August 19, 1936: Federico García Lorca, the Spanish poet, playwright and theater director, is assassinated near Alfacar, Granada, in the southern region of Spain, known as Andalusia. He was 38 years old.
Born on on June 5, 1898 in Fuente Vaqueros, outside Granada, García Lorca gained fame as a member of "The Generation of '27," a group of Spanish poets that tapped into the European literary movements of symbolism, futurism and surrealism. In 1928, he published Romancero Gitano (Gypsy Ballads). He published the plays Blood Wedding in 1932, Yerma in 1934, and The House of Bernarda Alba in 1936.
But success did not fulfill him. He was gay, and suffered from depression after the end of a relationship with a sculptor. The coming of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 weighed heavily on him. He was a Socialist, like the prevailing government, the Second Republic that first won election in 1931. But the Nationalists, fascists, led by Generalissimo Francisco Franco, were unfavorable to socialism due to its criticism of religion, and, with its strong Catholic base, unfavorable to homosexuals.
His hometown of Granada had gone without a Mayor for several months, because all possible candidates feared for their lives. García Lorca's brother-in-law, Manuel Fernández-Montesinos, agreed to accept the position, but he was assassinated within a week. On the same day he was shot, August 18, García Lorca was arrested.
The circumstances of his death are in dispute, partly because his remains have never been found. In his book The Assassination of García Lorca, author Ian Gibson wrote that he was shot -- with 3 others, Joaquín Arcollas Cabezas, Francisco Galadí Melgar and Dióscoro Galindo González -- by Nationalist militia at the Fuente Grande (the Great Spring), on the road between Viznar and Alfacar. Police reports released by radio station Cadena SER in April 2015, concluded that he was executed by fascist forces. A Franco-era report, dated 9 July 1965, describes the writer as a "socialist" and "freemason belonging to the Alhambra lodge," who engaged in "homosexual and abnormal practices."
Most biographers seem to agree that his death had political overtones. But Leslie Stainton, who wrote the 1999 biography Lorca: A Dream of Life, suggested that he was killed because he was gay -- a murder, and a hate crime, but not an assassination.
He has been honored with statues in his hometown of Granada, and the national capital of Madrid; with a garden on the River Seine in Paris; in a hotel room where he once stayed in Buenos Aires, Argentina, kept as a museum; and on the Rainbow Honor Walk, in the gay-friendly Castro District of San Francisco.
He once said, "I will always be on the side of those who have nothing, and who are not even allowed to enjoy the nothing they have in peace." Sounds like my kind of guy.
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August 19, 1936 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played that day:
* The New York Yankees beat the Washington Senators, 7-4 at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Red Ruffing went the distance for the win. Lou Gehrig went 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs, and rookie Joe DiMaggio went 3-for-5 with a solo home run.
* The New York Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers, 3-2 at the Polo Grounds. Carl Hubbell went the distance for the win. Mel Ott hit a home run.
* The Boston Bees beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-1 at National League Park in Boston. This was the 1st of 5 seasons under the Bees name for the former Boston Braves, who had previously called their ballpark Braves Field. The name never caught on, and in 1941, the team and the ballpark reverted to their previous names.
* The Philadelphia Athletics swept a doubleheader from the Boston Red Sox at Shibe Park in Philadelphia, 5-4 and 7-2. Frankie Hayes hit a home run to win the opener in the bottom of the 13th inning. Jimmie Foxx went 2-for-9 over the 2 games.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-4 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.
* The St. Louis Browns beat the Detroit Tigers, 13-8 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Tiger slugger Hank Greenberg got hurt on April 29, and missed the rest of the season.
* And the Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Indians were rained out at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on September 6. The White Sox swept, 15-1 and 6-3.
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