Of all the vegas in Spain perhaps the most beautiful is that of Granada, the birthplace of Federico García Lorca and his primary source of literary inspiration. Dominating by the imposing barrier of the Sierra Nevada, traversed by the river Genil and its tributary the Cubillas, the fertile vega on whose eastern edge sits the famous city, it was for centuries an enclosed world, a world unto itself, where life flowed quietly and man lived in intimate contact with the earth.
The population of Soto grew up, and in 1968 the seven hundred registered inhabitants had increased to about three thousand in 1813. Such a quickly expansion was the result of agricultural innovations introduced by the English, without being spectacular innovations, they were at least an improvement of the older methods. Another stimulus was the strong industrial demand of the hemp and flax, both flourishing in the Vega. According to Hammick, the system that allowed the settlers lease and sublease their lands almost ad infinitum also contributed to the population explosion. Around 1880 there was another circumstance much more decisive for the demographic and economic situation not only in the Soto de Roma but in the Vega in general: the discovery of the sugar beet. The loss of Cuba, which was handed over to U. S. in 1898, helped mightily this process since it ended with the cheaper Cuban sugar imports. Suddenly, the beet fever began. Sugar factories with their tall chimneys arose everywhere, and quickly, the landowners amassed big fortunes, including Federico García Rodríguez, father of the future poet.
Ian Gibson: Life, passion and death of FGL. Fragments of the chapter 1. Folio Editions, 2003
