience. (A bilingual edition of the volume was
published in 1955 asPoet in New York.)
Lorca returned to Spain in 1930, the same
year that the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera
was vanquished and the Spanish Republic was
reformed. Under the Republic, Lorca served on
the Second Ordinary Congress of the Federal
Union of Hispanic Students. His service there led
him to be assigned to the post of theater director
for the state-sponsored performance group ofLa
Barraca. Lorca worked in this capacity from 1932
to 1935. His most famous plays,Bodas de sangre
(1933),Yerma(1934; bilingual edition published
asYerma: A Tragic Poem, 1987), andLa Casa de
Bernarda Alba(1936; title means ‘‘The House of
Bernarda Alba’’), were all first performed byLa
Barraca.Notably,Bodas de sangrewas first pro-
duced in New York in 1935 asBitter Oleander,
though it is now more commonly known in Eng-
lish asBlood Wedding(1939).
In 1935, Lorca’s poem ‘‘Llanto por Ignacio
Sa ́nchez Mejı ́as’’ was written and published as aFederico Garcı ́a Lorca(AP Images)
Lament for Ignacio Sa ́nchez Mejı ́as