The rise of two Spains. In 1898, the year of Lorca’s birth, the United States and Spain went to war. At first glance, this brief conflict between the two countries would appear to offer only a minor rupture within the flow of Spanish history. After all, the war lasted only a few months and the death toll was small on both sides. Yet the symbolic drama of Spain’s defeat weighed heavily upon the national community. Although many factors came to a head in 1898 to bring about the Spanish loss—for example, Cuba’s desire for independence from Spain, the U.S. government’s growing confidence in its own imperial power, and economic and political turmoil in Spain—the moment became a national disgrace that shook Spanish pride to its very core. No longer able to sustain even the appearance of a world power, Spain seemed bereft of historical will. For much of the nineteenth century, it had drifted in and out of political chaos.
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