This date, 18 August in 1936, is the most likely date in which the gay socialist poet Federico García Lorca was taken from his jail cell and executed on the order of right-wing general Francisco Franco’s military forces. The exact circumstances of his death are unclear, but after being arrested on August 16 he was probably killed on August 18 in the early hours of the morning.
The Spanish civil war, which pitted workers and peasants against the military, nationalist and fascist, had broken out one month previously. And it was clear on what side Lorca’s sympathies lay: “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.”
To date, his remains have still not been found.
In our podcast episodes 39-40 we give an overview of the civil war: https://workingclasshistory.com/2018/07/29/spanish-civil-war-podcast/ https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/2060432660808540/?type=3