On July 18, 1936, during the uprising, Federico García Lorca decided to dedicate a few minutes to love from his home “Huerta de San Vicente”.
The news about the events that would change the recent history of Spain had already spread throughout the country at that time, with only a month left until the day when the fate of one of Andalusia’s most famous poets would be sealed.
“I think about you a lot, and you know it – I don’t even need to tell you. But in the silence, between the lines, you must read all the love I feel for you and all the tenderness I carry in my heart.”
It is believed that the recipient of these lines was Juan Ramírez de Lucas – a journalist and art critic from Albacete. De Lucas, who died in 2010, was still a student at the time. It is possible that he inspired Lorca to write the “Sonnets of Dark Love,” although for understandable reasons this was kept silent even after the end of Franco’s dictatorship.
Ramírez de Lucas kept the letter, which testified to the relationship between the 38-year-old artist and the barely 16-year-old student, for 70 years. Shortly before his death, he passed drawings, letters, and a diary describing his relationship with the artist to his brothers. Among these documents, the letter was found.
In 2012, after the material became publicly available, experts who examined it concluded that this was probably Lorca’s last letter, written before his arrest and execution at a still precisely unknown location between the municipalities of Víznar and Alfacar.
It has been 90 years since these events, but the manuscripts and works of the Andalusian artist are still being discovered. Meanwhile, his remains, like those of many other Spaniards, have not yet been found.
The Spanish Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory has registered more than 3,000 mass graves. According to victim associations, the remains of between 114,000 and 130,000 people may still be unexhumed in them.
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Another cultural heritage discovery is a poem about time. This is one of the themes still associated with Lorca, among other things, due to the interpretation of an excerpt from “Así que pasen cinco años” created by the singer Camarón.
Now this text has been reworked in the trailer of the new feature film “La Bola Negra” by Los Javis. The film is inspired by Lorca’s life, his loves, and creative world, and its directors recently won the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival.
Taking care of the restoration of the Nasrid-era architectural gem in Granada where the poet lived during his childhood from 1900 to 1916, flamenco performer Miguel Poveda also acquired the manuscript. On its other side, an unpublished Lorca poem was found. Its authorship was confirmed by handwriting analysis by Lorca’s literary researcher Pepa Merlo.
I sing
The clock mechanically counts the hours.
Seven or twelve – no difference.
I am not here.
It is the body I left when I left,
so that when I return I can find my place. (“The Clock Sings,” Federico García Lorca).
Merlo and Poveda published a book in April this year titled “Las cosas del otro lado. Lo inédito en Federico García Lorca” (“Things from the Other Side. Unpublished Works of Federico García Lorca”). It examines the latest discoveries related to the artist’s literary legacy. These works will complement the collection of the recently reopened cultural center located in Lorca’s childhood home.
The second feature film about Lorca, directed by Fernando Franco, is expected to be released in 2027. It will recreate the last weeks of Federico’s life – from his departure from Madrid after the uprising to his execution in Granada.
For a few more months, we will not know whether the film will dedicate even a few minutes to honoring the letter addressed to Ramírez de Lucas. The letter that was never answered.
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