Songs for a New Athens

*Songs for a New Athens* is a poetry anthology written by Spanish author Federico Garcia Lorca, published in 1936 alongside a series of short essays about his visits to North America. Lorca first visited America in 1929, inspired to travel to New York City to see the ongoing revolution for himself after reading Eric Blair's *Homage to the Seattle Commune.* He returned in 1934, five years after the end of the Second American Civil War. Beginning with the capital of the USSA in Chicago, Lorca spent the better half of the year traveling throughout the devastated post-war America, visiting its most prominent cities for a few weeks at a time; he would generally volunteer to aid the local Revolutionary Reconstruction Corps (RRC) chapter or farming communes and then apply for temporary residency within one of the city's tenant unions.

His poems written throughout his 1934-35 journey were almost universally inspired by his experiences in the former United States, overwhelmed at times by the sheer loss and poverty on display, or on the other hand the general air of optimism and cooperation shared by the thousands of laborers working collectively to rebuild the nation one brick at a time. He also attempted to sneak past the border into loyalist territory but was arrested by the national guard then promptly deported back to Spain, at which time his great venture came to an end. Despite being totally appalled by the activities of the reactionary National Syndicalist Association (NSA) in the south and almost being arrested by the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CFDR) due to his arousing suspicion by frequently traveling from city to city, his impression of the Commonwealth was generally positive, and stated in a subsequent essay that he hoped Spain under the CNT-FAI would look to the American Communists as the standard for a new 20th century socialist democracy. The Spanish Civil War ironically broke out mere weeks after *New Athens* was published.

Known for his highly eclectic style, Lorca is credited with bringing modernism to Spain and developing the subsequent surrealist movement, a rejection of traditional western European art and theory expressed by playwrights, novelists, poets, and activists around the world. Lorca, along with Salvador Dali, found themselves sympathetic to the rise of syndicalism in the interwar era and many of their works contained such subversive elements as feminism, economic inequality, neo-transcendentalism, and a rejection of traditional Catholic values enforced by the church. As such, they were among the central figures of the Internationale Avant-garde movement, a modernist philosophical and artistic school of thought committed to bringing socialism to the masses, as well as replacing traditional or "reactionary" cultural elements with new surrealist expressions intended to unapologetically break away from the status quo.

The bilingual edition *New Athens* was well-received in the Commonwealth and caused a surge of interest in modernism as a new American cultural identity was rising. It was particularly popular among the DSA, a post-revolutionary faction of the Communist Party whose stated values are pacifism and reconciliation with the capitalists and federals. It was also met with rave reviews in the French Commune, whose syndicalist government de-facto guarantees a degree of autonomy to the CNT-controlled Catalonia.

## Excerpts

*Translated from their original Spanish.*

### Roses

Crimson child, do you see?

What color are the glasses by which the word

Revolution

Becomes clear upon the frigid pages of history?

On what legs do you stand

When the wind bites your frail heels

And as you bend precariously in the evening dew

Are you the same as you were?

Where are your thorns?

Do they still prick those who come in the afternoon, sweaty

The men from the castle who in their armor

Break your legs and take your skin?

Or do you bow like withered wheat in the scornful heat

Your petals falling, falling, unheard despite your calling

Until the monster machine comes

And steals forever the breath from your lungs?