Imagining Andalusia: Race, translation, and the early critical reception of Federico García Lorca in the U.S.

Abstract

This article examines the perception of Andalusia, with its African and Arabic past, in the United States by using a case study that analyzes the early English translations of Federico García Lorca's work. Through a selection of reviews appearing in American literary magazines between 1929 and 1936,I show that the Andalusian elements of Lorca's poems and plays at times caused the American public to stereotype Spanish culture as racially different, thus affecting the critical success of his early work in English translation.