Thursday, February 6, 2025, from 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm at the Observatorio Cervantes at Harvard (2 Arrow St, 4th Floor, Cambridge, MA)
This in-person event will be conducted in Spanish. Click here to RSVP.
Next Thursday, February 6, the Observatorio will welcome Professor Christopher Maurer, co-curator of the exhibition "Lorca y el archivo: memoria en movimiento" alongside Melissa Dinverno (Indiana University) and Andrew A. Anderson (University of Virginia). Currently on display at the Centro Federico García Lorca in Granada, the exhibition will remain open until May 11 of this year.
During the event, Professor Maurer will guide us through its rooms. Beyond highlighting its cultural significance, his lecture aligns with the exhibition’s very purpose: shedding light on the little-known history of the archive that stands as a key reference for one of the greatest poets of Spanish literature.
The Archivo Federico García Lorca is the most complex and diverse of the many archives dedicated to the Granadan writer. Though meticulously cataloged, its history, its rich present, and the voids left by war, exile, and state intervention had never been studied in depth—until now.
“Lorca y el archivo: memoria en movimiento” traces a history that spans from the 1936 coup d'état to the present and outlines future projects. It explores the fate of Lorca’s manuscripts during the Spanish Civil War, their dispersal and recovery in exile, along with the difficult return of his family and many of his manuscripts to Spain. The exhibition also examines the impact of the Franco regime and the progress made after the democratic transition, culminating in the creation of the Fundación Federico García Lorca and the archive’s relocation to its current home in Granada. The Federico García Lorca Archive preserves manuscripts, illustrations, sheet music, photographs, and personal artifacts, among other materials.
To learn more about the exhibition, visit the Centro Federico García Lorca website here.
Professor Christopher Maurer is a leading specialist in the work of Federico García Lorca. His research explores Spanish poetry and its connections to other arts, such as music and painting, as well as translation and textual criticism. He is the editor of García Lorca’s Collected Poems and Selected Verse, his lectures (Conferencias), his early prose (Prosa inédita de juventud), and, with Andrew A. Anderson, García Lorca’s complete letters (Epistolario completo).
In addition to “Lorca t el archivo: memoria en movimiento”, Professor Maurer has curated major exhibitions on the poet, including “Back Tomorrow: Lorca, Poet in New York” at the New York Public Library, co-curated with Andrés Soria Olmedo, and “Jardín deshecho: Lorca y el amor” at the Centro Federico García Lorca in Granada.
Christopher Maurer holds the position of “Académico de número” of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language. He combines his research with teaching at Boston University, where he is a faculty member in the MFA program in Literary Translation. We are also proud to count him as a member of the Observatorio’s Advisory Committee.