Little Known Fact . . . Banned Books Week

Little known fact... In Franco's (Fascist) Spain, one of the criteria used in their quite extensive censuring processes was whether or not the text used non-Iberian words and phrases. Any books coming from the former colonies would be very carefully vetted for impure "Spanish" before being published in Spain. Some times these impurities would be redacted; other times they were replaced with the censors' suggestions. Some books were rejected outright because of the impurities.

I am not a fan of linguistic chauvinism. Especially not as an thinly veiled pretext to stop the free flow of ideas.

When Franco's Falangistas took power, they started in Andalusia (in the south of Spain) and worked their way north and east. The Falangistas killed Federico García Lorca on August 19, 1936. The poet, playwright, artist and all around genius's body was buried somewhere near Grand Fuente near Granada. His works were also buried behind the red-tape of censorship until 1953 when a censor-approved version of his Complete Works was released in Spain. Many of Lorca's poems that the censors would not approve could not come to light until after Franco died.

17 years of banning Lorca's work and many more of censorship is a tragedy; Killing Lorca amounts to banning forever the works that Lorca's pen would have gleaned from his truly teeming brain. The moment they shot Lorca, we ceased to be the beneficiaries of his incredible creative ability, his ability to tap into the duende; we ceased to be the beneficiaries of Lorca's social commitment when they took his life. Lorca gave voice to the oppressed and marginalized, minorities and pariahs. When we ban books and assassinate poets, we silence voices.

Federico García Lorca in 1934 (probably)

If you want to read some Lorca but don't know where to start, I have some suggestions:

Sonetos de amor oscuro (Sonnets of Dark Love) - These are haunting and beautiful.
Poeta en Nueva York - This is the poetry written during Lorca's formative trip to New York and Cuba. The Cuban poems are especially lively.
Romancero gitano - This is one of Lorca's early masterworks, in which Lorca writes ballads based in Roma lore.

Bodas de sangre - My personal favorite of his "rural trilogy" (along with Yerma and La casa de Bernarda Alba). You really can't go wrong with any of these plays.
El Público - By far the most surrealist work of art I have ever experienced (I have only ever read it, but I dream of seeing it live - literally dreams, while I sleep, in which I am super happy because I am finally seeing El Público live). This play really isn't for the faint of heart, but it explores really interesting issues of identity, gender and tradition.