Federico García Lorca: A Chronology

1898	Born on 5 June in Fuentevaqueros, near Granada, the eldest of the four children of Don Federico García Rodríguez, a prosperous farmer, and Doña Vicenta Lorca Romero. An illness at two months prevents him from attending school until he is four. Educated at home by his mother.
1902/3	The family moves to Valderrubio, near Fuentevaqueros. Lorca goes to school.
1909	The family moves to Granada. Lorca attends the College of the Sacred Heart.
1914	Begins his studies at the University of Granada in the Faculties of Arts and Law, without enthusiasm.
1915	Studies piano and guitar, attends the Conservatory and gives some private recitals. Friendship with Fernando de los Ríos, Professor of Political Law at the University. Begins to attend literary gatherings at the Café Alameda in Granada.
1917	In spring and summer educational visits, organized by Martín Domínguez Berrueta, Professor of Art Theory at the University, to different cities and regions of Andalusia and Castile. A meeting in Granada with Manuel de Falla further stimulates Lorca’s love of music.
1918	Lorca publishes his first book, Impressions and Landscapes, based on the trips of the previous year.
1919	Lorca leaves Granada for Madrid and commences a ten-year stay at the Residence for Students. Amongst his close friends are Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, champions of the avant-garde. Lorca strives to conceal his homosexuality. Writes his first play, The Butterfly’s Evil Spell.
1920	The Butterfly’s Evil Spell staged at the Teatro Eslava in Madrid, 22 March. Closes after four performances.
1921	Publication of Lorca’s first volume of poetry, Book of Poems.
1922	Gives a lecture on ‘deep song’ at the Granada Conservatory. With Manuel de Falla, Lorca organizes the Festival of Deep Song, which is held in Granada on 13 and 14 June.
1923	Presents with Manuel de Falla a children’s play festival celebrated at the Lorca household in Granada and including his own puppet play, The Girl Who Waters the Basil Plant.
1924	Friendship with the poet, Rafael Alberti. Works on poems to be published subsequently in Songs and Gypsy Ballads, and on his play, Mariana Pineda.
1925	Visits the home of Salvador Dalí at Cadaqués, north-east Spain. Friendship with Dalí’s sister, Ana María. Reads Mariana Pineda at the Dalí home.
1926	Lectures in Granada: ‘The Poetic Image in Don Luis de Góngora’. Writes the first version of The Shoemaker’s Wonderful Wife.
1927	Edits the first number of the literary magazine, Cockerel. Publishes Songs, his second volume of poetry. Première of Mariana Pineda, to considerable acclaim, on 24 June at the Teatro Goya in Barcelona. Exhibits drawings at the Galerías Dalmau in Barcelona. Mariana Pineda opens in Madrid on 12 October at the Teatro Fontalba.
1928	Publication of Gypsy Ballads, to become Lorca’s best-known volume of poetry. Lectures in Granada: ‘Imagination, Inspiration and Evasion in Poetry’; and ‘Sketch of Modern Painting’, with illustrations of pictures by Dalí and Miró. Lectures at the Residence for Students: ‘Lullabies’. Completes The Love of Don Perlimplín. He is increasingly depressed. Involvement in an affair with a sculptor, Emilio Aladrén.
1929	End of the affair with Aladrén. June marks the beginning of a nine-month visit to the United States. Enrols as a student of English language at Columbia University. Spends August at Eden Mills in Vermont and September at Newburgh, before returning to New York.
1930	Works on The Shoemaker’s Wonderful Wife and the poems that would form the volume Poet in New York, published in 1940. Arrives in Cuba in the spring, works on The Public and When Five Years Pass. Returns to Spain in the autumn. Première of The Shoemaker’s Wonderful Wife at the Teatro Español in Madrid on 24 December.
1931	Publication of Poem of Deep Song. Completes The Public and When Five Years Pass and works on the puppet play, The Puppet Play of Don Cristóbal. Under the auspices of the new Republican government becomes director of the touring theatre company, La Barraca.
1932	Tours with La Barraca. Reads Poet in New York in Barcelona.
1933	Première of Blood Wedding, directed by Lorca, at the Teatro Beatriz in Madrid, 8 March. A huge success. Première, 5 April, at the Teatro Español, of The Love of Don Perlimplín. Collaborates in May with Manuel de Falla on a production at the Residence for Students of Love the Magician. Works on Yerma and directs La Barraca. Travels to Argentina in September and directs Mariana Pineda, Blood Wedding and The Shoemaker’s Wonderful Wife in Buenos Aires. A triumphant enterprise.
1934	Returns to Buenos Aires in March to direct his adaptation of Lope de Vega’s The Foolish Lady. Continues to direct La Barraca in Spain. Writes Lament for Ignacio Sánchez Mejías. Première of Yerma, to great public and critical acclaim, 29 December, at the Teatro Español.
1935	Production of an extended version of The Shoemaker’s Wonderful Wife, 18 March, at the Teatro Coliseum in Madrid. Performance, directed by Lorca, of The Puppet Play of Don Cristóbal. Production of Yerma, 17 September, in Barcelona, and in the same city, on 13 December, triumphant première of Doña Rosita the Spinster at the Teatro Principal Palace. Has also commenced work on Play Without A Title.
1936	Publication of volume of poetry, First Songs. Declines invitation to Mexico to direct his plays. Completes The House of Bernarda Alba on 19 June and reads it to his friends on 24 June. The Theatre Club Anfistora rehearses When Five Years Pass. Second private reading of The House of Bernarda Alba on 15 July. On 16 July Lorca leaves Madrid for Granada. Military insurrection, led by Franco, on 18 July. Granada falls to the military, 20 July. Lorca hides in the house of the poet, Luis Rosales, is arrested on 16 August, detained in the Civil Government building. In the early hours of 19 August he is driven away and shot in the head outside the village of Viznar by members of the Assault Guard and the paramilitary ‘Black Squad’. His body was never found.