The Divine Words was performed for the first time in Español, the National Theatre of Madrid, in 1962, directed by José Tamayo. At the same time, the cast was preparing another play, fearing that this one would not last more than twenty days. It took an entire year, with continuous queues at the box offices.
In 1963, it was performed in Paris at the Festival of Nations, with the same direction, and later at the Venice Festival, always with great success.
Although this work is usually categorized as an esperpento ‒ satire, bitter irony; the word means strange, ugly, ridiculous, or absurd person or thing ‒, the author describes it as a "tragicomedy of the village." This is because, on the one hand, it preserves the entire ritual and environment of barbaric comedy: the dance with women mourning at the well, the caravans of pilgrims, with beggars, vagrants, con artists, and frantic farmers bringing offerings to María Gaila. It retains and amplifies these types of people, their superstitions, beliefs, deception, and violence within the environment of the land of Galithia, where the mysterious shadows of the trees mask death, and where couples hide their love in the fields and within the gold of the wheat. These are the connections the author has with the theater he has written. And it's natural, since the play dates from 1920. That is, it belongs to the transitional period of the author from barbaric comedies to the esperpento.
The esperpento here manifests through the terrifying face of the hydrocephalic dwarf in the handcart, whom relatives take turns exploiting, pulling him to festivals and collecting coins. And the horrifying aspect of the esperpento is that, with a crude and barbaric logic that approaches absurdity, this epileptic and miserable creature serves as a pretext for María Gaila to indulge, enjoy life and love. Furthermore, in order to earn more money, she goes as far as to display the shameful parts of the dwarf. The esperpento peaks when the dead hydrocephalic child, half-eaten by pigs outside the house of the sister-in-law, where María Gaila left him to avoid funeral expenses, is found.
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