Federico García Lorca 1898to –1936
Celebrated Spanish poet and playwright. He spent his childhood in and around Granada, and would later use Andalusia as the inspiration for much of his lyrical writing. In his early 20s, he attended the Residencia de Estudiantes, a progressive school for gifted students, where he befriended Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí; the three of them soon placed themselves at the center of the Spanish avant-garde. But relationships became strained when Lorca developed an intense and ultimately unrequited crush on Dalí, just as Lorca was gaining recognition for his poetry book Romancero Gitano (Gypsy Ballads). After spending some years abroad in New York and Cuba, he returned to Spain and began focusing more on the theater, particularly as a tool for social change. Tragically, Lorca was assassinated in the early days of the Spanish Civil War, without charges or a trial, but likely due to a combination of his socialist leanings and homosexually. His writing was banned by the Franco regime until 1953, and discussion of his sexuality was kept quiet for decades thereafter.