Lorca as a symbol of a failure

BarcelonaIn Spain, the past is not the past, but a political weapon of daily use. Unlike in Catalonia, where the anti-Francoist consensus of all Catalanist forces allows for a greater consensus, Spain has not resolved its historical memory. And the symbol that best represents this failure is the figure of the Granada-born poet Federico García Lorca, murdered 90 years ago, and whose remains have not yet been found. This is undoubtedly an uncomfortable anniversary for the Spanish right, as it breaks the narrative that one must look forward and opt for "concord". What "concord" is possible when there are thousands and thousands of families who do not know where their loved ones are, including a pivotal figure in Spanish and even world literature, studied in all universities worldwide?

Lorca's figure is important because it helps to understand very well what Spanish fascism hated and intended to exterminate: he was a poet, homosexual, and a republican. It was no use for him to take refuge in the home of his friend and also poet Luis Rosales, who was Falangist in ideology. Historiography has very well portrayed what his last hours of life were like and who were the direct perpetrators of the murder: the former CEDA deputy Ramón Ruiz Alonso, who organized the arrest, and José Valdés Guzmán, governor of Granada, who could have prevented the execution if he had wanted to, according to historian Ian Gibson. Be that as it may, all this information has served neither to find Lorca's remains nor to locate the exact place where he was buried. Nevertheless, it is estimated that thanks to the investigations into Lorca's whereabouts, about two hundred bodies of victims of the first Francoist repression, arguably the cruelest, have been found.

Since 2007, when the first historical memory law was approved under the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, almost 6,000 mass graves have been identified (half of them in Andalusia). The map is chilling because it reaches everywhere. In fact, there is no town that does not have one within 50 kilometers. The fact is, however, that conservative regional governments, whether from the PP or the PP with Vox, have done everything possible to turn the law into a dead letter by systematically starving it of funding. It is true that the Constitutional Court has halted the attempt to replace the regional memory laws with supposed concord laws that serve to absolve the administration of any obligation and leave all initiative in the hands of families. The worst, however, is the narrative that these laws try to impose, in which both sides are placed on the same level, ignoring that there was a military revolt against a democratically elected government and that a bloody dictatorship was then imposed for 40 years.

But despite all attempts to extinguish his voice and memory, Lorca's figure remains very much alive and his work is more relevant than ever, with constant reissues and theatrical adaptations. But it is also a reminder that something is wrong in present-day Spain.