Federico García Lorca — Spain's Greatest Poet Murdered

Federico García Lorca, widely considered Spain's greatest poet and dramatist of the twentieth century, was executed by Nationalist forces near Granada at the start of the Spanish Civil War. He was 38 years old. Lorca was openly gay in his private life and his homosexuality was one of the reasons cited for his murder — the killers allegedly boasted about killing a 'queer.' His works, including the poetry collections Romancero Gitano and Poeta en Nueva York, and plays such as Blood Wedding and The House of Bernarda Alba, explored passion, repression, and desire. His Sonnets of Dark Love, written for his lover Rafael Rodríguez Rapún, were not published until 1983.