{"id":4338,"date":"2025-08-18T14:08:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T18:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/?p=4338"},"modified":"2025-08-18T14:08:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T18:08:21","slug":"garcia-lorca-cuba-and-the-triumph-of-cultural-exchange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/garcia-lorca-cuba-and-the-triumph-of-cultural-exchange-18082025\/","title":{"rendered":"Garc\u00eda Lorca, Cuba, and the Triumph of Cultural Exchange"},"content":{"rendered":"

Invited by the Hispano-Cuban Society of Culture, chaired by Fernando Ortiz, Federico Garc\u00eda Lorca arrived in Havana after his stay in New York to deliver a series of lectures from March 9 to April 6, 1930. His talks included topics such as The Mechanics of Poetry, Imagination, Inspiration and Evasion, Paradise Closed to Many, Gardens Open to Few, A Seventeenth-Century Gongorine Poet, Spanish Lullabies, The Poetic Imagery of Luis de G\u00f3ngora, <\/em><\/strong>and The Architecture of Cante Jondo.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

According to researcher P\u00edo E. Serrano, the Cuban experience provided a refreshing surge of vitality for the poet. Serrano notes that in this setting, Federico reconnected with religious practices that were warmer and more expressive than the Protestant austerity he had known. He discovered a spontaneous and tactile human closeness.<\/p>\n

Simplicity, humility, and warmth defined Lorca\u2019s presence. While he did not ignore the tense political climate, which included demonstrations against President Gerardo Machado, he immersed himself in Cuba\u2019s cultural life and connected with much of the island’s population.<\/p>\n

Writer Juan Marinello recalled the reception of the poet, describing Lorca\u2019s lectures as informal and warm, overflowing with charm and improvisation, far removed from the solemnity typical of such events. Jos\u00e9 Lezama Lima later described during a reading at the University of Havana that Lorca\u2019s bond with Cuba\u2019s nature, people, and culture endowed him with a luminous, elevated vision.<\/p>\n

This vision resonated not only with his own sensibility but also in the hearts of Cubans, who saw him not just as a friend but as a brother, bound by the warmth of his humanity and his work.\u00a0 In Cuba, Lorca completed Poet in New York, sketched El p\u00fablico<\/em><\/strong>, and drafted fragments of Yerma and Do\u00f1a Rosita the Spinster<\/em><\/strong>. He also left a lasting testament of his time in Cuba with the piece Son de negros<\/em><\/strong> en Cuba.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Photo: Habana Radio<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of his closest friends, Cuban scholar Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Chac\u00f3n y Calvo, felt guilt throughout his life for having helped finance Lorca\u2019s return journey by lending him 250 pesetas for the train fare. After leaving Cuba, Lorca returned to his homeland and, along with Eduardo Ugarte, led the university theater group La Barraca. He later traveled to Argentina in 1933, and upon returning to Spain the following year, he found that political tensions and agitation against the Second Republic had become increasingly evident.<\/p>\n

After the unrest that erupted in July 1936, marking the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, Lorca received offers of diplomatic asylum from Colombia and Mexico. Yet, he chose to remain with his family. He stayed at the home of his friend Luis Rosales and his politically active brothers. There, he was arrested by the Civil Guard, taken to V\u00edznar, confined in an improvised cell, and killed on August 18, 1936, alongside other detainees, including the teacher Di\u00f3scoro Galindo. Lorca was just 38 years old at the time of his death.<\/p>\n

Translated by Luis E. Amador Dominguez<\/p>\n

Federico Garc\u00eda Lorca in Havana. Photo: https:\/\/www.nodalcultura.am\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Far from the solemnity common to these events, Federico appeared uninhibited and cordial at his lectures, brimming with friendliness and improvisation. This was recalled by Jos\u00e9 Lezama Lima during a poetry reading at the University of Havana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4339,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[189],"ppma_author":[14],"class_list":["post-4338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-cuba","tag-federico-garcia-lorca"],"authors":[{"term_id":14,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"lazaro-hernandez-rey","display_name":"L\u00e1zaro Hern\u00e1ndez Rey","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4338"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4341,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4338\/revisions\/4341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4338"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.radioenciclopedia.cu\/cultural-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=4338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}