Shortly before leaving for Granada for the last time, Federico García Lorca approached Cruz y Raya, in José Bergamín’s office, to give him an envelope with the manuscripts that were to be part of “Poet in New York.” One of them is the poem titled “Muerte” and which, instead of copying by hand, includes for Bergamín from a printout, what he had already published in “Revista de Occident” in January 1931. He only made one change for that composition. He suppressed the initial dedication because at first “Death” was intended for the doctor Luis de la Serna, but in the summer of 1936, the poet crossed out that name and wanted those verses to go to Isidoro de Blas.as it appears in all the editions that have been made of “Poet in New York.”
But who was Isidoro de Blas? In the enormous bibliography around the author of “Blood Wedding” there is no mention of him. It is as if it had not existed in the life of the Granada native. However, now we can know something more because the letters that Lorca wrote to him and that until now had remained unpublished are coming to light for the first time. Preserved by the Blas family, thanks to José Ignacio Abeijón, head of the renowned Largine antiquarian bookstore, we can now delve into the Lorca documents that reveal a hitherto unknown friendship between a young student named Isidoro de Blas Gómez, son of a jeweler. Madrid, and one of the most important Spanish poets of all time. It is curious that in the Lorca Center in Granada, where the personal papers of the author of “Romancero gitano” are kept, there is not a single letter from Isidoro to Federico. while in the other direction fortunately we have six.
We do not know when Isidoro de Blas met Lorca, but it must have been around 1931 and 1932 when the poet was, along with Eduardo Ugarte, responsible for the La Barraca university theater. This is what could be deduced from reading the first letter preserved from this epistolary and transcribed for the first time, a good example of the trust that Lorca had towards Isidoro de Blas. It says like this:
«Dearest Isidoro: at nine I got up and went to an unforeseen rehearsal at the Barraca. I’m sorry not to see you because I had to talk a lot with you and show you how much I love you and the esteem I have for your friendship and your person. I’ve had a bad season at work and I don’t feel well spiritually. I miss you enormously, you are so sweet and so delicate. You already know that I always love you and I am your best friend at all times. Hugs. “Frederick.”
After living for a brief time in an attic on Ayala Street in Madrid, Lorca ended up moving to an apartment at number 120 in Alcalá. Almost opposite, at number 105, Isidoro de Blas lived with his family. Thanks to the investigations of José Ignacio Abeijón we know that Lorca sometimes left messages for the young man in the mailbox to inform him of the time when they could see each other, always at the poet’s home. Fortunately, some of them have been preserved, although it is difficult to specify the exact date. A couple of examples: «Dear Isidoro: I have to urgently go out to the authors’ society. Call me on the phone tomorrow at twelve. A hug from Federico. I beg you to forgive me.
In another of those brief notes, Lorca writes quickly, looking for a moment to talk with Isidoro de Blas: «Dear friend Isidoro: Since I have to do tomorrow morning and I had told you to go home, I ask you to do it on Friday because I will be away. Greetings from Federico.
As happens in other Lorca correspondences of the time, the poet also becomes an advisor, something that we find, for example, in the letters that he sent at that same time to the young man from Granada, Eduardo Rodríguez Valdivieso. This is the case of this letter, the envelope of which is miraculously preserved with a legible postmark dated July 20, 1935:
«Dear friend Isidoro: It has taken me a few days to answer you but better late than never as the old Spanish saying goes. I have lived a few days in the mountains and when I return to Granada the first thing I do is greet my friendly friend Isidoro and lament his bad luck, although at your age this is not a cause for sadness but rather fertilizer for new strength and youthful battles. I saw Blanco Amor and he is delighted with his ring; He will have already written to your father telling him. In a few days I will go to Madrid to give my lectures with America and I hope to see you calm from the exams and with a better compass when it comes to worrying about your future. So on the 22nd you can come to my house around twelve o’clock and you will surely find me. Study hard, say hello to your family and receive a loving hug from your true friend Federico.
The Galician Eduardo Blanco Amor, who had an important role in the publication of “Six Galician Poems”, was in Granada between June 21 and July 19 where he visited Lorca, of whom he took a series of legendary images in the Huerta de Saint Vincent. It was in those days when Lorca gave Blanco Amor the ring mentioned in the letter and which came from the establishment of Isidoro de Blas’s father.
Once back in Madrid, Lorca could not keep his word and another date had to be found for the reunion, as noted in this brief unpublished letter: «Dear friend Isidoro: Since I was entertained for a few days and I had told you to come home on the 22nd in the morning and I cannot be there, I ask you to come on the 24th at the same time. These days I work a lot. With a thousand memories of your friend Federico.
The friendship between the two remained intact until 1936, as demonstrated by a dedication consulted by this newspaper.
A New York poem for a friend
►The longest of Federico García Lorca’s letters to Isidoro de Blas is a poem from the New York cycle. It is the one entitled “Office and complaint”, a typewritten copy of five pages of which unfortunately only two of them have reached us. It is not known when the poet sent it to Blas, although to speculate it could have been prior to the publication of the poem in “Revista de Occident” in January 1931, which would force us to establish the beginning of the friendship between both men. in 1930. What is certain is that this typewritten copy preserves numerous corrections by Lorca himself, with variants that differ from the definitive version that Bergamín received in 1936.
Isidoro de Blas did not dedicate himself to literature but made his living as a road, canal and port engineer. In November 1947 he married María Victoria Fernández Fontecha. He died on August 9, 1976, almost exactly forty years after the murder of his dear friend.