People ask me, "why Federico Garcia Lorca" , and why the Spanish Civil War?
I can only answer the question this way: he simply started seeping into my consciousness, because in all truth up until two years ago I was not all that familiar with him.
And then I started reading about the Spanish Civil War randomly, and came to an account by Nancy Cunard, heiress to the Cunard millions but contemptuous of her heritage, and one who devoted her days to fighting against fascism and racism. She devoted a lot of her energy to warning the world that the atrocities in Spain would lead to the Second World War. She, along with countless others, was ignored.
It was her account as a reporter on the ground in Spain that riveted me and started me on this journey. One cannot read about the Civil War in Spain without encountering Federico Garcia Lorca, Spain's man of letters from an early age, much loved in Spain and around the world, whose temperament and spirit according to writers like Pablo Neruda was that of a child of light, a marvelously happy child of light.
So why did the fascists hate him so much? Why did they say that his pen delivered more "destruction" than 1000 guns? Why did they murder him and leave him in an unmarked, mass grave like a common criminal, as they did with thousands of others in this horrific period of Spanish history.
I needed to find out. And along the way, I fell in love with him.
I can only answer the question this way: he simply started seeping into my consciousness, because in all truth up until two years ago I was not all that familiar with him.
And then I started reading about the Spanish Civil War randomly, and came to an account by Nancy Cunard, heiress to the Cunard millions but contemptuous of her heritage, and one who devoted her days to fighting against fascism and racism. She devoted a lot of her energy to warning the world that the atrocities in Spain would lead to the Second World War. She, along with countless others, was ignored.
It was her account as a reporter on the ground in Spain that riveted me and started me on this journey. One cannot read about the Civil War in Spain without encountering Federico Garcia Lorca, Spain's man of letters from an early age, much loved in Spain and around the world, whose temperament and spirit according to writers like Pablo Neruda was that of a child of light, a marvelously happy child of light.
So why did the fascists hate him so much? Why did they say that his pen delivered more "destruction" than 1000 guns? Why did they murder him and leave him in an unmarked, mass grave like a common criminal, as they did with thousands of others in this horrific period of Spanish history.
I needed to find out. And along the way, I fell in love with him.