La Jornada: Granada commemorates the centenary of the arrival of the poet’s family to the Huerta de San Vicente

Grenade. This year Granada celebrates the centenary of the arrival of the García Lorca family to the Huerta de San Vicente, an enclave inseparable from the biography and literary creation of Federico García Lorca that, one hundred years after that first stay, continues to be one of the great spaces of cultural memory in the city.

The anniversary will be commemorated with a special program articulated around three main axes: a broad agenda of cultural activities in the Huerta de San Vicente, the call for the first International Poetry Contest Huerta de San Vicente and the comprehensive recovery of the historic orchard as an agricultural and heritage space linked to the Vega de Granada.

The mayor of Granada has pointed out that the Huerta de San Vicente “was not only the summer residence of the García Lorca family; it was the creative refuge where Federico wrote part of his work, a space that preserves intact the inspiration of the person who turned Granada into the world’s literary heritage.”

The councilor recalled the words that Lorca himself wrote in 1926 to Jorge Guillén when describing the Huerta de San Vicente as a place full of jasmines and ladies at night, a landscape that he defined as “the prodigy of Andalusia.”

From that first stay, the Huerta went from being a family space to being one of the fundamental settings of its creation.

On the occasion of this anniversary, the Huerta de San Vicente will develop a special program over the coming months that will reinforce its role as a living space for cultural creation and encounter.

Among the planned activities, the cycle stands out Movie Nights in the Gardenwhich expands its programming between August 18 and September 16 with 10 film screenings, and the concert offered by singer Laura Marchal, accompanied by Víctor Franco and Jesús Campos, on September 24.

Also on the occasion of the centenary, the Huerta has hosted The age of illusion; a bibliographic exhibition on children’s and youth publications in the period from the end of the 19th century until the Spanish Civil War, its evolution thanks to important publishers and the emergence of a new commercial industry aimed at literary consumption by children.

To this has been added the 29th edition of Títeres en la Huerta, the Cristobicwhich at the end of May brought to the stage the innovative proposals of prominent companies from Denmark, Brazil, Argentina and the Basque Country.

Coinciding with the centenary, Granada UNESCO City of Literature and the Granada European Capital of Culture Consortium are promoting the first Huerta de San Vicente International Poetry Competition, which aims to reinforce the international dimension of this Lorca space and consolidate Granada as a reference city for literary creation.

The contest will have a first prize of 3 thousand euros, a second prize of one thousand euros and a third prize of 500 euros. The originals can be submitted until September 21 and the jury will be made up of renowned Granada poets.

Filming

During the next few weeks, the Huerta de San Vicente will be transformed into a movie set. The producers of the award-winning Second prize about the history of the group Los Planetas are once again looking for locations in Granada for their next film, which is directed by filmmaker Fernando Franco and which he repeats with Fernando Navarro from Granada as screenwriter.

Cristóbal García, founder of La Terraza Films, is therefore returning to search in Granada for a key location for his next work and will bring Federico García Lorca’s summer residence to the screens, “thus closing the commemoration of such a special centenary.”

Meanwhile, the Granada City Council, through the Parks and Gardens Management Service of the Maintenance Area, has completed an important recovery action for the Huerta de San Vicente to return it to its original agricultural character and reinforce its heritage value.

The intervention has allowed the space to be fully rehabilitated by conditioning the land, improving soil fertility and planting traditional species from the Vega de Granada, including tomatoes, eggplants, beans, pumpkins, peppers, watermelons, melons, corn, sunflowers, lettuce and chard.

The existing historical fruit trees have also been preserved, elements that altered the original image of the site have been eliminated and the traditional irrigation structure has been preserved, integrating the House Museum and the Orchard as a single heritage complex.