Under this title are grouped a set of 28 texts (in the edition by García-Posada, Galaxia Gutenberg, Barcelona, 1996) intended to be read at the time by the author as a thank you in a tribute, a radio program, a presentation of a work or an author, a farewell…
As Lorca himself explains at some point, whenever he had to dedicate a few words to the public, he liked to write them down and this text corpus on a variety of subjects is the result. The interest of the texts lies, on the one hand, in being able to access unique moments of the past such as the presentation of the magazine gallo (rooster) (one can see the desire for novelty and anti-provincialism that its founders had), and on the other, in the access to the author’s reflections on topics such as culture or theater.
gallo (rooster) feast, El Defensor de Granada, March 9, 1928.
Mariana Pineda in Granada, El Defensor de Granada, May 7, 1929.
Fuente Vaqueros, El Defensor de Granada, May 21, 1929.
Presentation by Ignacio Sánchez Mejías, La Prensa, New York, March 3, 1930.
Speech to the Fuente Vaqueros village, facsimile edition (transcription by Manuel Fernández-Montesinos and preliminary note by Andrés Soria Olmedo) published in Granada, 1986.
Holy Week in Granada was published under the title quatrains read in the radio. Granada, watched by Federico García Lorca in Heraldo de Madrid, April 4, 1936, and under the title Holy Week in Granada: Hidden Granada, capital of a kingdom with its own art and literature. beautiful quatrains by García Lorca in Política, Madrid, no. 180, April 5, 1936 (later reproduced in El Defensor de Granada, April 9, 1936).
As stated in the journalistic framework of the speech Banquete de gallo (gallo (Roosters) Feast), the presentation of the magazine took place at Venta Eritaña, on the road to Cenes de la Vega. At the event, the speakers were Enrique Gómez Arboleya (one of the editors), Federico García Lorca, Francisco García Lorca (director of the magazine) and other participants, including Hermenegildo Lanz.
The speech Mariana Pineda in Granada was given on May 5, 1929 at the Hotel Alhambra Palace in Granada, on the occasion of a tribute made by the city to Margarita Xirgu and Federico García Lorca. On April 29, 1929, Margarita Xirgu premiered this work in Granada, in the Cervantes Theater (in the Mariana Pineda square presided by her statue), shortly before the poet embarked for New York.
The banquet was given by the director of El Defensor de Granada newspaper, Constantino Ruiz Carnero. Among those present were Falla, Fernando de los Ríos, the author’s father… and other personalities sent their support by mail, such as Dalí or Melchor Fernández Almagro. In this speech he speaks of the anxiety he feels on account of his fame in Granada, seeing his face on posters, since what he seeks in his city is the tranquility to write.
Two of the speeches, In Fuente Vaqueros and Speech to the people of Fuente Vaqueros, are given in his home town. The first in 1929, to celebrate a banquet in tribute to the poet and the second in September 1931, at the village fairs, to inaugurate the library and the street where he was born with his name.
Federico was born on June 5, 1898 in Fuente Vaqueros. On May 19, 1929, at the banquet offered to Lorca by the town, among those present were his father, his sister Concha and her boyfriend, Manuel Fernández-Montesinos, the mayor and other authorities, the neighbors, his relatives, some from abroad, Fernando de los Ríos, Constantino Ruiz Carnero, several friends of gallo and El Rinconcillo. Fernando de los Ríos was also to be named adopted son of Fuente Vaqueros on April 25, 1931.
Speech given to the florists of La Rambla in Barcelona.
Doña Rosita premiered at the Teatro Principal on Las Ramblas. Xirgu, the leading actress of the play, received a bouquet of flowers every day after the first performance, without a card or name. It was a gift from the florists of Las Ramblas. The actress and the author, on account of that friendly and courteous gesture, dedicated an extraordinary performance to those women of “…frank laughter and wet hands, where the tiny ruby caused by the thorn trembles from time to time” and Lorca paid tribute to them with a few words.
Holy Week in Granada.
In this speech, read by Unión Radio in April 1936, the romantic vision that the author has of his city appears once again. Several motifs about Granada appear that will be repeated throughout his work. The sadness and melancholy that impregnate his vision of the landscape, the contrast between the novelties new development seen in the city and that imply its loss of identity (according to Ganivet) and the presence of the Moorish and Jewish past.
Man does not live on bread alone. If I were hungry and helpless in the street, I would not ask for bread; Instead I would ask for half a loaf of bread and a book. And from here I violently attack those who only speak of economic but never cultural demands, which is what people are crying out for. It is good that all men eat, but that all men know. Let them enjoy all the fruits of the human spirit because the opposite is to turn them into machines at the service of the State, it is to turn them into slaves of a terrible social organization.