Frederico Garcia Lorca

Questions unanswered since 1936 about what happened to the great Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca are finally about to be answered, according to a BBC News report by  Steve Kingstone . It has long been known that Lorca was executed by Francisco Franco‘s fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War for being both gay and anti-fascist. But questions about his treatment — such as whether he was tortured — and the location of his body have long been a mystery.

Since 1966, however, authorities have thought his body may have ended up in a mass grave in a remote spot between the Andalucian villages of Viznar and Alfacar … but his descendents would not give permission for authorities to dig up the site.

Now, reports the BBC, “their hand was forced by the 2007 ‘Historic Memory Law’, under which victims’ families can ask for state help in unearthing remains. Such a request was made by the family of Francisco Galadi, one of Spain’s anarchist bullfighters murdered alongside Lorca. With the site to be excavated with or without their blessing, the poet’s family elected to take part.”

But the search is becoming about something more than just Lorca — it is suspected that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of others were murdered in the area and buried in mass graves. As one local professor explains, “If we can now find Lorca, it will be a light, a symbol of hope for other families who never dared to search for their relatives.”