The powder keg that the Federico García Lorca Cultural Board, dependent on the Granada Provincial Council, had become in recent days due to the appointment of Antonio Membrillo as director of the entity exploded on Tuesday with two resignations: that of Membrillo himself, who resigned from taking office, and that of Laura García Lorca, the poet's niece, who hours before had announced her resignation as a member of the board, of which she was a member with voice but without vote.
It happened in a few hours after several days of intense criticism from memorial groups, political parties and figures from the world of culture for the appointment of Membrillo, who in 2020, in a message on the social network Twitter (today X) referred to the historical memory as “hysterical memez”.
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The new director of the Lorca Board of Trustees resigns from the position after the resignation of the poet's niece
But the controversy also brings to the fore another circumstance that the board has been carrying for a long time: the institution has now been headless for almost two years.
The previous director, announced in July 2022, did not ultimately take the position due to administrative problems.
A year later, after the municipal elections of May 2023 and without the previous socialist corporation finding a solution, the Provincial Council passed into the hands of the PP.
The selection process that has caused the stir these days was opened on October 27, 2023 with the aim of providing a “freely appointed” position, not following the code of good practices that many institutions have adopted in recent years.
According to some sources close to the process, at least six people applied and, finally, Membrilla was selected.
The competition was aimed at civil servants, Administration staff or professionals in the private sector with more than five years of professional practice.
The field was opened to avoid the problem of the previous process: in July 2022, Reynaldo Fernández, who had directed the Alhambra, was selected, but no one realized that it was a competition only for career civil servants.
Fernandez was not.
Although it was announced that he would assume the position, it was not possible to solve the administrative problem and the board had to continue functioning without a director.
It was not the first time this had happened: between 2011 and 2016, the then popular president of the Provincial Council, Sebastián Pérez, left the position of director vacant for a five-year period.
House Museum of Federico García Lorca in Fuente Vaqueros. CITY COUNCIL OF FUENTE VAQUEROS (CITY HALL OF FUENTE VAQUEROS)
After Membrilla's resignation - or his failure to actually assume the position, because his appointment became effective automatically three business days after being published in the province's bulletin, which happened last Friday and we only had to wait that period for the position was automatically theirs – the Provincial Council issued a statement to explain that “the process will continue to designate its person in charge among the rest of the candidates who presented themselves to the process.”
Neither Membrilla nor the president of the Provincial Council, Francisco Rodríguez, who appointed him and who has kept him in office these days despite the hurricane of complaints, have wanted to make statements to this newspaper.
The Federico García Lorca Cultural Board was created in the mid-eighties of the last century by the Provincial Council of Granada to manage the Federico García Lorca House Museum and the Lorca Studies Center, which is essentially the research section of the house museum itself. , more dedicated to tourist visits and temporary exhibitions.
House museum and study center are located in the same building in the town of Fuente Vaqueros.
The board has a couple more missions: organizing the annual
El Cinco a las Cinco event
,
a tribute to Lorca that has been celebrated every June 5 since 1976, and another activity that takes place in the García Lorca Park in Alfacar every June 17. August.
The board, on the other hand, has nothing to do with the Federico García Lorca Center, located in the center of Granada and which preserves the poet's legacy that was kept in the Madrid Student Residence and from where he arrived in June 2018. It also carries out various cultural activities and welcomes researchers.
Although it will soon be directed by a foundation created for this purpose, the center's latest budget (2023) has been completed with contributions from a consortium formed by the Ministry of Culture, the Junta de Andalucía, the Provincial Council and the Granada City Council.
An axis on which the culture of Granada pivots
Another thing is the commitment that the institutions make for the figure of Lorca in his own city, which is not huge.
Considering the budgets, Lorca deserves an investment of just under a million and a half euros per year.
The Lorca Center's budget for 2023 was 832,427 euros, of which only 100,000 were allocated to annual programming.
Something less, 574,100 euros, was that of the cultural board in 2022, the last year that it was able to approve budgets due to having a director.
Seven people and, when there is one, a director make up the staff of the Fuente Vaqueros house museum.
The Lorca center, the one in the capital, has a managing director and four part-time people from the City Council, in addition to some maintenance and cleaning people.
Remedios Sánchez, poet and professor at the University of Granada, complains about this lack of support for the figure of Lorca in the province.
She laments that “the magnifying glass is not focused on what is important, that Federico must transcend the political and ideological to become an axis on which the culture of Granada pivots.
These things, historical memory being very important, make us deviate from what is essential.”
Federico García Lorca, portrayed in 1919, at the age of 20Photo12/Universal Images Group (Getty Images)
In the political and memorial sphere, the protests over the appointment of Antonio Membrilla were immediate and intense in recent days.
PSOE, Andalusian Federation of Democratic Memory and others repeatedly called for his resignation.
The PP, which governs the Junta de Andalucía, did not do so, and it has not been taken for granted or uncomfortable by the appointment.
Party sources in the community claim to be unaware of the details of the appointment and point out that they do not exercise control over decisions at a lower provincial level.
On the other hand, the response of the world of Granada culture to this ultimately failed appointment has been unanimous.
The majority considers it, with different expressions, a mockery.
Luis García Montero, poet and director of the Cervantes Institute, believes that "appointing a man who mocks Historical Memory as director of the Lorca Board of Trustees is a lack of modesty" on the part of the heirs of "the coup plotters of '36."
Amparo Sánchez, from the Amparanoia group, explains to this newspaper that Membrilla's statements are "indecent and disrespectful to the Democratic Memory Law, which actually mocks the families and victims of the Franco dictatorship."
“As an artist I think that he attacks and persecutes those of us who do not have an opinion, such as the right that, seated in power, does not allow us to continue fighting for justice and reparation.
The world of culture is in serious danger and I hope that strong measures are taken so that the management of Lorca's heritage remains in the hands of sensitive and democratic humanity,” she comments.
The poet Rosa Berbel, winner of the Ojo Crítico poetry award in 2019, believes that “it is embarrassing that people who neither know nor defend the figure of Lorca are chosen to occupy a position that must defend the work and legacy of Lorca, a universal artist who is known in the world.
They should show more pride, respect and dignity for his figure.”
The singer Miguel Ríos, for his part, has declared to EL PAÍS that “appointing a man who has mocked the Historical Memory Law as director gives the measure of the lack of respect and sensitivity that the right has for the legacy of the Granada native. most important in history.
The poet's birthplace, which shone as a beacon of culture and reparation in the time of Juan de Loxa, is obscured by the name of a man who makes jokes about something as vital for the community as the memory and life of one of the most important creators in the history of Spain.”
Lorca and memory
From the United States, Melissa Dinverno, a Spanish professor at the University of Indiana (USA) and a specialist in the poet, believes that “whoever directs the Lorca board of trustees must understand that Lorca and historical memory have been intertwined since 1936 and it is evident that memory work continues today on an individual and collective level.
Accepting this position must imply assuming the ethical duty of being open and sensitive to the complex role that Lorca plays in the politics of memory, understanding that memory work continues and that Lorca continues to mean something to many people.
Managing the Board of Trustees therefore includes recognizing that the past of war, dictatorship and exile are part of the Lorca legacy.”
Mar Villafranca, director of the Alhambra for years and current president of the FortunyM Culture Association, believes that “they should have already known that this man had flouted the law, which is why he was incapacitated beforehand.
But, furthermore, the appointment did not meet any requirements of suitability or experience.”
Villafranca, who emphasizes that an appointment has not been implemented based on the code of good practices “because there is no belief in culture and it is thought that institutions serve to make someone look good or appoint politicians.
If it is not done well, furthermore, those who suffer are the institutions themselves, so their management and future are called into question.”
Juan Pinilla, flamenco singer, considers “everything that happened around this appointment an insult.”
And, like others, he remembers the work of Juan de Loxa, the poet who founded and gave strength to the Lorca house museum, which he directed for almost two decades.
Finally, Emilio Peral, professor of Spanish Literature at the Complutense University of Madrid, specialist in Lorca and curator of an exhibition that was seen at the Lorca center, concludes: “Today it no longer makes sense to question Historical Memory, an issue that should be placed “aside from political flags and raise the consensus of all, always based on rigorous research by philologists and historians.”
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