CHRONOLOGY - Spain and Portugal: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 441

as well as major poets, such as Antonio
Machado and Federico García Lorca. The
philosopher-essayists Miguel de Unamuno
and José Ortega y Gasset win international
renown, as does the expatriate George
Santayana (Jorge Ruiz de Santillana).
Among artists, Pablo Picasso, a founder of
cubism, towers above all others, though
the painters Joan Miró and Salvador Dalí
make important contributions to modern
art, as does the sculptor Eduardo Chillida.
Composers of distinction include Enrique
Granados, Manuel de Falla, Isaac Albéniz,
and Joaquín Rodrigo, and the composer-
cellist Pablo (Pau) Casals is honored on
both sides of the Atlantic. So, too, are per-
formers such as the tenors Plácido Do-
mingo, José Carreras, and Alfredo Kraus
and the sopranos Montserrat Caballé and
Victoria de los Ángeles. Among film direc-
tors Luis Buñuel is one of the giants of
20th-century cinema and is followed in
the post-Franco era by the acute Carlos
Saura and the outrageous Pedro Al-
modóvar (winner of an Academy Award
in Hollywood). The twin burdens of cul-
tural isolation and political repression
weigh heavily on Portugal during most of
the 20th century. The pioneering modern-
ist painter Amadeo de Souza Cardoso re-
ceives his due recognition only in the
1990s. The Nobel Prize in literature is
awarded to the maverick Communist an-
ticlerical novelist José Saramago only at
the end of the century (1998), making him
the first Portuguese recipient of this honor
and acknowledging not only the virtues of
his work but the felicities of his language.

the Basque nationalist organization ETA,
which has been carrying on a campaign
of terroristic violence for more than 30
years.

2003
Prime Minister Aznar, pledging support for
the U.S. invasion of Iraq as part of the
“war on terror,” orders the dispatch of
Spanish troops to aid in the occupation of
the country. The force, designated the
“Plus Ultra” Brigade (in reference to the
motto of imperial Spain), will eventually
grow to some 1,300 soldiers.

2004
On March 11 a series of explosions at the
principal railroad station in Madrid and
on board commuter trains entering the
city kills nearly 200 people and wounds
hundreds of others. The Aznar govern-
ment at first attributes this terrorist attack
to Basque militants but subsequently ad-
mits that the evidence points to Islamist
groups. In the election to the Cortes that
takes place, as scheduled, a few days later,
Aznar's hand-picked successor and the
Popular Party are defeated, evidently be-
cause voters believe the administration
has lied about the source of the bomb-
ing.

2005
As Socialist prime minister José Luis Rodrí-
guez Zapatero approaches the first anni-
versary of his administration, he is faced
by many urgent concerns. Among them
are a deterioration in U.S.-Spanish rela-
tions following the withdrawal of the
Spanish contingent from Iraq and con-
tinuing evidence of Islamic terrorist plot-
ting among Spain's large Muslim

2001
After a brief cease-fire the Spanish govern-
ment is forced to resume its conflict with