{"id":10452,"date":"2020-10-13T11:03:48","date_gmt":"2020-10-13T11:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.universolorca.com\/personaje\/romero-murube-joaquin\/"},"modified":"2021-11-03T07:26:46","modified_gmt":"2021-11-03T07:26:46","slug":"romero-murube-joaquin","status":"publish","type":"personaje","link":"https:\/\/www.universolorca.com\/en\/personaje\/romero-murube-joaquin\/","title":{"rendered":"Romero Murube, Joaqu\u00edn"},"content":{"rendered":"

He was an article writer, poet, Seville City Hall official, director (warden) of the Alc\u00e1zar from 1934 to 1969 and a contemporary of the Generation of ’27. He was born in Los Palacios y Villafranca (Seville) on July 18, 1904, and died in the Andalusian capital in 1969. He met Federico Garc\u00eda Lorca at the founding ceremony of the group held on December 11, 1927 in Seville and participated in the festivities that followed at the Real Venta de Antequera and the Pino Montano estate, owned by the bullfighter Ignacio S\u00e1nchez Mej\u00edas<\/a>. In 1935, he was the host of Lorca during the visit to the Holy Week and the April Fair. Although after the uprising he was an active collaborator of Franco’s side, in 1937 he published in a private edition of 200 copies Seven Ballads<\/em>, which contains the following dedication: “To you, in V\u00edzna [sic<\/em>], near the big fountain [Fuente Grande], already made earth and rumor of eternal and hidden water!”. A few months earlier, Romero, commissioned by Queipo de Llano, to whom some researchers attribute the order to assassinate Lorca, visited the\u00a0place of the shooting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 1935, he was Lorca’s host during the visit to the Holy Week and the April Fair.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He was editor-in-chief of the Sevillian magazine Mediod\u00eda<\/em> between 1926 and 1929, a period in which he was linked to the avant-garde, particularly ultraism, and reviewed Pedro Garfias’s book The South Wing<\/em>. As a poet he made his debut in 1924 with Prosarios<\/em>, which was followed by Passionate Shadow<\/em> (1929). Critics saw in his work the traces of G\u00f3mez de la Serna, Valle-Incl\u00e1n, Bergam\u00edn<\/a> and Pedro Salinas<\/a>. After the Civil War he published Song of the Andalusian Lover<\/em> and Kasida of Forgetfulness<\/em> (1945). He is the author of several books of essays such as God in the City<\/em> (1934) or Discourse of the Lie<\/em> (1941). After the proclamation of the Republic, the Alc\u00e1zar of Seville became dependent on the City Council. In 1934, he was appointed warden, a post he held for 35 years until his death.<\/p>\n

\"Joaqu\u00edn<\/a>
Joaqu\u00edn Romero, Jorge Guill\u00e9n, Federico Garc\u00eda Lorca, Jos\u00e9 Antonio Rubio Sacrist\u00e1n and Pep\u00edn Bello in Seville in 1935.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1927, at the Pino Montano estate, in the party that followed the tribute to Luis de G\u00f3ngora, he participated in a kind of poetic jousting that pitted local poets against those who came from outside. Romero Murube acted on the side of the Sevillians along with Luis Cernuda<\/a>, Fernando Villal\u00f3n<\/a>, Adriano del Valle and Rafael Laff\u00f3n. Federico Garc\u00eda Lorca recited a selection of his gypsy ballads. According to Gerardo Diego<\/a>, on one of those nights they organized “the heroic and nocturnal crossing of the overflowing Betis”. Murube wrote it in the dedication of one of his books: “To Federico… Do you remember the night we crossed the overflowing Guadalquivir? How scary, how you screamed!<\/p>\n

Romero Murube, as warden of the Alc\u00e1zar, invited Federico to visit the Holy Week in Seville and its Fair in 1935. The meeting was attended by Pep\u00edn Bello<\/a>, Jorge Guill\u00e9n<\/a> and Jos\u00e9 Antonio Rubio Sacrist\u00e1n. Murube installed a grand piano in a garden next to the Alc\u00e1zar where Federico improvised some melodies. Those were days of honey, love and wine. Lorca, fond of liturgies and religious pomp, enjoyed the Holy Week in Seville with recollection and lust. Invited by the historian Santiago Montoto, he stayed at the Venta de los Gatos stand. According to Gibson, from the poet’s stay in Seville there remains the testimony of a mysterious love affair, a handwritten note from the poet with the following message: “I have been looking for you, getting rid of a thousand people. Tonight I will wait for you at half past one in the Sacristy. Take Antonio Torres Heredia or Pepita or the girl with the horns. I’ll be there. Don\u2019t forget. Federico”. According to Romero, the one who did not miss the appointment in Seville was Rafael Rodr\u00edguez Rap\u00fan<\/a>, his lover and secretary of La Barraca<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to Murube’s version, Queipo de Llano sent him to Granada in the middle of the war to identify the place where Lorca was executed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The visit apparently strengthened the bond between Lorca and Murube. After the military uprising of 1936 Murube supported Queipo de Llano’s side and collaborated with him in propaganda activities. Gonzalo Queipo de Llano, the military man who directed the repression in Andalusia and ordered the systematic murder of some 45,000 Republicans, was according to Gibson the one who gave the order to kill Lorca with the code phrase “give him coffee, lots of coffee” (CAFE [coffee in Spanish] was the acronym for the political slogan Camaradas Arriba Falange Espa\u00f1ola [Comrades Up Spanish Falange]) although there is no documentary evidence. Queipo also urged the troops to rape the women: “After all, these communists and anarchists deserve it, haven’t they been playing free love? Now at least they will know what real men are and not faggot militiamen. They’re not going to get away no matter how much they struggle and kick.” According to Murube’s version, Queipo sent him to Granada in the middle of the war to identify the place where Lorca was executed.<\/p>\n

\"Next<\/a>
Next to Federico, on the right, are Joaqu\u00edn Romero, Manuel Chaves Nogales and N\u00fa\u00f1ez de Heredia. On the left, Jorge Guill\u00e9n.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1937, he published the book Seven Ballads<\/em> which supposedly suggests condemnation of the murder, without mentioning Lorca or his executioners. In addition to the dedication, which seems to allude to Lorca, the book contains the Ballad of the Crime<\/em> which some interpret as an “important and risky denunciation of Lorca’s crime”: “Al acorde\u00f3n del puerto [To the port acordeon] \/ le han estrangulado el cante. [They have strangled the song.]\/\/ En Argel y Alejandr\u00eda, [In Algiers and Alexandria,] \/ en Melburne y Buenos Aires. [in Melburne and Buenos Aires.] \/\/ Se han secado las espitas [They have dried the spigots] \/ en el cristal de los bares. [on the glass of the bars.] \/\/ La polic\u00eda ha prohibido [The police have forbidden] \/ cierta m\u00fasica en los bailes. [certain music at dances.] \/\/ Los ni\u00f1os llevan a casa [The children take home] \/ pistolas, bombones, guantes\u201d. [pistols, bonbons, gloves”.] However, the poem was published well before 1936, specifically on February 14, 1929, in the magazine Mediod\u00eda<\/em> as part of a collaboration entitled The Assassins<\/em>. Later, in the Poetic Anthology of the Uprising<\/em> (1939), Murube published the poem Don\u2019t Forget<\/em> where some see a new allusion to the murder of Lorca: “No te olvides, hermano, que ha existido un agosto\/ en que hasta las adelfas se han tornado de sangre…” (Don’t forget, brother, that there was an August\/ in which even the oleanders turned to blood…).<\/p>\n

Another of the poems is the Ballad of the Civil Governor of Seville<\/em> dedicated apparently to Jos\u00e9 Cruz-Conde Fustegueras, military and political Cordovan who held relevant positions in the Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera. Although he conspired in the 1936 uprising, he did not participate in it and remained in hiding in Madrid. The sonnet contains the following verses: \u201c-Yo soy el Gobernador\u201d [I am the Governor] \/ de Sevilla… \u00bfQui\u00e9n se atreve? [of Seville… Who dares?] \/ Los generales me huyen. [The generals flee from me] \/ El dictador me obedece. [The dictator obeys me.] \/ Yo mando lo que me cuadre [I command whatever suits me] \/ y en cordob\u00e9s, aunque pese\u201d. [and in Cordovan, even if it hurts”.] The sonnet, more than a denunciation of recent behavior, seems to be a retrospective criticism against a military man who in 1936 chose to disappear.<\/p>\n

\"Joaqu\u00edn<\/a>
Joaqu\u00edn Romero, at the Mercurio fountain at Reales Alc\u00e1zares in Sevilla.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The newspaper ABC<\/em> relates in this melodramatic way the death of Romero on November 15, 1969, who had previously been diagnosed with colon cancer: “After the evening meeting [attended by Jaime Garc\u00eda A\u00f1overos; Pablo Atienza, Marquis of Salvatierra and Professor Manuel Olivencia], the couple returned to the Alc\u00e1zar at the stroke of midnight. They went to bed and, at around 1:30 a.m., Do\u00f1a Soledad noticed that Joaqu\u00edn seemed be breathing very slowly. He was asleep and unconscious.\u00a0The sleep was already eternal. A doctor came to try to revive him, but he had fallen suddenly. A bloody myocardial infarction ended the life of the finest singer of Seville”.<\/p>\n

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