Gabriel Perea’s relatives had been the landlords of the Huerta de san Vicente farmhouse since 1925 when it was acquired by Federico García Rodríguez, father of Federico García Lorca. They had a house attached to the Lorca’s house that its owner had built from scratch.
In the home of the landlords of Huerta de san Vicente lived Isabel Ruiz Ibáñez, a 73-year-old widow from Íllora and three of her six children: Gabriel Perea Ruiz, 50 years old, single and a farmer by profession, and his sisters Ana and Carmen, 40 and 32 years old, respectively.
Gabriel was tied to a cherry tree and mistreated so that he would confess the whereabouts of his brothers, falsely accused of having killed Daniel and José Linares, family of Franco’s mayor, on July 20 in Asquerosa (Disgusting). Perea was arrested and released.
Gabriel and his family came from Íllora but were linked to Asquerosa (Disgusting), the village where the García Lorca family resided uninterruptedly between 1906 and 1909 and, thereafter, during vacation periods until 1925 when they acquired the San Vicente Farmhouse. In August 1936, after the military uprising, the family suffered the blind violence unleashed by uncontrolled groups of armed Falangists who set out to punish sympathizers of the Republic or to avenge personal quarrels.
Three raids were recorded at the Huerta in August 1936. The first, on the 6th, under the pretext of searching for a clandestine radio station. Three days later, another group formed by individuals who came mostly from Asquerosa (Disgusting) and Pinos Puente under the command of a retired sergeant of the Civil Guard appeared at the farmhouse: they were looking for the landlord Gabriel Perea so that he would confess the whereabouts of his brothers. Among the gunmen were Enrique García Puertas, known as El Marranero (The Pig Trader); two landowners and the Horacio brothers and Miguel Roldán, whose family had lost several lawsuits in the 1920s with Don Federico over a property.
The last violent visit to the Huerta de san Vicente was on August 15, one day before Federico’s arrest and the shooting of the Socialist mayor of Granada Manuel Fernández-Montesinos, husband of Concha García Lorca.
Gabriel was tied to a cherry tree and mistreated so that he would confess the whereabouts of his brothers, falsely accused of having killed Daniel and José Linares, family of Franco’s mayor, on July 20 in Asquerosa (Disgusting). Perea was arrested and released. The news of his arrest appeared a day later in the newspaper Ideal: “Arrested for alleged concealment, under suspicion for concealing the whereabouts of his brothers José, Andrés and Antonio, accused of having killed José and Daniel Linares, which occurred in a town in the province on the 20th of the previous month. A retired sergeant of the Benemérita (Guardia Civil – Spanish Police) arrested Gabriel Perea Ruiz the day before, at his home, Callejones de Gracia, farmhouse of Don Federico Garcia. After interrogation, he was released”.
Manuel Fernández-Montesinos, son of Concha and the mayor of Granada, recalls in his memoirs: “They pushed my grandfather and another man, who they even knocked to the ground and who could not be anyone else but my uncle Federico. Later, when they were leaving, one of the men in uniform said to my grandfather: ‘What, Don Federico, aren’t you going to pour a glass of wine? And my grandfather slammed the door in his face”.
The last violent visit to the Farmhouse was on August 15, one day before Federico’s arrest and the shooting of the socialist mayor of Granada Manuel Fernández-Montesinos, husband of Concha García Lorca.
