Three stars from the Generation of 27
Federico García Lorca.The most popular poet and
playwright of 20thcentury Spain was inspired early
on by the gypsy culture of his native Andalusia. In
Primer romancero gitano(1928) he wrote of the bigotry
directed at poor southern gypsies. He conveyed the
nuances ofgitanomusic and the tensions of their life
with stunning, painterly metaphor, bringing a fresh,
digestible new edge to Spanish verse.The anguish of
poems written during a year’s stay in NewYork,Poeta
en NuevaYork(written in 1929-30 but published in
1940), reflects his dislike of modern city life but also
speaks of a growing social conscience, best seen in
his appraisal of Harlem’s poor. Lorca’s later verse was
preoccupied with death. In the masterfulLlanto por la
muerte de Ignacio Sánchez Mejías(1935) he laments
the death of a bullfighting friend, gored in the ring. Lorca
was an early victim of the Civil War, murdered on the
roadside near Granada by Nationalists. He remains
much loved and read in Spain and beyond. (See section
4.2.2. for details of Lorca’s drama.)Jorge Guillén. Guillén wrote serene, optimistic verse
that coined the emotions and joys of life and the
universe, exemplified in the collectionCántico(1928).
Exiled after the Civil War, his work got progressively
bleaker, as seen inClamor(1957-63), a three-parter on
the fragility of life and its attendant potential for misery.
He kept pen to paper until his death, aged 91, in 1984,
always committed to the ideal of ‘pure poetry’,
concerned less with telling a story than with the
rhythms and tones of language.86- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
The poet and the painter
When Lorca met Dalí
at university in Madrid
he apparently fell in
love with the painter.
Some biographers have
suggested the pair had a
brief sexual relationship.
Open wounds: the
tragedy of Federico
García Lorca
Lorca’s body has never
been found. He was
shot, aged 38, on 19th
August 1936 amid the
Nationalist purge of
intellectuals early in the
Civil War. He wasn’t a
staunchrojo(red),
indeed, he had friends
in both Republican and
Nationalist camps.
But he was a liberal,
was well travelled in
an era when most
Spaniards hadn’t left
their own region, was a
homosexual and was
successful and wealthy;
factors that probably had
as much to do with his
murder as any political
motive. The relatives
of those who died
alongside Lorca want
to exhume the mass
grave near the village
of Fuente Vaqueros,
the poet’s birthplace.
Lorca’s descendants
have, however, opposed
the move, asking that
the body, if there, be left
to rest in peace.