Supported by writers, journalists and even a friend from his childhood,
Federico García Lorca arrived on Tuesday, January 30, 1934 in Uruguay,
where 17 years after his murder the first monument was erected in his honor.
The "mystery" that surrounds said tribute and the "affection" with which many Uruguayans remember the 18 days that the Granada poet was in Montevideo is highlighted by two experts who speak with the
EFE Agency
90 years after his arrival.
CLAIMA20160817_0195 The poet Federico García Lorca.
Ignacio Suárez, teacher, journalist and poet, explains that there are testimonies that highlight García Lorca's presence as "very luminous and communicative", while highlighting his closeness to the South American country.
With an unmistakable French style and a privileged location facing the Río de la Plata, the
Hotel Casino Carrasco in Montevideo
(now Sofitel Montevideo Casino Carrasco & Spa) was the place where the poet stayed, who arrived from Buenos Aires.
Friends and admirers
Pablo Rocca, professor of literature at the University of the Republic and co-author with Eduardo Roland of the book 'Lorca and Uruguay: Passages, tributes, controversies', details that the poet was already present in the literary life of Montevideo since the 1920s and that During his visit to the South American country he was surrounded by poets "who claimed him as if he were a movie star."
One theory says that it was brought from Europe and buried in the city of Salto, in Uruguay.
(Twitter).
One of these admirers was the Uruguayan writer Enrique Amorim, who had become friends with García Lorca while he was in Buenos Aires and who, as Rocca remembers, was the author of a film that is one of the few moving images that are preserved. of the Spanish poet and the promoter of the monument, built in the city of Salto, in the northwest of the country.
Suárez explains that Amorim was a "very special" character, who managed a lot of money, maintained international contacts and was part of the intellectuality of the time.
A wall of stone and shadow
Rocca details that, according to Amorim's memoirs, he and García Lorca met again in Madrid before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.
Shortly after, the poet, born in Fuente Vaqueros on June 5, 1898,
was shot dead by the Francoist side
on the road between the towns of Viznar and Alfacar, possibly in the early morning of August 18, 1936.
After this event, the Uruguayan writer wanted to pay the first tribute in the world to his deceased friend and
he did so in Salto
, the place where he was originally from.
Monolith in tribute to García Lorca in the place where he was shot on a road in Granada (EFE).
In December 1953, what Rocca describes as an "austere and accusatory" wall was inaugurated, which has the last verses of 'The crime was in Granada' engraved, the poem that the writer Antonio Machado dedicated to Lorca after his death.
"Build, friends / of stone and dream in the Alhambra / a mound for the poet / on a fountain where the water cries / and eternally says: the crime was in Granada, in his Granada!"
This event included the participation of actress Margarita Xirgú, a friend of the poet who lives in Montevideo and is known for her leading roles in Lorca's works.
The "mystery" of Salto
The circumstances of García Lorca's death meant that the location of his mortal remains remains a question, says Suárez, who explains that this led to the Salto monument being
shrouded in a "mystery."
One theory states that Amorim traveled to Spain and,
using his money and contacts
, carried out a negotiation with the Franco regime to be able to
transfer his friend's remains to Uruguay and bury them under the wall with Machado's verses.
Although Suárez admits that there are "serious doubts" about this possibility, he argues that
Lorca's body was never found in Spain
and believes that if his remains rested in the South American country "it would close the metaphor", because his presence in Uruguay "was very important." and it still remains in the memory of many people.
García Lorca (Blurred Borders) could be buried under this monument in Salto.
For his part, Rocca believes that this theory is "nonsense", but concludes that "it would be enough for an excavation to be carried out" to clarify it.
Beyond everything, this is not the only mystery that surrounds Salto, where popular legend maintains that
the spirit of Carlos Gardel is found in room 32 of the Gran Hotel Concordia
, where the 'Zorzal Criollo' stayed between the 23rd and on October 25, 1933, two years before his death in a plane accident.
EFE Agency.
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