On July 18, 1936, the history of Spain was set on fire, and that same day the last caricature of the poet Federico García Lorca was published in the Madrid press, humorous strokes that preceded the tragedy of his murdered just a month later. This drawing signed by Manuel del Arco, Aragonese cartoonist and journalist, and the penultimate caricature of the poet published by the Madrid press, published on June 10 of that year and signed by Luis Bagaría, have been the subject of a brief study included in the latest issue of the Andalusian bibliophile magazine Entorno Literario.
The author of the study on these two cartoons, a scholar and professional editor who signs under the pseudonym also humorous Bendito Alias Montano, has preferred to remain anonymous by stating that the critical tone of these two cartoons may be it responds to “the ideological evolution of Lorca, its hasty march from Madrid and its steps back in terms of public relevance” in those turbulent dates.
The last caricature of García Lorca was published by the newspaper Heraldo de Madrid and the poet appears in children’s clothing, with shorts and a huge bow around his neck and with elements of First Communion, such as a candle in one hand, a missal on the other and a bow-shaped bracelet with fringes.
The text that accompanied the caricature of Manuel del Arco in that edition of the Heraldo de Madrid was headed by a title that left no doubt regarding his satirical intentions: “García Lorca, handsome boy, breast pride.”
The text preceded by this title referred to the “child” of the cartoon, saying: “It is a charm. You see, he’s only seven and a half years old. He did not have appendicitis and they say that he has the brain of an elderly person “, and later points out that he is a child who possesses” this impertinence of a prodigious creature “.
The author of the study on the two cartoons, who explains that curiously in the collection of the Heraldo de Madrid of the National Library is not preserved the copy of July 18, which has been consulted in other newspapers , describes the tone of the caricature and the text that accompanied it as “surprising”, as this Madrid newspaper was a “staunch supporter” of the poet and Manuel del Arco himself had previously caricatured it in a more complacent way.
The caricature, according to the analysis of Entorno Literario, may have been related to “the poet’s hasty flight from Madrid” on July 13, 1936 or perhaps on the 16th, “depending on whether the reader prefers to follow Ian Gibson or Rafael Martínez Nadal », two of the scholars of the biography of Federico García Lorca.
“The evidence that Lorca had left Madrid in such complicated circumstances as those that followed the death of Calvo Sotelo (July 13, 1936) would not have been well received by the Herald’s editorial staff,” he said. study.
The penultimate caricature of Lorca, published by the newspaper El Sol last June, signed by Bagaría, accompanies an interview by Bagaría himself and shows the poet from Granada suspended in the air like an angel, winged and praised by a halo of flowers and with a flower in the ass, a detail that popular culture attributes to good fortune but that in this case was not premonitory for the tragic end of the poet two months later.
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