One very well known instance of Machado's lsymbolic use of space occurs throughout his poem "The Crime Was in Granada." Granada is a city in Southern Spain where the famous poet Federico Garcia Lorca lived and died. The "crime" in the title refers to the Spanish general Francisco Franco's forces (the falangistas) execution of Lorca, who was a Republican.

Machado uses Granada as a whole as well as specific locations and features to represent the current state of Spanish society and the injustice and inhumanity of the murder. As Lorca's home, Granada should be a place of safety, as the Spanish people should feel secure in their homeland—but they cannot. Along with atmospheric components such as dark and cold, the poet uses such things as the long, narrow streets to emphasize alienation, desolation, and hopelessness.