Juan Cruz: "I have not written to defend Polanco but to tell about it"

Juan Cruz at the presentation in Barcelona of his book 'Ciudadano Polanco', between Lluís Bassets, with his back and Màrius Carol. Albert Garcia / EL PAÍS

"I have not written to defend Polanco, but to tell Polanco", The phrase of the journalist and writer Juan Cruz about his book

(Debate, 2021), presented yesterday at the College of Journalists of Catalonia in Barcelona they sounded like the famous words of Marco Antonio before the body of Julius Caesar in the Shakespearean tragedy. It was not about praising Jesús Polanco (1929-2007), founder of EL PAÍS, emphasizing the figures of the Casios and Brutos who sought their downfall, but rather showing a “polyhedral” portrait of a fundamental character in the history of the media. in Spain and in the history of Spain in general. And to offer a piece of that story that, Cruz stressed yesterday, has been forgotten or poorly told, among other things by the

(to follow Romans) urged by the PP of Jose María Aznar on Polanco, "a decree of oblivion" after the "decree of ruin" that took him to court.

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Juan Cruz, after pointing out before an audience with notable professionals of the trade that "Barcelona is one of the few places in the world where you can talk about journalism with journalists," explained the genesis of the book, a long interview with Polanco, in which this In addition to revealing personal things to him, and the "wound from the Sogecable case," he explained how he conceived journalism and what he thought of journalists.

From there, the author incorporated other voices, conversations and materials, including some autobiographical writings by Polanco himself, to form the fascinating and complex portrait of a man and a time.

It was the presentation of the book, in which the author had two exceptional colleagues, the journalists Lluís Bassets and Màrius Carol (the third scheduled, Antonio Franco, excused his presence), an exciting exercise in historical memory and the history of journalism, with useful reflections for the present. The event was tinged with a certain melancholy not only because of the evocation of the disappeared figure but also because of the memories that the three veteran journalists recounted and because of the elegy they made of a trade and a business model that seem threatened today.

Bassets, who recalled that Polanco was the one who made the decision to bring the newspaper out in Catalonia, in the face of Jordi Pujol's suspicions, highlighted how the book by Cruz, a ubiquitous journalist of race, "on a pad and pen", deals with a "tragedy Spanish ”, that of the attempted destruction of the Prisa group, caused by a“ Cainism rooted in the political class and tin patriotism ”, and expressed his sadness when contemplating what“ this country and this group ”would have been if not for that cainism, which is repeated, "and indifference."

Màrius Carol evoked several memories of Polanco, among them a sardine sandwich in a bar in Sant Andreu elevated to the category of Proustian muffin.

Juan Cruz synthesized what was spoken with his usual literary sensibility: "What happened and how now we are sadder."