GETTING TO KNOW • • •
When you came back to Spain you settled in Madrid. Why didn’t you return to Granada? Nobody wanted to go back to Granada after what had happened. My grandfather Federico died in New York, my grandmother Vicenta and my aunts felt that someone ought to be in Spain to deal with Federico’s works, but never in Granada. My parents and my aunt Gloria stayed in New York. When I was one year old my parents started to come back to Spain for short visits. It was in 1967 that my father retired, and took the decision to return to Spain permanently. That was a difficult time for them. My grandmother Gloria wasn’t at all sure and that caused a few arguments. My father didn’t visit Granada until the 1960s, but my aunts Isabel and Concha had made sporadic visits before. The first one to spend any time in Granada was my cousin Manuel Fernandez-Montesinos (1932-2013), the son of my aunt Concha and Manuel Fernandez-Montesinos, who was the last mayor of Granada during the Second Republic. He was also shot at the start of the Civil War. My cousin Manuel was elected as an MP by the PSOE in Granada in the first elections, and was later President of the Foundation. When did Laura García Lorca come to Granada? More permanently from 1995, when they asked me to run the Huerta de San Vicente. That was the first place in the city of Granada to be dedicated to Federico García Lorca. The whole family considered that anything that was done regarding Lorca in Granada should honour Granada as well as the figure of the poet. During those years La Huerta had some great events in its programme such as Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Antonio Vega, Patti Smith, Chavela Vargas and Nobel prize-winner Derek Walcott, among many others. It really is a marvellous place, but we mustn’t forget that it is a house so it became too small, it had many limitations. That’s where the idea came from, the need for a centre which could feature not only Federico’s direct works (poetry, theatre, prose, music, puppets), but also the effect and impact that Lorca’s work really has, not just among readers and spectators but also creators all
Vicenta, mi padre y mis tías comprendieron esa responsabilidad de velar por la obra y la memoria de Federico y así lo hicieron desde que lo asesinaron. Ellos tenían la certeza de que la obra de su hijo y hermano era algo fuera de serie, por eso el cuidado de su legado empezó muy pronto y fue una labor de toda su familia. Por tanto, desde el final de la Guerra Civil hasta 1984, se fue recuperando todo lo que estaba disperso, comprando aquello que se pudo, en fin, haciendo que la obra y el legado de Federico estuvieran siempre bien custodiados.
over the world. We needed a space which was large enough to house all that, as well as the archive and library which are hugely important in the world of culture.
En el año 1984 mi tía Isabel, que era la única hermana que quedaba viva, reunió a todos sus sobrinos y nos planteó la necesidad de donar todo nuestro legado para crear la Fundación y todos dijimos que sí. Los cuadros de Dalí que teníamos y que ahora están en el Reina Sofía, los vendimos y lo recaudado fue íntegramente a la Fundación para poder iniciar su actividad, y siempre desde el principio teníamos asumido que Granada debía ser la ciudad que acogiera el legado de mi tío.
The first difference is that as well as the Foundation, all the institutions involved in cultural management (Granada City Hall, the provincial government, the Junta de Andalucía and Ministry of Culture) also
Cuando volvéis a España, os quedáis en Madrid, ¿Por qué no volvisteis a Granada? Nadie quiso volver a Granada después de lo que pasó. Mi abuelo Federico murió en Nueva York, mi abuela Vicenta y mis tías sentían que alguien tenía que estar en España para ocuparse de la obra de Federico, pero nunca en Granada. En Nueva York quedaron mis padres y mi abuela Gloria. Cuando yo tenía un año, mis padres empezaron a volver a España, en pequeñas visitas…, fue en 1967, cuando mi padre se jubiló y cuando se tomó la decisión de volver a España, fue un momento muy difícil para ellos, mi abuela
Una de las maravillas de Federico García Lorca es que su obra tiene muchas lecturas diferentes… Gloria no lo tenía nada claro y eso provocó alguna que otra discusión. Mi padre no visitó Granada hasta la década de los 60, pero mis tías Isabel y Concha sí hicieron visitas esporádicas antes. El primero que pasó un tiempo
The Federico García Lorca Centre in the Plaza de La Romanilla is one of the most recent places to have been created, and it houses the Archive and Library of the Federico García Lorca Foundation, of which you are president. What is the way forward for the Centre? How is it different to other places dedicated to Lorca?
One wonderful thing about Federico García Lorca is that his work can be read in many different ways… have a presence at the FGL Centre. Something similar needs to be done with the other Lorca centres, to make things less confusing. Ideally there would be a single Board where all the institutions are represented. We have been saying that for 40 years, but it is very complex and hasn’t been possible. With regard to the Centre, it is starting to function now with new management and they are preparing the programme and activities for which it was created. The Foundation presented an application to Europe for funds from FEDER and Norway, to build the Centre and equip it, with support from all the institutions. It was conceived as the home of the Foundation’s archive and an international programme for excellence in all branches of artistic creation and academia, and that part has yet to be finished. We are working hard on that and are committed to making it an international benchmark. Is the Centre open to private sponsors? Of course, we already have sponsorship from La Caixa and we are open to
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