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Deutsche Welle

The exhumation and possible identification of Lorca, a martyr to the leftist Republican side, are a delicate issue in Spain.

The poet's descendants have asked for his remains to be left in peace. Lorca's niece, Laura Garcia Lorca, has repeatedly expressed fears that the exhumation will become a "media circus."  Regional authorities obliged by installing a 200 square-meter tent to shield the excavation from view.

But many Spaniards say it is important to know the precise details of the revered poet's fate, once and for all. 

"The crimes against more than 100,000 still today in mass graves are crimes against all of society," Emilio de Silva, president of the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory, told Deutsche Welle. He said that the crimes must be investigated and Spanish society should know what happened with the body of Lorca as well as the other victims.

Legacy of a dictatorship

On August 18, 1936, in the opening days of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), Garcia Lorca and several other men were executed by militia loyal to General Francisco Franco, and buried near the southern city of Granada.

Lorca's sympathies with the Republican government and his acknowledged homosexuality made him a target for Franco's fascist supporters.

A recent investigation listed 130,000 people killed during the war and the ensuing 40-year dictatorship, many of whom lie in unmarked graves all over Spain.

The Historical Memory Law, passed in 2007, obliges the state to aid surviving family members to recover their dead.Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:  Laura Garcia Lorca: the family demands privacy

Graveyard disputes

The families of the men buried alongside Lorca pushed authorities in Granada to exhume their missing relatives. Three families wanted identification, while the families of the fourth, a teacher, remained undecided over whether to go ahead with the identification.

These graveyard disputes reflect wide divisions in Spanish society between those who want to deal with the past and those who do not tend to look back.

In Lorca's case, the family actually didn't want the body exhumed.

"I hope this is really about reconciliation and not about opening old wounds," said Spanish journalist Clara Gonzalez. 

According to the lead forensic scientist, it will take months to manually exhume and identify victims using descendents' DNA.

Only then will Spain have the chance to resolve the mystery and finally lay the bones of Franco's most famous victim to rest.

Author: Hazel Healy, Madrid/db
Editor: Chuck Penfold