Daughter of Francisco García Rodríguez, brother of García Lorca’s father, and one of Federico’s favorite cousins. She was born in Fuente Vaqueros, although she soon moved to Granada. Her family lived on the Acera del Darro, very close to the first house where Lorca’s family lived. She had a strong and cheerful character. She was spontaneous and witty. She was about seven years older than Federico and that allowed her to play and take care of him when he was little in Fuente Vaqueros. She was the one who introduced the poet to a stage for the first time. Clotilde said that Federico started acting for the first time with her. It was in a zarzuela, La alegría de la huerta (The Joy of the Orchard), in some amateur performances. Federico would have been three or four years old and she had dressed him as a little gypsy.
Clotilde was a source of inspiration for Federico. She was about seven years older than him and that allowed her to play and take care of him when he was little in Fuente Vaqueros. She was always a great admirer and reader of her cousin.
She was the owner of the Huerta del Tamarit farmhouse, very close to the Huerta de San Vicente farmhouse. Federico liked to visit it very much and said that his uncle had the most beautiful addresses there “Huerta del Tamarit, pago del Faragüit, Granada”. This orchard gave its name to one of Federico’s books of poems, Divan del Tamarit. In the book we can find a tribute to this house near San Vicente where he wrote most of the work and where he felt so comfortable: “Por las arboledas del Tamarit [“The dogs of lead have arrived]/ han venido los perros de plomo [among the orchards of the Tamarit] / a esperar que se caigan los ramos, / a esperar que se quiebren ellos solos”[hoping that they might fell the branches”].
Clotilde was a source of inspiration for Federico. In The House of Bernarda Alba, the scene in which Adela, to escape from mourning, puts on a green dress is inspired by a real anecdote starring Clotilde: The death of her grandfather prevented her from wearing her new dress, so she decided to put it on and go to the farmyard for the chickens to see. This green dress may also be behind thw work of The Shoemaker’s Prodigious Wife, as well as the sentimental knot of Doña Rosita the Spinster. Clotilde had a boyfriend for many years, her cousin Máximo Delgado García, who, similar to Doña Rosita’s, goes to Tucumán and there marries and forgets about her. The difference, according to Clotilde García Picossi, is that she did not wait for him all her life.
She was always a great admirer and reader of her cousin’s works. She lived in Huerta del Tamarit farmhouse until she was admitted to a clinic by her relatives. She died at the age of 96, in Granada.
