'Companion of metal': the cry of José María Calleja in his fight for freedom

Luis Rodríguez Aizpeolea, coordinator of the book of homage to José María Calleja, poses with the publication in San Sebastián. Javier Hernández

The journalist, writer and professor José María Calleja, who died of coronavirus last April, would today vindicate the value of politics and defend the need for consensus in the face of the noise and tension that have been installed in the courtyard of Spanish politics.

Her friend and journalist Eva Orue has no doubts about it: "In this situation and in the face of this garbage motion, Josemari would bet on the idea of ​​working together, possibly excluding those who are not willing to find any agreement."

Six months after his death, the

publication

(Editorial Catarata, 109 pages) brings together the voices of 20 people from the university, journalistic and terrorism victims who lived with him and highlight his undeniable contribution to freedom, pluralism, and struggle against ETA and sexist violence.

The book, coordinated by EL PAÍS journalist Luis Rodríguez Aizpeolea, gathers the testimonies of the philosopher Fernando Savater;

the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska;

the president of Covite, Consuelo Ordoñez;

the bookseller Ignacio Latierro, and the former leader of the Basque PP Borja Sémper, among others, a “very transversal cast” that represents “different approaches”, as highlighted in the presentation in San Sebastián.

It is a tribute to the "combatant" who distinguished himself by being the first journalist who "gave visibility to the victims of terrorism," Aizpeolea said this morning, at a time when journalistic chronicles focused on the attacks and not on those killed by ETA.

In 1997 Calleja publishes

, in which a complete list of those killed by the gang until then is included for the first time in a publication.

For the historian Gaizka Fernández Soldevilla, a member of the Memorial Center for the Victims of Terrorism, this "groundbreaking" work represents a "turning point" in the account of ETA's criminal action, since it places the victims in the foreground.

"His life was a permanent plea in favor of freedom and against violence and death," said the Government delegate in the Basque Country, Denis Itxaso, at the presentation of the book, which has had the support of the ministries of Culture and Sports, and Interior, and the collaboration of the Calleja family.

He often used the expression "metal companion" - it is the title of the article by José Miguel Santamaría, director of

- because, according to Aizpeolea, his "idea of ​​solidarity, unity in struggle and fraternity" .

Calleja was affectionate, affectionate, humble, funny, witty… the co-authors of

stand out in his writings

.

Pepa Bueno, director of the Hora 25 program on Cadena Ser, writes in the book that "José Mari was an anti-fascist fighter", whose professional career "rests morally from the beginning to the end on that radically democratic bet."

"It was the complete opposite of fundamentalism of any fur and color."

Genoveva Gastaminza, who signed in EL PAÍS, defines him as "an outstanding and brilliant journalist with an activist plus that led him to commit himself beyond the mere monitoring of events."

Calleja proclaimed himself "the male quota" of a women's debate that he launched on CNN + in 2010, the first on TV only with chat rooms, and which later migrated to the private sphere, with dinners and meetings presided over by good humor, the jokes, the gossip, the cheers and some chants too.

Orue remembers it in the book.

She, Berna González Harbor, Irene Loza and Sara Gutiérrez formed the group “Callejeras”, which still keeps them connected in a WhatsApp chat that she runs, that is to say, the “street boss”.