The 18th of August marked the 82nd anniversary of the assassination of the famous Spanish poet and dramatist Federico García Lorca, who was shot by dictator Franco's death squads in 1936.
Back then, the fascists thought that they killed him; what they didn't know was that Lorca's legacy, through his extraordinary poetry, was immortal and would remain eternal as a universal symbol of democratic Spain.
Through his poems, Lorca glorified the notions of love, as well as the one of death, he hated despotism and the exploitation of man by man. A conscious anti-fascist, he stood against any form of injustice. Although he never joined the organized revolutionary communist movement, he was a consistent and outspoken critic of the capitalist society. In his work he condemns Capitalism's results, including poverty, misery, alienation and racism.
Born near the Spanish city of Granada in 1898 to a prosperous farming family, Lorca was strongly influenced by his mother, who taught him to play the piano and sing, two skills which he put to good use later in life.
During his student years in Madrid, he made friends with contemporary luminaries such as Salvador Dali and pioneer filmmaker Luis Buñuel, he also achieved instant celebrity both in Spain and in Latin America, as well as in France and the United States.
When the fascist dictator Francisco Franco launched his overthrow of the Republican Government, in 1936, mass executions of leftist leaders took place in the name of the nationalist's "crusade" to rid Spain of the followers of "Communism". Lorca's strong anti-fascist views, as well as the fact that he was openly a homosexual, were enough to put him high on Franco death squads' hit list.
Two days after being arrested, he was shot and his body dumped in a mass grave, whose location remained unknown for years. However, his ecumenical and immortal poetry became known to all over the world, making him Spain's most influencial and recognized poet.
Some of Federico García Lorca's most celebrated works include plays such as "Blood Wedding", "Barren" and "The House of Bernarda Alba", poetry collections like "Romancero Gitano", "Poeta en Nueva York", "Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías" and others.
