Monday, November 02, 2009

Garcia Lorca and our Buried Gay History
















I see that more than than seventy years after he was murdered by a fascist death squad in the early days of the Spanish Civil War.

Shot with three other men, because he was a lefty libertarian poet who annoyed the Catholic Church. Then shot twice in the ass because he was gay. And buried in an unmarked grave.

They are finally going to dig up the body of Federico Garcia Lorca.

The right-wingers in Spain are foaming mad. They'd rather the past remain buried and forgotten. And for good reason.

As many as 114,000 Spaniards were killed or disappeared during the conflict that lasted from 1936 to 1939 and pitted the rightist forces of Gen. Francisco Franco against an elected leftist government.

And Lorca's family, which fought the exhumation for decades, still isn't convinced.

"I think the fact of physically touching someone's bones is not going to make a difference in reconciliation with two Spains," said García Lorca. "I don't necessarily think it will be a healing experience."

But I agree with this guy.

"To leave them in the mass graves means leaving the victims of Franco lying unidentified, like dogs," declared Francisco Gonzalez Arroyo, a local historian, whose views echo many on the left who say the process will bring healing.

And I also agree with what the noted historian and Lorca authority Ian Gibson had to say:

"Garcia Lorca does not just belong to his family, to his nieces and nephews. He belongs to humanity..."

Because his Spanish genius does belong to the world. And of course he belongs to us; the gay people whose history is so often buried, just like Garcia Lorca's gayness was buried for so long. Not just by the fascists, but also by his family, and Spain's literary establishment.

"Spain couldn't accept that the greatest Spanish poet of all time was homosexual. Homophobia existed on both sides in the civil war and afterwards it was a national problem.

Scholars colluded in the cover-up for fear of losing access to the poet's archives, or antagonising the family, he says. "All his poetry turns around frustrated love. His tormented characters who can't live the life they want are precisely the metaphor for his sorrow. He was a genius who turned his suffering into art."












Which is obvious when you read the Dark Sonnets. he wrote to his bisexual lover Rafael Rodriguez Rapun.

“Tú nunca entenderás lo que te quiero / porque duermes en mí y estás dormido. / Yo te oculto llorando, perseguido / por una voz de penetrante acero”

"You will never understand that I love you/ because you sleep in me and are asleep./I hide you, weeping, persecuted/ by a voice of penetrating steel."

The same Rafael who one year to the day Federico was murdered, refused to take cover when fascist planes strafed Republican positions. Just stood there and blazed away at the oncoming fighters until he was killed. One year to the day they murdered Federico.

















Oh yeah. If there was such a thing as poetic justice Federico Garcia Lorca would be buried next to the man he loved. Instead he'll probably be buried in some dark family vault.

Or maybe they'll never find him, just as he once wrote:

"Then I realised I had been murdered. They looked for me in cafes, cemeteries and churches .... but they did not find me. They never found me? No. They never found me."

But at least the dark vault of Spanish history is about to be reopened. The families of the victims can reclaim their loved ones and give them a proper burial. Spaniards can reclaim their hidden history.

Just like we are reclaiming OUR hidden history. Federico and Rafael can be properly remembered on the same day they died. Together. Forever.

And the gentle, brilliant,gay poet and all the other ghosts of that brutal civil war, can rest in peace at last...

7 comments:

Atreides said...

I'm not just en expert on García Lorca, but an investigation might be useful as it is not clear what happened really with García Lorca.
During the Spanish Civil War many people used the confusion to adjust private accounts with others. García Lorca had also private enemies. So far he could have been murdered by others than fascists. I know some histories from friends whose grand fathers were murdered also not having developed a political activity. Political reasons where used to justify murdering of personal enemies.
Of course, at that time homosexuality was considered very negative by many people, so that the murders of García Lorca could have been many people. The argument that he was killed by fascists is a typical example for socialist and communist agit-prop. What happens if the body they consider to be Garcia Lorca's body (or bones) is not that of García Lorca?
During Civil War both sides made bad use of supremacy over the other part of population to adjust accounts. There was no authorithy to loook for law and order during several years.

Ken Harvey said...

Thank you so much for this. I was in Spain in the early 1980's to study how the theater changed after Franco's death. There were some remarkable productions of plays by Lorca ("Dona Rosita La Soltera" comes to mind) as well as a movie of "Bodas de Sangre," directed by Carlos Saura. As part of my independent study, I interviewed one of Lorca's surviving relatives. What struck me was how deeply protective she was of Lorca and his work -- or, perhaps more appropriately, of the image of Lorca and his work. Any interpretation of his writing that dared to dip below the surface disturbed her.

Lorca was the first gay writer I'd ever read. I knew he was gay before I ever read that he was gay. Because of him, I did post-graduate work in Spanish literature. I also think my love for his work helped inspire me to be a writer. Thank you so much for bringing him to our attention again.

Simon said...

hi Atreides...You know when I was a boy I had an old Spanish nanny who was like another mother to me.
And in her room, next to a statue of the virgin was a large framed picture of Francisco Franco. So I am familiar with the divisions in Spanish society. I am also aware about some different versions of why Lorca was killed. But you know what it doesn't really matter. All I would like to see is the bodies of those still unclaimed given a proper burial, just like the other side's victims were.It's not for me to tell the Spanish people what to do, but since I love the country, I do think the truth will set it free. And I would love to be able to visit the tomb of Garcia Lorca, and lay flowers to his memory. I'm already trying to decide what flowers they would be.
Pink carnations might be nice, but I think I'll choose sun flowers, because what he wrote about the moon and death...luna luna lunita...haunted me forever...

Simon said...

hi Atreides...You know when I was a boy I had an old Spanish nanny who was like another mother to me.
And in her room, next to a statue of the virgin was a large framed picture of Francisco Franco. So I am familiar with the divisions in Spanish society. I am also aware about some different versions of why Lorca was killed. But you know what it doesn't really matter. All I would like to see is the bodies of those still unclaimed given a proper burial, just like the other side's victims were.It's not for me to tell the Spanish people what to do, but since I love the country, I do think the truth will set it free. And I would love to be able to visit the tomb of Garcia Lorca, and lay flowers to his memory. I'm already trying to decide what flowers they would be.
Pink carnations might be nice, but I think I'll choose sun flowers, because what he wrote about the moon and death...luna luna lunita...haunted me forever...

Simon said...

hi Ken...well thank YOU :)
And how interesting that you were able to talk to a surviving relative, and find out for yourself how hard and long the family has worked to keep the real Lorca from emerging.
Which as I tried to point out in this post is so absurd since it infuses his writing.
I was exposed to Lorca's plays at quite an early age and they had a powerful effect on me. I found them haunting and disturbing to a degree I couldn't explain.
Later I thought it was because I finally understood what surrealism meant.;) But now I think it was because he was gay, and something in me picked up that message, which is why I love him still...

Atreides said...

This article will be of interest for you:
http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2009/12/18/andalucia/1261136891.html?a=72884e65b85c59b9ebb4ec7f3b30c248&t=1261146850

Where they thought was buried García Lorca, they only have found 1 l beer bottles and nothing more. Garcóa Lorca isn't there, so: where he has been buried? May be it is true that he had not been killed in the way they tell us.

Simon said...

Hi Atreides

thank you for this. What a fascinating story. I'm sorry because I think it would have been a great occasion for Spain to be able to honour him. And remember the good instead of the sad. Did the family sneak his body away years ago? Did he escape to South America and spend the rest of his life writing tangos in Buenos Aires?
I think I'll write a play Waiting for Garcia Lorca. ;)
Seriously though that's one of the reasons I like Spain so much, your history is so dramatic and romantic. But then you try being romantic where I live, in the freezing cold, and trust me it doesn't work... :)