On This Day in 1898 • 5 January • Federico García Lorca

5th January
ON THIS DAY

Federico García Lorca with his sister Isabel in Granada in 1914

On this day in 1898 the Spanish playwright Federico García Lorca whose works included The House of Bernarda Alba, Blood Wedding and Yerma was born just outside Granada.

In 1936 he was arrested and killed. Confirmation that the assasination was ordered by the military forces came in 2015 with an article in The Guardian:

‘…Lorca was arrested and killed on the orders of rightwing military authorities in Granada, according to newly released documents that shed light on the death of one of the highest-profile victims of the Spanish civil war.

The documents, written in 1965 at the Granada police headquarters and obtained by the Guardian, are the first ever admission by Franco-era officials of their involvement in the death in 1936 of the author of Blood Wedding and the House of Bernarda Alba.’ The Guardian

© Sarah Vernon 2020