Federico García Lorca’s grave may have been found

SIX possible common graves have been found in the Fuente Grande area of Alfacar (Granada), one of which is believed to hold the remains of the Spanish literary icon Federico García Lorca.

Federico García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936) was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. He achieved international recognition as an member of the Generation of 27. He was murdered at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War by persons likely affiliated with the Nationalist cause. He is thought to be one of the many victims who 'disappeared' and were executed by the Nationalists.

In 1926, García Lorca wrote the play The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife which would not be shown until the early 1930s. It was a farce about fantasy, based on the relationship between a flirtatious, petulant wife and a hen-pecked shoemaker.

García Lorca became increasingly involved in Spain's avant-garde. He published poetry collections including Canciones (Songs) and Romancero Gitano (Gypsy Ballads, 1928), his best known book of poetry. His second play Mariana Pineda, with stage settings by Dalí, opened to great acclaim in Barcelona in 1927.

From 1925 to 1928 he was passionately involved with Salvador Dalí. Towards the end of the 1920s, García Lorca became increasingly depressed, a situation exacerbated by his anguish over his homosexuality. The success of Romancero Gitano intensified a painful and personal dichotomy : he was trapped between the persona of the successful author, which he was forced to maintain in public, and the tortured, authentic self, which he could only acknowledge in private.

Today, García Lorca is honored by a statue prominently located in Madrid's Plaza de Santa Ana. Political philosopher David Crocker reports that "the statue, at least, is still an emblem of the contested past: each day, the Left puts a red kerchief on the neck of the statue, and someone from the Right comes later to take it off"