Half a bread and a book

Speech given by Federico García Lorca at the inauguration of the first library in his village, Fuente de Vaqueros (Granada) (1931)

When somebody goes to the theatre, a concert, or whatever event; if the feast pleases him, he immediately remembers his loved ones and feels sad that the people he loves are not there. “How much my father, my sister, would like to be here and enjoy”, he thinks. And for him, the spectacle is tinged with a slight melancholy. This is the melancholy I now feel, not for the people of my house, which would be small-minded and mean; but for all the creatures who, because of a lack of possibilities and for their unhappiness, are unable to enjoy the supreme benefits of beauty, which  is life, kindness, and serenity and passion.

Because of that I never have a book, because I give all the ones I buy, which is a huge quantity. This is why I am here, honoured and happy to inaugurate this public library, which would be the first in the whole province of Granada.

Man does not live by bread alone. If I were hungry and helpless on the street, I would not ask for bread, but would ask for half a bread and a book. And I violently attack from here those who only talk about economic claims without ever mentioning the cultural ones, which are what the people shout out aloud for.

All people must eat, it is a need. But all people must also know how to enjoy all the fruits of the human spirit, because the contrary would convert them into machines at the service of the State, which means into slaves of a terrible social organization.

A man who wants to learn and cannot makes me feel terribly sorry, much more than a hungry one does. Because a hungry person can easily calm his hunger with a piece of bread or some fruits. But the man of no means who longs for knowledge suffers a terrible agony, because what he needs are books, books, many books, and where are those books?

Books! Books! What a magic word! It is like saying: “love, love”, and the villages must demand them like they do ask for rain to water their sowing.

When the famous Russian writer, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, father of the Russian revolution much more than Lenin, was prisoner  in Siberia, far away from the rest of the world, hemmed in by the four walls amid desolated prairies covered by never-ending snow and was asking for help writing to his far-away family, he only said : “Send me books, books, a lot of books in order my soul does not die!” He was cold and did not ask for fire, he was terribly thirsty and did not ask for water: he only asked for books, which means horizons; which means ladders  to  climb  to   summit of the spirit and heart. Because the physical, biological, natural agony of a body due to hunger, thirst or cold lasts little, for a very short time; but the agony of the soul lasts a whole lifetime.

The great Menéndez Pidal, truly one of the wisest in of Europe, already said that the slogan for the Republic must be “Culture”. Culture, because only through culture can be solved the problems of the people of today, who are full of faith, but lacking in light. “

“Careful! He holds a book! He holds a book!”