Spain starts exhuming grave of poet Garcia Lorca

Spain starts exhuming grave of poet Garcia Lorca

Crews made final preparations Wednesday to exhume a mass grave in southern Spain thought to contain the remains of poet Federico Garcia Lorca, the most famous victim of Franco\’s repression.

Garcia Lorca, Spain\’s most widely acclaimed 20th century poet, was shot by supporters of right-wing General Francisco Franco at the start of Spain\’s 1936-39 civil war who denounced him as a republican, a Communist and a homosexual.

His body, along with three other men who faced the firing squad, is believed to have been dumped into a mass grave in Alfaca, one of six thought to be located near the town near Granada. Two other bodies may also have been buried there.

«The three archaeologists responsible for the opening of the mass grave at Alfacar will begin their work on Thursday morning,» said the spokesman for the regional ministry of justice, Javier Giraldez.

Workers set up a large white canvas tent at the site where Garcia Lorca is thought to be buried — usually marked by flowers left by visitors as a tribute to the poet — to protect the privacy of family members of the deceased.

They will focus primarily on four small parcels that are likely to contain the remains of Garcia Lorca and the other men.

Any bones which are found will be sent for analysis to the University of Granada to enable families who wish to do so to identify their ancestors.

The excavation could take at least two months, according to the Granada branch a group called the Association for the Recovery of Historic Memory, a group that has been working since the late 1990s to help people locate the graves of loved ones who went missing during the war.
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