It is one of the enduring mysteries of the Spanish Civil War: where is the final resting place of Federico García Lorca, the acclaimed poet shot dead by Franco’s soldiers in the early days of the conflict?
Last week marked the 79th anniversary of the writer’s death. As a left-wing sympathiser, and a homosexual in conservative 1930s Spain, Lorca was an obvious target for Franco’s nationalist troops when they began their three-year campaign to unseat the elected government in 1936. It has long been assumed that Lorca was shot, aged 38, possibly along with three other men, in Alfacar, about five miles from his home town of Granada.
But despite extensive research, and excavation of the site believed to be his final burial place, Lorca’s body has never been found.
And a new book now claims there is evidence that his remains, rather than being at the site near Granada, were in fact moved decades ago.
The book, The Mystery of a Death: An Annotated Chronicle of the Correspondence Between Agustin Penon and Emilia Llanos, by Marta Osorio, has compiled letters and other documents exchanged between a close friend of Lorca and a historian.
Penon was one of the earliest historians to try to chart the poet’s final days and confirm the whereabouts of his body. Both are long dead, but, according to Ms Osorio, the correspondence suggested that Lorca’s body was moved to Madrid, possibly before the 1950s, and had already been buried with members of his family.
According to a review of the new book by the El Pais newspaper, Penon’s work was conducted under the suspicious eye of the Franco regime, which ruled Spain as a dictatorship until the late 1970s.
Using letters that were passed to Ms Osorio, the writer argues that Penon originally believed the body was buried close to the site where Lorca is assumed to have been shot.
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The researcher attempted to buy the land in 1957, but under the advice of Llanos, he abandoned the plan, possibly because of pressure exerted by Franco’s officials.
Later she attempts to clarify her reasoning, careful not to use Lorca’s name in case the correspondence was intercepted. “The one who was once there is no longer there. Do you understand what I am saying? For a long time it has been well-known that he is in Madrid with his family. I was told this by someone who has knowledge.”
Despite being pressed, Llanos does not give the name of the source, but instead describes them as being “a high official”.
While the book does not clarify where the body is buried, it lends support to the theory that it no longer remains where Lorca was killed, and there is other evidence to support this conclusion.
The site in near Alfacar, which is now known as Lorca Park, was excavated in 2009. It was identified by a man who had claimed to help to dig Lorca’s grave and in November of 2009 it was reported that human bones had been discovered.
However, analysis by the University of Granada later scotched the theory.
For years, Lorca’s family declined to support plans to find his body. However later generations threw their support behind the application in 2008 to dig at the Lorca park site when other families of those executed during the civil war petitioned the Spanish judiciary.
“We will accept whatever decision is taken without objection,” Laura Garcia Lorca, the poet’s niece, said at the time. “We understand the desire of a family to recover the remains of their relatives and give them proper burials. [But] for our family it is preferable that he [Lorca] stays there. He is in good company.”
She said the family thought the area – where thousands of other bodies of those killed by Franco’s soldiers also believed to be buried – “should be protected for the cemetery that it is, a testimony to the terrible crimes committed under Franco and the repression”.
