{"id":8909,"date":"2021-08-31T09:41:54","date_gmt":"2021-08-31T09:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.universolorca.com\/lugar\/house-of-frasquita-alba\/"},"modified":"2021-10-07T05:40:09","modified_gmt":"2021-10-07T05:40:09","slug":"house-of-frasquita-alba","status":"publish","type":"lugar","link":"https:\/\/www.universolorca.com\/en\/lugar\/house-of-frasquita-alba\/","title":{"rendered":"House of Bernarda Alba"},"content":{"rendered":"

The house where Francisca Alba Sierra, Fraquista Alba<\/em>,<\/a> lived with her family and where Lorca was inspired for his famous tragedy The House of Bernarda Alba<\/em>,<\/a> premiered in 1945 in Buenos Aires by the company of Margarita Xirgu,<\/a> is located on Real Street (formerly Ancha Street) in Valderrubio and has been weighed down by the taboo of fiction and truth for many decades. The property was converted into a museum in December 2018.<\/p>\n

It was through the well of this house, shared with the home of one of Federico\u2019s aunts, that the poet learned about what the Alba family did and said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As described Isabel Garc\u00eda Lorca<\/a> in My Memories<\/em>, it was a large house, with a courtyard that separated the house from the corral, the stables, the henhouse and a shed, which there were called “tinaos”, where farm implements were kept. The house was very similar to how Federico describes it in the play’s annotations, but literary invention has blurred the real characters and added characteristics that were only in the author’s imagination.<\/p>\n

\"Courtyard<\/a>
Courtyard with a well of the House of Francisca Alba, shared with the house of Lorca’s aunt.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The real Frasquita Alba used to visit the Garc\u00eda Rodr\u00edguez family when they came to the village in summer. She did not have the dryness of the fictitious character of Bernarda<\/em>, she was very feminine and not at all stuffy. She also liked to talk, although she always took advantage of the occasion to complain about one person or anther. This earned her a certain reputation as relentless and domineering. She lived with her second husband and her children. The widowhood of Bernarda<\/em> and the fact that in the house there were only women were contributions of the playwright.<\/p>\n

Frasquita Alba’s house had a well shared with the home of one of Federico’s aunts, Matilde Garc\u00eda Rodr\u00edguez. From the well they could see and hear those on the other side. It was through this aunt that Federico and his family learned what was going on and what they were talking about at the Alba’s house. But not everything that appears in Federico’s drama has the same source. The rigorous mourning comes from a relative named Paca Mazuecos, whose house, after the death of her daughter, was completely in mourning, in rigorous black, with headscarves, without flowers in the patio because they were colored, black curtains on the windows, on the skirt of the table…<\/p>\n