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Madrid deletes a message about Lorca after referring to his ‘death’ rather than his murder
Madrid Municipal Libraries corrected on Tuesday 18 August a message published for the 90th anniversary of Federico García Lorca's murder. The account had initially used the word ‘fallecía’ to refer to his death in 1936, wording that prompted criticism from PSOE, Más Madrid and many social-media users.
The post appeared during the morning and marked the date by inviting people to consult a reading guide dedicated to the poet. The problem was the choice of term: Lorca did not die of natural causes, but was arrested and shot dead by the rebel side during the first weeks of the Civil War.
The political reaction came quickly. Socialist spokesperson Reyes Maroto called for a correction, and the municipal PSOE considered that simply referring to a “death” concealed the circumstances of the crime. Rita Maestre and other Más Madrid representatives also demanded that the City Council explicitly use the word “murder”.
At around 13:00, the municipal account deleted the message and published another stating that this Tuesday marks 90 years since Federico García Lorca's murder. The new version also affirmed the enduring nature of his work and again linked to the bibliographic selection prepared by the libraries.
The City Council's Culture Department denies any political intent and attributes the first wording to a “slip”. As an argument, it points out that other municipal cultural channels did use the term “murder” this Tuesday and recalls that Lorca will play a prominent role in the programme dedicated to the Generation of '27 beginning in October.
The controversy has also grown because this is not the first time it has happened. On 20 July last year, the same municipal account promoted an activity at the José Saramago Library, again using the expression “Lorca's death”, while in a 2024 post it had chosen simply to refer to his “death”.
The episode coincides with a week especially full of tributes in Madrid. The previous night, more than 200 people took part in the Saca Nocturna artistic action, which brought a sculpture of the poet from Retiro to Plaza de Santa Ana through music, poetry and dance to remember both Lorca and other victims of repression.
The discussion has ended up revolving around a single word, but that is precisely where its significance lies. In a public library network, “death” and “murder” do not describe the same thing: the first removes the circumstances of a violent death and the second makes them explicit. The City Council has now corrected the message; the controversy shows the extent to which the way the past is told continues to have consequences in the present.