Federico Garcia Lorca is one of Spain's most famous artists. He played a large
role in transforming the Spanish theatre of the twentieth century. In addition to his
original works for the theatres in Barcelona and Madrid, the traveling university theatre he
directed, La Baracca, brought classic Spanish dramas to audiences throughout rural Spain.
Before his execution by the Fascists in 1936, he had amassed a large body of work. His
last three plays established Lorca's international reputation as a playwright.
Born in a small town near the city of Granada in Southern Spain in the Andalusian
Mountains, he was deeply influenced by the Gypsy and Arabic culture there. His father
was a well-to-do farmer, his mother a highly educated school teacher. From the beginning
it was she who nurtured his musical and poetic talents.(Honig 2) He left home for the
University of Granada at the age of sixteen to earn a degree in law. A mediocre student,
he was frustrated by subjects he did not immediately grasp. He cut many classes,
preferring instead to seek the company of literary men, write verse into the wee hours of
the morning, and play piano in night clubs for hours on end.(Stainton)
While in Granada he met Fernando de los Rios, a professor at the university and an
important political figure, who became his mentor. Following Rios' advice, Lorca left
Granada for Madrid in 1919. He lived at the Residencia de Estudantes, a Spanish version
of Oxford, where the atmosphere was serious and scholarly.(Duran 3) It was here he
became close friends with the famous Salvador Dali, Gerardo Diego, a poet, and Luis
Bunuel, who would later become a great film director.
In 1929 he traveled to New York, where Fernando de los Rios arranged for him to
attend Columbia University for a short while. He was in the throes of a mysterious
emotional crisis, the details of which have never been disclosed. ...