There are dates that should not go unnoticed. August 18, 1936 is one of them. 90 years ago, Federico García Lorca was murdered in Granada. He was 38 years old. His life was taken, but there was something that those who intended to silence him could not destroy: his word.
Ninety years later, Lorca continues to speak.
He does so from his poems, from the theater, from his characters, and from a work that has transcended generations, borders, and ideologies. He remains present in classrooms, on stages, in libraries, and also in the collective memory of a country that, with the passage of time, has learned that remembering does not mean reopening wounds, but rather preventing certain wounds from being condemned to oblivion.
Lorca was much more than the poet of "Romancero gitano," "Poeta en Nueva York," or the playwright of "Bodas de sangre," "Yerma," and "La casa de Bernarda Alba." He was a creator who understood culture as a tool for freedom and who brought literature closer to those who had traditionally been furthest from it.
His death, in the early months of the Civil War, constitutes one of the most painful episodes in our contemporary history. And precisely because of that, remembering him requires doing so with serenity, but also with truth.
Because a democratic society cannot be afraid to look at its past.
Remembering Lorca should not serve to divide us between those who remember and those who forget, but to understand how far intolerance can lead us when it replaces dialogue, when difference becomes a threat, and when violence ends up prevailing over reason.
Perhaps that is one of the great lessons we can draw from his figure today.
At a time when public debate is once again too often marked by tension, disqualification, and difficulty in listening to those who think differently, Lorca's life and death remind us of the enormous value of the word.
The word to understand each other.
The word to disagree.
The word to build.
The word, in short, in the face of violence and silence.
Lorca was murdered 90 years ago, but his work demonstrates that culture possesses a strength that no regime, no violence, and no attempt to erase memory can
defeat. His voice continues to reach us because good ideas and great works always find a way to survive.
Therefore, remembering Federico García Lorca is not just looking back to 1936. It is also asking ourselves what society we want to build in 2026.
A society in which freedom of expression, culture, coexistence, and respect for diversity are inalienable values.
A society that understands that democracy does not consist solely of voting, but also of knowing how to coexist with those who think differently.
And a society that is capable of looking at its history with honesty, without hatred and without forgetting. Ninety years later, Lorca is still among us.
Perhaps because those who wanted to end his voice forgot something essential: you can silence a person, but not necessarily their words.
And the words of Federico García Lorca remain alive.
More alive than ever.
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