Federico García Lorca Themes

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Although Federico García Lorca is no longer with us today, his impact on the poetic world has made him a well-renowned Spanish poet of his time (bio.). Lorca grew up close to the city of Granada, Spain (Stainton). He is most famous for his Romancero gitano, Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías, and his popular plays (Stainton). As Lorca grew older the problems he underwent in respect to his personal life affected both his poetic style and his themes (PoemHunter.com). Lorca’s homosexuality and his failure in multiple relationships, such as ones with artists Dalí and Aladrén, led him to the point of depression (PoemHunter.com). In order to escape from his personal problems, Lorca ventured to the United States (PoemHunter.com). There, he beheld firsthand the effects of the Great Depression as well as the stock market crash during his stay in New York, which plunged many into poverty (The New York Times). “He had witnessed racism firsthand in America, and he saw the similarities between the condition of blacks here and of women and gays in Spain. Without the experience in New York, Mr. Young says, he might not have written his elegy ‘Sonnets of a Dark Love,’ …(The New York Times)”. As a result of his homosexuality and experiences with discrimination in New York, Federico García Lorca communicates his hope for a more accepting world through his poetry.
Lorca’s poem “Love’s Wounds” from his collection of Sonnets of Dark Love illustrates the pain he is undergoing as a result of his homosexuality. Lorca’s “Sonnets of Dark Love”, “…were written in 1935, inspired by Lorca's love affair with Rafael Rodriguez Rapún (Archer)”. Lorca’s homosexuality is the focal point of this poem and includes multiple references to the suffering he is enduring ...

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...that love is being submerged and destroyed in New York. Lorca’s life is similarly represented in this light, based on the failures in relationships that he has undergone.
Homosexuality is a central theme in the majority of Lorca’s poems. His fear of loss and isolation are reflected in his pleas to his beloved, emphasizing upon his desire for acceptance. He describes the darkness that society finds in his love while simultaneously depicting that his love is misconstrued. Lorca also highlights the internal pain he is undergoing by symbolically portraying the internal breakage he feels. Furthermore, he also portrays his desire to be granted the freedom to love like any other human being. Humanity still to this day has not embraced the idea of acceptance and equality of all. However, steps in that direction are being taken, in line of Lorca’s hope for a better future.

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