Garcia Lorca's heirs oppose effort to exhume body
AFP
MADRID - Relatives of Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, who was killed during Spain's 1936-39 civil war, urged the government of Andalucia on Monday to stop efforts to exhume his remains.
The southern region's government began work last month to dig the suspected site of the mass grave where the poetry icon was buried after being shot by supporters of General Francisco Franco's fascist movement in August 1936.
They also asked, however, to be granted the right to identify his remains and dispose of them if they are found.
The family proposed that the suspected site of his remains, where other mass graves are believed to exist, be declared appropriate for burial.
Lorca "has become a symbol of all the victims because they all had a common fate," the family said, adding that it did not want to "single him out or separate him from the other victims of the repression in Granada."
The poet is believed to have been buried alongside a teacher and two anarchist bullfighters near Granada.
Lorca's descendants have always refused to allow his remains to be exhumed.
Lorca, Spain's most widely acclaimed 20th century poet, was 38 when he was killed. His poems and plays, which deal with universal themes such as love, death, passion, cruelty and injustice, are widely studied at universities.
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