A Chronology of Lorca's Visit to New York and Cuba
Daniel Eisenberg
Florida State University
Despite the ever-increasing interest in the life and works of Federico García Lorca; scholars have not devoted attention in recent years to his visit to the New World in 1929-30. This is surely explained by the fact that we have had for many years two studies of that visit, Ángel del Río's introduction to Ben Belitt's bilingual edition of Poet in New York1, and the book, Federico García Lorca, of John Crow2. Both of these, however, were written a generation ago, and lack the details and precision which are found in more recent studies of other periods of Lorca's life, and both are based almost exclusively on the memories of the authors, without any attempt to supplement these from written records. As a result, although Lorca's first trip outside of Spain is well-known in its general outlines, it is one of the periods about which detailed information is most lacking3. For example, while it is known that Lorca gave some lectures in the United States, no one has been able to specify accurately their titles or subjects, or even whether they were given in 1929 or 19304.
The present study attempts to fill the gaps in our knowledge of Lorca's visit through the use of original documents at Columbia University, newspaper records, some obtained with great difficulty, and conversations with persons who knew him that year; it is intended as a contribution to the definitive biography of Lorca which is at present premature. Although the results, following the model of the painstaking study of Marie Laffranque, are presented chronologically, the new information presented can easily be seen. Presented here are the titles of his lectures, including some unknown ones given in Cuba, their dates, and where summaries of them can be found, details of his visit to Vermont and his travels with his friend Philip Cummings, and various lectures and other functions he attended. Several errors of earlier studies are corrected5. A brief communication of Lorca to Federico de Onís has been exhumed and is published here for the first time (see entry for June 18, 1930).
This chronology is of more than merely biographical importance, however, since it adds information about the composition of the poems which later were to form Poeta en Nueva York. It can be seen, for example, that many of the poems were written before the stock market crash of 1929, and thus could not reflect it, how another group was written during Columbia's Christmas vacation, when Lorca was alone in a dormitory and his mentor Federico de Onís was attending the MLA meeting in Washington, and, surprisingly, that the «Oda a Walt Whitman» was the last poem written in the New World, as its date corresponds to the dates of his trip with Adolfo Salazar from Cuba to Spain. It is hoped, therefore, that a future exegesist, as well as a biographer, might find this study of value6.
The appropriate periods of the following publications have been searched in the preparation of this chronology: Alhambra, Carteles, Columbia Spectator, Diario de la Marina, Havana, Hispania, La Lucha (in part), La Prensa [New York], Musicalia, New York Post (in part), New York Times, Revista Bimestre Cubana, Revista de Avance, Revista de La Habana, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos [New York], Romanic Review, Social, [New York] Sun (in part), and Surco (except Vol. 1, No. 1).
The following abbreviations are used: DM, Diario de la Marina, NYT, New York Times, OC, Lorca, Obras completas, 18th ed. (Madrid: Aguilar, 1973).
June 11-12, 1929
Lorca leaves Spain via Irún. He is accompanied, as far as Paris, by Philip Cummings, with whom he shares a compartment, and by Fernando de los Ríos and De los Ríos's daughter Laura. Cummings invites him to visit Vermont. (Conversations with Philip Cummings, 26 May and 20 June 1974; Cummings, «The Mind of Genius», published in Lorca, Songs, translated by Philip Cummings with the assistance of Federico García Lorca, ed. Daniel Eisenberg, Duquesne University Press, 1976, pp. 175-81). The date is determined by Cummings' letter to Rollins College of June, and Lorca's letter to Morla Lynch saying that he would leave Madrid on Tuesday (OC, 11, 1238); see also La Gaceta Literaria, 15 June 1929, p. 6, cited by Eutimio Martín, «Contribution à l'étude du cycle poetique new-yorkais de Federico García Lorca: 'Poeta en Nueva York', 'Tierra y Luna' et autres poèmes. (Essai d'édition critique)», Diss. Poitiers, 1974, p. 56.
A hasty visit to Paris. (Mathilde Pomes, «Españoles en París [XIV]. Federico García Lorca», ABC, 22 Nov. 1967; Jean-Louis Schonberg [pseud. of Louis Stinglhamber-Schonberg], À la recherche de Lorca [Neuchâtel: Baconnière, 1966], p. 70).
June 16 or 17.
A visit to London. (Schonberg, loc. Cit.) A lecture in the University of London. (Patrick Dudger, «J. M. Synge and F. García Lorca», Fantasy, No. 1 [1941], 40).
June 18.
With the exiled Fernando de los Ríos, a visit to Oxford. In the evening, they visit Salvador de Madariaga. (Madariaga, De Galdós a Lorca [Buenos Aires: Sudamericana, 1960], pp. 221-22).
Both John Crow and Cummings noted in conversations that Lorca had with him in New York a heavily marked-up copy of the Oxford Book of Spanish Verse, which was reprinted in 1929. Possibly this was purchased during the visit to Oxford.
June 19.
Together with Fernando de los Ríos, Lorca sails from Southampton on the S. S. Olympic. (For the name of the boat, letter of the U. S. Immigration Service to Federico de Onís, July 30, 1930, File No. 98524-385-G. O. 117, in the Onís papers in the Seminario de Estudios Hispánicos, University of Puerto Rico; for the date, NYT, 21 June, p. 50. I would like to thank Humbeto López Morales and Eduardo Figueroa for assisting me in obtaining this and other documents from the Onís papers in the Seminario de Estudios Hispánicos).
On the boat.
Lorca writes to Carlos Morla Lynch. (OC, II, 1239).
June 25.
Arrival of Lorca in New York. (Letter of the U. S. Immigration Service, cited above).
Fernando de los Ríos arrived together with Lorca, but he departed very soon for Puerto Rico, probably the 27th, because he was en route to give a series of lectures on the topic «El pensamiento filosófico en la literatura de los siglos XVI y XVII» in the summer session of the University of Puerto Rico, which began July 1st. (Revista de Estudios Hispánicos [New York], 2 [1929], 87). Fernando de los Ríos later returned to Europe directly from Puerto Rico. A postcard of July 4 from Ramón Lavandero to Ángel del Río (in the del Río papers in the Hispanic Society of America) announces de los Ríos' arrival in Puerto Rico.
End of June.
Lorca writes to Cummings in Vermont; Cummings telephones him in New York. (Conversations with Cummings. The letter has been stolen, and its present location is unknown).
July 2 or 3.
Lorca pays the Men's Residence Halls, Columbia University, the sum of $47.20 to occupy room 617, Furnald Hall, and moves there from his temporary quarters. (Men's Residence Halls / Charge Sheets / July 1, 1929-June 30, 1930, n. pag., entry 666; see «Lorca en Nueva York» in my Textos y documentos lorquianos [Tallahassee, 1975], pp. 21-23). (Since this article was submitted for publication, several of the items I cite from Textos y documentos lorquianos have also been published in «Cuatro pesquisas lorquianas», Thesaurus, 30 [1975], 520-38).
July 5.
On the recommendation of Federico de Onís, Lorca registers in English V1, a class of English for foreigners. (Columbia University Registrar's Office, document 50-6708, and the letter to Cummings cited in the next entry; see «Lorca en Nueva York», pp. 17-20.
July 6 or 7.
Lorca writes to Cummings, discussing his difficulties in finding lodging. He thanks Cummings for sending the money for the trip to Vermont, but says that he can not visit him for six weeks, since he has enrolled in an English class. (Letter published by Kessel Schwartz, «García Lorca and Vermont», Hispania, 42 [1959], 50, and reedited in Songs, pp. 6-7
July 8.
Columbia summer classes begin.
July-August.
Work on the dramas Don Perlimplín, La zapatera prodigiosa, Así que pasen cinco años, and El público. Composition of the first poems of Poeta en Nueva York, among them the «Oda al rey de Harlem» and the «Nocturno del Brooklyn Bridge». (Ángel del Río, Introduction to Poet in New York, trans. Ben Belitt [New York: Grove, 1955], p. xxvi).
Lorca renews his acquaintance with Mildred Adams, whom he had met in 1928 in Granada. (Conversation with Mildred Adams Kenyon, 27 Feb. 1974).
A Sunday.
Visit to Coney Island, perhaps with a group from Columbia University. (OC, I, 1100; Columbia University, Bulletin of Information, 29th Series, No. 20. 16 Feb. 1929. Summer Session, 1929, p. 22).
Although the poem «Paisaje de la multitud que vomita (Anochecer de Coney Island)» is dated December 29, it is unlikely that Lorca would visit Coney Island in December and impossible that he would find there, considering the weather, any crowd.
First half of August.
Composition of the poem «1910». (Epigraph of the poem, which indicates it was written in New York).
August 5.
Epigraph of «El rey de Harlem». (Autógrafos, ed. Rafael Martínez Nadal, I [Oxford: Dolphin, 1975], 236).
August 7.
Lorca directs the chorus of the Instituto de las Españas. (Mildred Adams, García Lorca: Playwright and Poet [New York: Braziller, 1977], p. 93).
August 12.
Epigraph of «Norma y paraíso de los negros». (Martín, p. 139).
August 16.
End of summer session classes.
August 17-18.
Trip from New York to Eden Mills, Vermont. «We met him at Montpelier Junction, after he had ridden all night from New York City» (letter of Cummings to the author, 30 Sept. 1974).
August 19-28.
Lorca visits Philip Cummings in Eden Mills. He brings with him a stack of works in progress; he reads to Cummings, among other things, many sonnets. Cummings introduces him to the poetry of Whitman. They jointly translate Lorca's Canciones into English (see entry for June 11-12). Impromptu concert by Lorca at the Ruggles' restaurant-pavilion. Lorca and Cummings hike through the Vermont countryside. (Kessel Schwartz, op. cit.; conversations with Cummings; Cummings, «August in Eden», published with the translation of Songs). Lorca's misleading letter to Morla (OC, 11, 1240), stating that he had visited Canada, is, according to Cummings, incorrect.
Composition of «Poema doble del Lago Edem».
August 24.
Epigraph of the poem «Cielo vivo», written, according to the ms. in the Lorca family archives, in the «Dew Kum Inn».
About August 25.
Lorca writes to Ángel del Río. (Letter in OC, II, 1249-50).
August 28.
Date of «Tierra y luna». (Jacques Comincioli, Federico García Lorca. Textes inédits et documents critiques [Lausanne: Rencontre, 1970], p. 43). «Tierra y luna» was also written in the «Dew Kum Inn».
August 29.
Trip from Eden Mills to Bushnellsville, near Shandaken, New York, where Ángel del Río was spending his vacation. «How well I remember his clutching your letter of details when my father and I put him on the train in Burlington with destination of Shandaken» (letter of Cummings to Ángel del Río, 24 Nov. 1955).
Lorca had written to del Río that he planned to leave on Thursday (OC, II, 1250), after spending ten days in Vermont.
According to Cummings, Lorca left with him the autographs of seven poems, since stolen.
August 29 - September 18.
Visit with Ángel del Río on a farm at Bushnellsville. «Pasamos allí unos veinte días». (Ángel del Río, «Fotos de Federico García Lorca en Norteamérica [1929]», PSA, 42 [1969], 100).
Composition of «Nocturno del hueco», «Ruina», «Niña ahogada en el pozo», and «Paisaje con dos tumbas y un perro asirio» (Del Río, Introduction, pp. xvi - xvii and xxxvi - xxxvii; but see the entry for December 8).
August 31.
Date of introduction (written in Hardwick, Vermont, after Lorca's departure), of the translation of Canciones.
Early September.
Lorca writes a lengthy letter, now lost, thanking Cummings' mother.
September 6.
Epigraph of «Vuelta de paseo». (Martín, p. 137).
September 12.
Date which, confusingly, is found on Lorca's registration for the fall semester (Columbia University Registrar's Office document 50-6709). It bears the university's stamp of 27 Sept.
September 17.
Epigraph of «Oda al santísimo sacramento del altar» (Martín, p. 64).
September 18-21.
Visit to the house of Federico de Onís, Gardnertown Road, Newburgh, New York. Lorca meets León Felipe. (Luis Rius, León Felipe, poeta de barro [Mexico: Colección Málaga, 1968], pp. 160-61; my thanks to Jerry Bernstein).
September 21.
Lorca returns to New York with Onís. «F. G. Lorca» paid the Men's Residence Halls office $1.50 to stay in Room 1231, John Jay Hall, prior to its official opening on September 23. (See «Lorca en Nueva York», pp. 21-23). Lorca remained in this single room during the fall semester.
Between September 21 and September 30.
Lorca renews his friendship with Dámaso Alonso, visiting professor at Hunter College, who had not been in New York during the summer. (On September 30 he writes to Fernández Almagro [OC, II, 1116] that «le veo mucho»).
September 26.
Fall semester classes begin.
September 28.
First Columbia football game of the season, against Middlebury, which Lorca probably attends. (See the letter to Fernández Almagro, OC, II, 1116).
September 30.
Date of letter 60 to Melchor Fernández Almagro (OC, II, 1115-16). In this letter he says «a Salinas le escribo mañana»; his letter to Salinas is otherwise unknown.
End of September - first week of October.
Lorca writes to Carlos Morla Lynch (OC, II, 1240). (In this letter he speaks of his classes as if he still attends them).
Before October 5.
Lorca withdraws from classes. Mildred Adams stated that this was partly at the suggestion of García Maroto, whom he encountered upon his return to New York. (Conversation with Mildred Adams Kenyon, 22 March 1974; see also del Río, Introduction, pp. xiv and xiv, and «Lorca en Nueva York», pp. 18-19. October 5th was the last day for withdrawal with refund of tuition).
During the fall.
A visit to Wall Street at night with Onís. (Conversation with Amelia Agostini de del Río, 1 April 1974). A visit to Harlem, with which he was already acquainted, with John Crow and Francis Hayes. (Conversations with John Crow and Francis Hayes, both 8 April 1974). Lorca is introduced by Mildred Adams to Herschel Brickell; he attends a dinner at the apartment of Mildred Adams' aunt. (Herschel Brickell, «A Spanish Poet in New York», Virginia Quarterly Review, 21 [1945], 388 and 392). Composition of Yerma (Brickell, p. 392), of which he left a manuscript with Flora Loynaz, in Cuba. (Ideal [Granada], 24 Oct. 1953, apud Schonberg, p. 90). Plan for a surrealistic movie, in collaboration with Enrique Amero. («Trip to the Moon», trans. Bernice G. Duncan, New Directions in Prose and Poetry, 18 [1964], 35-41).
Lorca meets Antonieta Rivas Blair, who became deeply enamoured of him. (She is the «Mexican woman» mentioned by Brickell, p. 392; also see «Trip to the Moon», p. 33). Mildred Adams stated that Blair had discussed with her at length her passion for Lorca. Estranged from her husband, she committed suicide in a dramatic fashion in 1931, in the Cathedral of NotreDame in Paris (Brickell, p. 392; NYT, 12 Feb. 1931, p. 1; L'Ami du Peupple, 12 Feb. 1931, p. 3).
October 7
Epigraph of «Habla la Santísima Virgen», (Autógrafos, I, 244).
October 14.
Lorca attends, with Maroto, Brickell, and Brickell's wife Norma, the first New York performance of La Argentina. (Brickell, p. 393; NYT, 15 October, p. 35.
October 18.
Epigraph of «Crucifixión».
October 29.
Black Monday. First fall of the stock market. Lorca witnesses six suicides. (Pablo Suero, Figuras contemporáneas [Buenos Aires: Sociedad impresora americana, 1943], p. 284).
It is not quite correct to state, as do Ángel del Río (Introduction, p. xiii) and others following him, that «what Lorca found on coming to these shores was the dismal New York of 1929 and 1930, of the Depression, with all the shabby disarrangement accompanied by a mood of pessimism and despair». This was not true of Lorca's arrival, at which time he would have found, if anything, the optimism of the 20's. The depression began later.
November 9.
Lorca is almost certainly present when Dámaso Alonso speaks at Columbia University on the topic «Góngora-Una nueva perspectiva en la literatura de España». (Hispania, 12 [1929], 612; La Prensa, 8 Nov., p. 4).
November 29.
Epigraph of «Iglesia abandonada». (Marie Laffranque, «Puertas abiertas y cerradas en la poesía y el teatro de García Lorca», in Federico García Lorca, ed. Ildefonso-Manuel Gil [Madrid: Taurus, 1973], p. 260).
December.
Epigraph of «Danza de la muerte»; epigraph of «Yo sé que mi perfil será tranquilo». (Juan Marinello, García Lorca en Cuba, [Havana: Ediciones Especiales, 1965], p. 39).
December 1.
Epigraph of «Adán». (Martin, p. 259).
December 6.
With García Maroto, Lorca attends a lecture of Pastoriza Flores, «La contribucion española a la civilización occidental». (La Prensa, 7 Dec., p. 4, col. 7).
García Maroto left not long afterwards for Mexico; he later returned to Spain, stopping in Havana when Federico was there (see below).
December 8.
Epigraph of «Niña ahogada en el pozo». (Martin, p. 179).
December 9.
Epigraph of «Ciudad sin sueño». (Martin, p. 166).
December 10.
At a function sponsored by the Instituto de las Españas in honor of La Argentina, Lorca reads poems which were later published, with variants and different titles, as part of the Poema del cante jondo. The poems read can be found, with other texts read on the same occasion, in Antonia Mercé, La Argentina (New York: Instituto de las Españas, 1930). (For the mss. of these poems, see my «Poeta en Nueva York»: historia y problemas de un texto de Lorca [Barcelona: Ariel, 1976], p. 176
December 13.
The coro of the Instituto de las Españas, in which Lorca participated, performs in the Casa Italiana of Columbia University, including in their program arrangements of Spanish folk songs. (La Prensa, 14 Dec., p. 4. On Lorca's participation in the coro see John Crow, Federico García Lorca [Los Angeles: The Author, 1945], p. 43, and Del Río, introduction, p. xiv. For participants in the coro other than Lorca, see La Prensa, 9 April 1930, p. 4).
December 24.
Lorca spends Christmas Eve at the Brickell's, followed by a visit to the church of St. Paul the Apostle (59th Street and 9th Avenue). (Brickell, p. 391). He hears there part of Handel's Messiah? (See «Navidad en el Hudson», OC, 1, 478-79). Afterwards, a visit to Child's Restaurant at Columbus Circle (59th Street and 8th Avenue). (Brickell, p. 391). [A recently published letter of Lorca to his family (Trece de Nieve 2d época, Nos 1-2 [December, 1976], pp. 59-61) adds additional details about Lorca 's Christmas Eve, as does Mildred Adams, pp. 145-25].
December 27.
Epigraph of «Navidad en el Hudson».
December 29.
Epigraph of «Paisaje de la multitud que vomita (Anochecer de Coney Island)».
January 4, 1930.
Epigraph of «Luna y panorama de los insectos».
January 5.
Epigraph of «Stanton», later «El niño Stanton». (Martin, p. 172).
January 10.
Epigraph of «Pequeño poema infinito».
January 13.
Together with Ángel del Rim, Lorca attends a luncheon in honor of the Cuban musician Fernández Arbós. (La Prensa, 14 Jan., p. 4, col. 3).
About January 18.
Arrival of Andrés Segovia, another old friend from Spain, in New York. (NYT, 20 Jan., p. 16).
January 18.
Epigraph of «Cementerio judío».
January 21
Lecture in Vassar College: «La canción española». (The report of this lecture found in the Vassar Miscellany News is reprinted in «Lorca en Nueva York», pp. 23-25). Pilar de Madariaga, sister of Salvador, had begun teaching that year at Vassar College (La Prensa, 18 Sept. 1929, p. 4, col. 6), and may have been responsible for his invitation.
According to Philip Cummings, Lorca wrote him a letter after this visit (also stolen), describing his rather unfavorable reactions to his visit up the Hudson.
Last half of January.
Lorca moves out of John Jay Hall, to share an apartment with José Antonio Rubio Sacristán at 542 West 112th Street. (Columbia University dormitory records; letter of John Crow, 23 Feb. 1974; letter of Mildred Adams Kenyon, 1 March 1974; see «Lorca en Nueva York», pp. 22-23).
January 28.
Resignation of Primo de Rivera; Fernando de los Ríos returns shortly thereafter to his teaching position. (La Prensa, 22 Feb., p. 6, col. 7).
February 5.
Farewell banquet for La Argentina in the Cosmopolitan Club, at which «el gran poeta español Federico García de Lorca [sic] dedicóla un gentil, delicioso y poético saludo» (La Prensa, 7 Feb., p. 1, col. 3). The text of this «saludo» is in the possession of Francisco García Lorca (Marie Laffranque, «Bases chronologiques», p. 349). It was not delivered on December 16, 1929, as is commonly found.
Because of an attack of appendicitis, La Argentina was unable to leave until March 7. (La Prensa, 7 March, p. 3; for further information see the issues of 6, 7, and 9 Feb.)
February 6.
Arrival in New York of La Argentinita and Ignacio Sánchez Mejías, on the Île de France. (NYT, 4 Feb., p. 29, 6 Feb., p. 47; La Prensa, 6 Feb., p. 8, and 7 Feb., p. 8).
«La Argentinita», Encarnación López Júlvez, who specialized in folk dances, should not be confused with «La Argentina», Antonia Mercé, a more classical dancer; both were in New York at the same time. (For a comparison of the two see NYT, 30 March 1930, p. 8). La Argentinita's visit was covered extensively by the press; see La Prensa, 20 Feb., p. 2, 27 Feb., p. 5, 22 March, p. 3, 25 March, p. 3, 5 April, p. 2, 12 April, p. 2; NYT, 30 March, p. 8; W. Adolphe Roberts, «The Most Spanish of Dancers», Dance Magazine, May 1930, pp. 17 and 50.
February 10.
Lecture at Columbia University, «Tres modos de poesía», followed by a reception. (Romanic Review, 2 [1930], 181; La Prensa, 7 Feb., p. 4, col. 6. The report of this lecture, published in La Prensa, 12 Feb., pp. 4-5, is reprinted in «Lorca en Nueva York», pp. 26-29, and in «Dos conferencias lorquianas», Papeles de Son Armadans, 79 (1975), 197-212.
February 13.
Epigraph of «Vals vienés».
February 13.
Lorca probably attends the lecture of María de Maeztu in the Instituto de las Españas on «La mujer y la cultura». (La Prensa, 15 Feb., pp. 4-5). In Maeztu's Residencia de Señoritas Lorca was to give in 1932 one of the first readings of poems from Poeta en Nueva York.
February 14.
Lorca attends, with Sánchez Mejías, a luncheon on board the Manuel Arnús in honor of the new Spanish consul in New York, José Gimeno Aznar. (La Prensa, 15 Feb., p. 2, col. 4).
February 15.
Premiere of the first talking movie in Spanish, «Sombra de gloria» («Blaze of Glory»), which Lorca almost certainly attended. (La Prensa, 15 Feb., p. 5).
February 17.
Lorca probably attends, with Onís and others, a dinner in honor of Waldo Frank. Frank, María de Maeztu, Eugenio d'Ors, and Lorca's friend Sainz de la Maza were among the other lecturers that year at the Institución Hispano Cubana de Cultura.
February 20.
Lecture of Sánchez Mejías, «El pase de la muerte», in the Instituto de las Españas. He is introduced by Federico. (The report of this lecture and Lorca's introduction were read at the Congreso Internacional de Hispanistas, 2 Sept. 1974, as «Un texto lorquiano descubierto en Nueva York [La presentación de Sánchez Mejías]», and will be published in Bulletin Hispanique. See also DM, 30 March 1930, p. 18).
About February 24.
Lorca is invited by the Institución Hispano Cubana de Cultura to give a series of lectures. (La Prensa, 25 Feb., p. 4, col. 6).
About March 5.
Lorca leaves New York for Cuba, travelling by train. (Letter of Federico de Onís to the Office of the Commissioner of Immigration, July 31, 1930, conserved in the Seminario de Estudios Hispánicos, University of Puerto Rico). In DM, 7 March, p. 1, we find that he was travelling «por la vía de la Florida». Schonberg (p. 87) states that Lorca travelled by train to New Orleans; he is surely incorrect when he reports that Lorca was accompanied by Adolfo Salazar. I have been unable to discover by whom, if anyone, Lorca was accompanied on this trip.
Before leaving, Lorca gave a ms. of Perlimplín to Mildred Adams to translate into English (conversation of 15 Feb. 1974). This ms. is currently in the possession of the Lorca family.
March 6.
A lecture of Lorca at the public library branch at 115th Street and 7th Avenue had been announced for this date. Because of his sudden departure, Dámaso Alonso spoke for him, on the topic «Poesía española contemporánea». (La Prensa, 6 March, p. 4, col. 3).
March 7.
Lorca arrives in Havana. (DM, 7 March, pp. 1 and 26, 8 March, p. 24, col. 8). A photo of Lorca upon his arrival may be seen in Carteles, 16 March, p. 37. According to this publication, he was «recibido por los Sres. Chacón y Calvo, Suárez Solís, Lizaso y Guardiola».
On this same date Sánchez Merjías and La Argentina [sic] left New York. (La Prensa, 7 March, p. 3, and 8 March, p. 3).
March 9.
First lecture of Lorca, in the Teatro Principal de la Comedia: «La mecánica de la poesía». He was introduced by Francisco Ichaso, who read part of the «Oda al Santísimo Sacramento». (DM, 10 March, p. 12. For some reaction to the talk and poem, see Rafael Suárez Solís, «La evasión», DM, 11 March, p. 24).
The report of this lecture is included in «Lorca en Nueva York», pp. 29-32, and in «Dos conferencias lorquianas», Papeles de Son Armadans, cited above.
Second week of March.
«Asiste a una reunión en el estudio de Jaime Valls». ([Antonio Quevedo], El Poeta en La Habana [Havana: Consejo Nacional de Cultura, 1961], p. [39]).
March 12.
Lecture: «Paraíso cerrado para muchos: jardines abiertos para pocos (Un poeta gongorino del Siglo XVII)». (DM, 12 March, p. 1).
In the Diario de la Marina there is no report of this lecture.
March 13.
Lorca attends a concert of Prokofiev, at that time visiting Cuba. (El Poeta en La Habana, p. [27]).
March 16.
Lecture: «Canciones de cuna españolas». The musical illustrations were sung by María Tubau, accompanied on the piano by Lorca. (DM, 17 March, p. 13).
The report of this lecture published in DM offers no significant variants when compared with the text of «Las nanas infantiles» found in Lorca's Obras completas, since the text published in the Obras completas, was one which Félix Lizaso sent from Cuba to Guillermo de Torre. (See OC, II, 1400).
March 19.
Lecture: «La imagen poética en Don Luis de Góngora». (DM, 19 March, p. 1).
In the microfilm used, that of the Library of Congress, the issue of March 20 is missing. My efforts to obtain a copy of the issue from other sources have been unsuccessful.
March 21.
Lorca attends a farewell luncheon in honor of Alfonso Hernández-Catá, José María Chacón y Calvo, and Luis Rodríguez-Embi. (Revista de La Habana, 2 [1930], 105-09, and Revista de Avance, No. 45 [15 April 1930], p. 128).
Lorca probably attends the lecture of Hernández-Cató, «André Gide. Su influencia sobre la literatura contemporánea». (DM, 21 March, p. 16, and 23 March, p. 13). He may also have attended that on March 23: «Estética del tiempo: lo nuevo, lo viejo, lo antiguo». (DM, 24 March, p. 8).
March ?
A weekend at Varadero; an excursion to the Valley of Yumurf. (El Poeta en La Habana, pp. [30-31]).
Lorca visits the class of Roberto Agramonte at the University of Havana, and receives «un cordial homenaje». He reads his poems, among them the «Romance sonámbulo» and «La casada infiel». (Raúl Roa, «Federico García Lorca, poeta y soldado de la libertad», Revista de las Indias, 1, No. 5 [March 1937], 44).
March 30.
Lecture in the Institución Hispano Cubana de Cultura of Caibarién. (José María Chacón y Calvo, «Lorca, poeta tradicional», Revista de Avance, No. 45 [15 April 1930], pp. 101-02).
It should be noted that, according to Rafael Martínez Nadal, Lorca gave more than twenty lectures in various parts of the island. (Poems, trans. Stephen Spender and J. L. Gili [London: Dolphin, 1939], p. xxi). It has not been possible to track down all of these.
April.
Composition of «Son», later «Son de negros en Cuba». (Musicalia, 2, No. 11 [April-May, 1930], p. 44).
In the April issue of Social, p. 106, there is a photo of a bust of Lorca by the Spanish sculptor Emilio Aladrén (to whom the «Romance del emplazado» is dedicated).
April 3.
Hernández-Cata leaves for Spain. (DM, 3 April, p. 24).
April 5.
Lecture announced for Santiago de Cuba, which he did not give. (Marcelle Auclair, Vida y muerte de García Lorca, trans. Aitana Alberti [Mexico: Era, 19721, pp. 396-97).
April 6.
Lecture in Havana: «Arquitectura del Cante Jondo». (DM, 7 April, p. 13).
April 7 - 9.
Visit to Cienfuegos, where he gives a lecture: «La personalidad poética de Don Luis de Góngora». (El Poeta en La Habana, p. [26]; DM, 9 April, p. 5). Lorca was the guest of honor at a banquet given by the Institución Hispano Cubana de Cultura of Cienfuegos.
April 15.
Publication of «Yo sé que mi perfil será tranquilo», «Degollación del Bautista», and «Danza del la muerte» in the Revista de Avance, No. 45 (15 April 1930), pp. 104-110.
April 15, Good Friday.
Visit to Havana churches. (Marinello, p. 20).
End of April?
Visit to Santiago de Cuba; lecture: «Mecánica de la nueva poesía». (Jesús Sabourin, «Federico García Lorca en Santiago de Cuba», Santiago de Cuba. Universidad de Oriente. Revista, 1, No. 2 [March, 1962], 1-2).
April 28.
García Maroto arrives from Mexico. (DM, 28 April, p. 1).
Because of a confusion by Raúl Roa between Maroto and Lorca, here was born the story, found in some older studies, that Lorca had visited Mexico. (See Roa, p. 43).
April - May.
Lorca publishes in Musicalia, 2, No. 11 (April - May 1930), 43-44, «Son».
May.
In the May issue of Social, p. 6, is found a photo of Lorca and Luis Rodríguez-Embi at the Havana Yacht Club, probably taken some weeks before. On p. 25 is a «Pequeña antología de Federico García Lorca», prepared by Federico, with variants of uncertain authority.
Between May 1-3
A reading of Lorca's poems, organized by the Revista de Avance. The newly-arrived Maroto attends. Lorca reads «siete poemas de su obra más reciente» (Revista de Avance, No. 46 [15 May 1930], p. 159), «sus últimas creaciones» (Roa, pp. 43-44), and the «Oda al santísimo sacramento». Afterwards, a dinner in the restaurant La Isla. (Revista de Avance, loc. cit.)
May 4.
Lecture of Maroto: «Arte de la Vanguardia en España». (DM, 5 May, p. 12).
May 6.
A certain «Tartarín de Tarascón», in a column «De día en día» in the Diario de la Marina, p. 2, reprints a section of the «Degollación del Bautista» from the Revista de Avance, to show the public what the editors of this journal find worthy of publication. To them he recommends «fosfatos y descanso».
May 11.
Second lecture of Maroto: «El arte nuevo en Méjico. Arte y revolución». (DM, 12 May, p. 2, and 18 May, Sec. 3A, p. 1).
May.
Lorca undergoes a minor surgical operation, an excision. (Luis Cardoza y Aragón, «Federico García Lorca», El Nacional [Mexico], 30 Sept. 1936, reprinted in Repertorio Americano, 32, No. 17 [7 Nov. 1936], 268-69; conversation with Eugenio Florit , June, 1974).
Mid-May.
Adolfo Salazar arrives. (Revista de Avance, No. 47 [15 June 1930], p. 191, and see Revista de La Habana, 2 [1930], 339-40). When Salazar arrived, Lorca was recuperating from his operation. See Salazar's three articles on his meeting in Cuba with Federico, «Federico en La Habana», Carteles, 23 Jan. 1938, pp. 30-31, «El mito de Caimito», Carteles, 20 Feb. 1938, p. 24, and «La casa de Bernarda Alba», Carteles, 10 April 1938, p. 30.
May 22.
Lecture of Salazar on Beethoven. (Social, July 1930, p. 62).
Salazar also gave lectures on May 26, June 2, June 5, and June 6.
Second half of May?
Excursion «a Güines con Carnicer Torres, a rendirle pleitesía al poeta Hipotrocasmo» (Roa, p. 44).
Excursion to the Valley of Viñales. (El Poeta en La Habana, pp. [30] and [34-35]).
June 4.
Invited by the Ateneo of Cienfuegos, Lorca presents in the Teatro Luisa Martínez Casado of Cienfuegos his lecture «Mecánica de la poesía». He is introduced by the Spanish consul, Francisco Campos Aravaca, an old friend from Granada. At night, a banquet; he returns to Havana the same night. (DM, 6 June, p. 20. La Prensa, 28 June, p. 4, quotes an article in the Heraldo de Cuba on this lecture).
June 11.
A farewell luncheon in the Hotel Bristol, organized by the Revista de Avance, for Lorca, Adolfo Salazar, and Luis Cardoza y Aragón; the luncheon was also to welcome the Cuban painter Carlos Enríquez. (Revista de Avance, No. 47 [15 June 1930], pp. 191-92; see DM, 11 June, p. 24).
June 12.
Lorca and Salazar sail on the Manuel Arnús for Cádiz. (DM, 11 June, p. 24, and 12 June, p. 13; Salazar, «El mito de Caimito», p. 24; the telegram quoted below).
June 15.
Date of the «Oda a Walt Whitman». (Rafael Martínez Nadal, El público. Amor, teatro y caballos en la obra de Federico García Lorca [Oxford: Dolphin, 1970], p. 187, and Autógrafos, I, 216).
June 18.
The Manuel Arnús arrives in New York. Lorca can not leave the boat, as he had previously overstayed his visa; he sends a telegram to Federico de Onís: «ESTOY MANUELARNUS MUELLE TRANSATLÁNTICA IMPOSIBLE DESEMBAR[CAR] AVISE RUBIO [SACRISTÁN] VENGAN VERME ABRAZOS FEDERICO». (This telegram is conserved in the Seminario de Estudios Hispánicos of the University of Puerto Rico). Salazar calls Herschel Brickell, and Brickell organizes a luncheon on the boat. Present were Salazar, Lorca, Olin Downes, Mildred Adams, Jenny Ballou, Brickell, and Brickell's wife Norma. (NYT, 18 June, p. 50, 19 June, p. 51; La Prensa, 18 June, p. 8, 19 June, p. 8; Brickell, p. 394; conversation with Mildred Adams Kenyon, 22 March 1974). Ángel del Río and his wife were in Spain at the time. (Conversation with Amelia Agostini de del Río, 1 April 1974).
June 19.
The Manuel Arnús sails for Cádiz and Barcelona. (NYT, 18 June, p. 50, 19 June, p. 51).