Fun Facts Friday: Federico García Lorca

Federico García Lorca (5 June, 1898 – 19 August, 1936) was a Spanish playwright, director, and poet. Mr. Lorca was internationally known as a member of the group of poets known as  Generation of ’27.

Works by Federico García Lorca*

1. He was born in a small Spanish town called Fuente Vaqueros to a rich family of farmers who saw their fortune escalate when a boom in the sugar industry happened.
2. After graduating high-school (secondary school), the poet went to the University of Granada studying law, literature, and composition.
3. García Lorca was a friend of artists Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí as well as other artists who would eventually be influential Spanish citizens.
4. In 1921 García Lorca published his first book of poems called Libro de poemas.
5. For his second play, Mariana Pineda, the stage settings were done by his friend Dali.
6. The poet travelled to the US in 1929 where he enrolled at Columbia University School of General Studies learning English. García Lorca traveled in style, cruising on the White Star’s RMS Olympic (one of three Olympic-class liners, the other two were the Britannic and the more famous Titanic). The trip was paid for by his parents.
7. Returning to Spain in 1930, García Lorca was appointed as director of Teatro Universitario La Barraca, funded by the Second Republic’s Ministry of Education.
8. The theater’s mission was to tour rural areas around the country introducing people to classical Spanish theater for free.
9. While touring, García Lorca write his most well known plays, called the Rural Trilogy which encompassed Blood Wedding, Yerma and The House of Bernarda Alba. The plays criticized the bourgeois Spanish society.
10. It is suspected that García Lorca was murdered by a Nationalist militia due to his outspoken political views. His body was never found.

Works by Federico García Lorca*

Zohar – Man of la Book
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account