La gran evasió

by Xavier Montanyà

La gran evasió (The great escape) tells of the heroic escape of fifty political prisoners of the Pinochet dictatorship in 1990, when Chile was at the gateway of democracy. The escape was a spectacular success, a great human and political achievement but the day that they went through the tunnel from the prison that took them to freedom, they vanished forever from the political reality of Chile. Democracy has not given them back their rights. They are the matter pending a solution for Chilean democracy, which has marginalised and ignored them, condemning them to live outside the country, excluding them from a story for which they struggled and risked their lives.

Xavier Montanyà (Barcelona, 1965) is a journalist. As a writer, he has published the book Pirates de la llibertat (Empúries, 2004), winner of the Octavi Pellissa Essay Prize, and is co-author of La torna de la torna. Salvador Puig Antic i el MIL (Empúries, 1984). His work for television features Música per a camaleons and Tres, catorze, setze; and the documentaries Granados y Delgado. Un crimen legal (Silver FIPA Prize, 1996, France), Winnipeg, palabras de un exilio, Sense llibertat¸ Nfumu Ngui, el goril·la blanc and Joan Peiró i la justícia de Franco. He is also a member of the advisory committee of the Cultura/s supplement of the La Vanguardia newspaper, and a contributor to Vilaweb and Sàpiens.

Què esteu fent amb Barcelona?

by Joaquim Roglan

Què esteu fent amb Barcelona? (What are you doing to Barcelona?) is a lucid, amusing book that criticises the nonsense-filled Barcelona and its politicians. It is a sarcastic and documented indictment against the Barcelona of the politically correct, of postcard diversity, of urban planning that is an affront to common sense and of poorly-understood progressive policies that, says the author, verge on stupidity. The journalist Joaquim Roglan takes a look at the series of daft actions and slogans that have given shape to the new city, the city of the /Fem-ho B/ (Let’s do it well), that of /BCNeta!/ (Clean Barcelona), the same city that sunk the neighbourhood of Carmel while digging a tunnel.

Joaquim Roglan (Barcelona, 1952) is a graduate in Languages and Information Sciences. He has been a journalist for thirty years, is Professor of Journalism at the Ramon Llull University and contributes to La Vanguardia and other media outlets. Among other books, he has published: La Barcelona eròtica, Revistes d'humor a Catalunya, Fundació Joan Miró, 25 anys and Esade, 40 anys. As a scriptwriter, he has worked on television series, such as Te'n recordes?, Els dies que van canviar la nostra vida or Classificació ACR, and is also the author of diverse radio scripts.

 

Pirineus en venda

by Rafael Vallbona

Pirineus en venda (Pyrenees for sale) is an account of the inhabitants of the mountain range, about their desires and concerns, about what they told Rafael Vallbona when he asked them what direction they thought their lives and the life in the mountain was heading.

An essential book for understanding the essence of the Pyrenees, following the footsteps of Vallbona: “I have had coffee with them and discussed their problems and have taken in splendid scenery that is in danger of disappearing. I have listened to fiery proclamations and resigned moans. I have heard them say what they were, what they are and what they want to be”.

Rafael Vallbona (Barcelona, 1960) is a writer, journalist, professor at the Blanquerna Communication Faculty of the Ramon Llull University and author of close-on forty books, among which feature children’s novels, such as Pis d'estudiants, Recanvis Luna or El noi de la vall del Dra'a, of novels such as Plaça dels Àngels or Gràcia, travel books about cycling in the Alps and the Pyrenees and more recently, Els nens (i les nenes) del rock and Barcelona de cara al mar. He contributes to RAC 1, COM Ràdio, El Mundo and La Vanguardia.

Having decided long ago where he would finally settle down for good, years ago he made the Pyrenees his home, refuge, workplace and main concern in observing the transformation process that the mountain range is undergoing.

El país de Lula

by Montse Poblet

El país de Lula (Lula's country) is a passionate journey made in 2003 that introduces us into the lives of men and women, with names and surnames, who live in Brazil and who identify with the startling career of the first person born in poverty to become President of the country. Like that of Lula himself, these 9 stories are the reflection of the hope of many Brazilians and of the challenges facing the new government: unemployment, agricultural reform, hunger, violence, education… Moreover, for the first time the ministers of Lula’s government explain to us how they think they will direct their policies in order to see through the changes promised in the 2002 elections.

Montse Poblet (Barcelona, 1968) is a journalist and works in the News Department of Catalunya Ràdio. She lived in Brazil for three years alongside the sem terra peasant farmers setting up radio stations in the villages and encampments scattered all over the country. The experience provided her with first-hand knowledge of the Brazilians’ lives and their social movements and to jointly experience their struggles and hopes.

In October 2002 she covered the Presidential elections and in summer 2003 returned to Brazil to see how the country was experiencing the change that Lula had promised them.

 

En èxtasi

by Joan Oleaque

En èxtasi (In ecstasy) is a book about the biggest recent change that has occurred in this country to the nightlife leisure scene and the economy it represents, about the big changes that have occurred in youth society. It is about a phenomenon that was way ahead of any other in linking recreational drugs, discos and dance music, and which has influenced the lives of generations of young people born between the 1960s and 1980s. It is about a revolution against nothing, arising from nothing and directed towards nothing. It is about everything that has happened since and what is happening now. En èxtasi is the book that explains its background and the enormous consequences.

Joan M. Oleaque (Catarroja, Horta, 1968) is a graduate of Information Sciences at the CEU San Pablo de Valencia University Polytechnic. He has worked on the weekly El Temps since 1993. He contributes to the El País newspaper, and has contributed to programmes on the British television channel, Channel 4 (Passengers) and on Catalan TV3 (30 minuts). He is currently Professor of Investigative Journalism at the University of València. In 1999 he won the Best Valencian Journalist of 1988 Prize, awarded by the Inter-university Institute of Valencian Philology. His first book, Des de la tenebra (2002), an in-depth investigation into the infamous Alcàsser murder case and of the serious changes that the news coverage of the case has caused in the media and in society today, won the 1997 Octavi Pellissa Prize for essays. The Spanish edition, Desde las tinieblas (2002), won the 2003 Rodolfo Walsh Prize for the best non-fiction book of 2002 published in the Spanish State and South America.

11-M. El periodisme en crisi

by Vicent Partal and Martxelo Otmendi

Journalism failed miserably on 11-M, incapable of searching for a true version of events that was not the official line. Why on that day was there complete agreement between the powers-that-be and the media? Why did people have to look for answers outside of the usual channels? A week after the bloody bombings of Madrid, the journalists Vicent Partal, Director of Vilaweb, and Martxelo Otamendi, met to talk about 11-M and the political, social and media consequences of those days during which we were totally hooked on getting information. 11-M El periodisme en crisi (11-M. Journalism in crisis) is the result.

Vicent Partal (Bétera, el Camp de Túria, 1960) is a journalist and Director of Vilaweb. He has worked in diverse media outlets and contributes regularly to El Punt and Catalunya Ràdio. He is Vice-president of the European Journalism Center in Maastricht.

Martxelo Otamendi (Tolosa, Gipuzkoa, 1957) has been the Director of the Basque language daily paper Berria since it was founded in June 2003. He was director of the newspaper Euskaldunon Egunkaria, precautionarily closed down by the Spanish High Court in February 2003.