Relatives of Spanish poet Lorca agree to exhume remains
AFP
MADRID - Relatives of the poet Federico Garcia Lorca, shot in 1936 by Franco supporters during the Spanish Civil War, will not try to block efforts to exhume his remains, a niece was quoted as saying Tuesday.
The regional government of Andalusia in southern Spain made public Monday a request to exhume a mass grave at Alfacar near Granada where Lorca and three other men are thought to have been dumped.
A spokeswoman for the poet's family, his niece Laura Garcia Lorca, said they would not take any action to prevent the move, daily newspaper El Pais reported, in what is a reversal of their long-standing position.
For years the issue of whether to exhume his remains has pitted descendants of the world-famous poet against relatives of three other men -- two anarchist bullfighters and a school teacher.
Lorca's family has long said that it would prefer that the site remain undisturbed while the relatives of two of the other men want to exhume their loved ones and bury them properly.
It has not requested that the poet's remains be identified if the exhumation goes ahead, El Pais added.
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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